bill highway

Day13 · #1 01-28-2008, 01:00 AM

My chapter uses bill highway and I find it to be just a pain as far as user interface is concerned.

The monthly invoice is new to me though. Somehow we prepay and don't get any more invoices. I know that if your dues are $100/mo. (I wish, but for even numbers lets just say they are) and you pay $200 for 1 month. The next month it will deduct the remaining credit with another invoice.

I believe we have it set up to have a separate payment option for pre pay. You pay one and are done. Maybe the interface is not as bad as I think but I only touch it twice a year.

BabyPiNK_FL · #2 01-28-2008, 01:20 AM

Bill highway is the devil. I'm so glad I'm alum now. Honestly, I tried to help my lil sister by paying some of her dues and I called and wanted to pay a portion of what she owed by credit card and even though some of it was past due (and in Phi Mu you're supposed to be able to pay only past due items with CC) it wouldn't let me pay anything but the full amount. Well, I didn't have the ability to do that and so I ended up paying a portion with a check, but what a pain! It took me like 30 minutes to get anything done. I wish that HQ would allow us to pay with CC. I understand they don't want us to go in debt or whatever (and if that's not the reason please let me know cos I'd LOVE to know why!), but if you can pay past due items with a card then what's the point?! On top of that, you can't even use your check card, which comes out of your bank account anyway! And god forbid a parent wants to pay with their card! That is the most foolish thing. I am so glad to be done with it. We had a lot of Phis this year who held off paying things because they didn't want to deal with this system! (eventually they had to though).

cuteASAbug · #3 01-28-2008, 01:22 AM

The reason that you cannot use credit cards on billhighway is because they are still a relatively small business, so their credit card processing fees are high. When a bill is 5 or more days past due, you are assessed a 2.5% fee but can pay by credit card then. This fee goes to cover the cost of the credit card transaction.

BabyPiNK_FL · #4 01-28-2008, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cuteASAbug

The reason that you cannot use credit cards on billhighway is because they are still a relatively small business, so their credit card processing fees are high. When a bill is 5 or more days past due, you are assessed a 2.5% fee but can pay by credit card then. This fee goes to cover the cost of the credit card transaction.

Well when I call billhighway to pay with my card (for late items only cos that's all they allow) they specifically say that my organization does not allow it (They won't let me pay any less then the total cost! Even if I want to put a significant amount). Although once it did let me pay $15 on my card...(I don't get it!)

If they really just can't take credit card cos they are so small even though I know many chapters have it and many orgs. force it on chapters as a whole (so they should have some money by now), then they are just sh*tty. Even the tiniest restaurant at the mall takes CC on orders of $3 or more!

I'm sure their services are very good as far as helping the treasurers, but for pete's sake they need to improve it on the paying person's side. There have to be other services who offer the same chapter financial analysis at a glance without all of this BS. National organizations should only settle for the best because APH seems like it's the cheap route out of all the companies seeing as how they offer less convenience. But I'm glad it works for you, cos it didn't work too good for me. (And don't get me started on selecting the invoices for payment...what a mess!)

33girl · #5 01-28-2008, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BabyPiNK_FL

On top of that, you can't even use your check card, which comes out of your bank account anyway!

The no debit card thing is something I questioned too as I think there are many college age students who just don't HAVE checks or use them - everything is paying online or with debit cards. I really think that billhighway should provide money orders for this purpose (so you don't have to go to 7-11 & pay some ridiculous amount for them).

cuteASAbug · #6 01-28-2008, 11:15 AM

Speaking from a finance officer's standpoint I have to say that billhighway is a godsend. I know that some collegians are not happy with it, but when a new treasurer calls me hysterically with questions about their account, it helps that I can log in and see all of their chapter's cash flow for the past semester.

lilzetakitten · #7 01-28-2008, 08:25 PM

What really bugs me about Bill Highway is that there's no way to override a charge once it's been submitted. Using two examples from my chapter: one sister missed an informal recruitment event and was fined. The even that she missed carried a $25 fine, but the treasurer accidentally keyed it in as a formal recruitment event, and it came to a $100 fine. She protested the fine, but all we could do was pay her back the $75.

In another case, a sister's bank account was hacked into, and she had a good deal of money stolen from her account at the same time a payment was due. We couldn't override or delay it, and she ended up having to pay late fees because there was no way she could pay by the due date. (I keep saying 'we' because I was on executive council during the times these issues came up). It might be great for the treasurer, but it's a real pain for the other members.