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If you have an account with Fort Financial Credit Union, and you have access to the Internet, you are set up for
CU@HOME. Your membership account number and your PIN from our PAL (Phone Answer Line) is all you need.
Contact a credit union representative to enroll, if you do not recall your PIN. There may be a one-time setup fee of $14.95, but no monthly charge to use
CU@HOME.
CU@HOME is in real time, which means that as soon as you make a transaction, the results can be seen immediately by viewing the account balance screen.
The maximum amount that can be transferred or withdrawn at one time is $9,999.99.
Stop payment in
CU@HOME does not relate to the Internet bill payment system. In this case, stop payment allows a user to stop payment on a conventional (written) check that has not yet cleared. Simply enter the check number or range of check numbers that you wish to stop. There is a $20.00 stop payment charge for each stop payment request.
In order for us to assist you as efficiently as possible, try to have the following information available when contacting us:
- Date and time of problem.
- Operating system of the computer (ex: Mac or PC, 486 processor, etc)
- Browser type and version
- If an error message occurred, try to write down the exact error message
- The steps you took that resulted in the error
If you are inactive for fifteen minutes or more, the system will automatically log you out.
An inability to access a login screen could be the result of not having the correct version of a browser. We recommend using either Netscape Navigator 4.0 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0. If you do not have at least this version of these browsers, you can go to either of the homepages and download the latest version.
You are given a free six (6)
month trial period to use the bill payment system. After the
first six months the fee for bill payment services is tiered
based upon your current relationship with the credit union.
If you are enrolled in direct deposit of your government or
company payroll check, and have an original line of credit
or loan of at least $5000, the monthly maintain fee is only
$3.00, otherwise the fee is a low $5.00 per month.
You may write up to fifteen (15)
bills per month at no additional charge. Above fifteen
bills, there is a cost of fifty cents per bill paid, above
the fifth.
Overdraft protection is granted
on bill payer in the same manner as your checking/share
draft account is currently set up. However, if there are no
funds available in your account, nor in your overdraft
options, the bill will not be paid.
Once you enroll in bill payment
and are beyond your free trial period, the monthly
maintenance fee is applied until the service is canceled.
There are no cancellation fees.
Deducting the payment from a
member's account prior to the payment being made allows for
a five-business day processing period. Payments are
processed ONLY if sufficient funds are available to make the
payment; therefore, it is necessary to ensure that adequate
funds are available prior to adding the payment.
You can pay anyone in the United
States (including Alaska and Hawaii) for both personal and
business reasons. You can pay your babysitter, your VISA
bill, or even yourself! You cannot pay businesses outside of
the United States, or government agencies, such as the IRS.
The number of allowable payees
is unlimited.
You can set up a payee by going
to the Add a Payee screen, and filling in the requested
fields. All fields are required, including the name,
address, phone, and payee account number. All payees will be
initially added as a check payee, or a payee that will
receive his payments via a conventional, mailed check with a
five day processing period. If possible, the bill pay
vendor, Metavante, will attempt to convert these payees to
ACH (electronic) payees. At this time, the processing time
will be changed to three days.
An ACH (Automated Clearinghouse)
payment is a payment that is made electronically. Instead of
a conventional paper check being cut and sent, ACH payments
are made in an electronic file format, in bulk. Common
payments that are converted to ACH include credit card and
utility companies.
By going to the Payee
Maintenance screen and clicking on Payee Detail, you will
see a field at the bottom that indicates the Payment Method.
If the payment is being sent via ACH, it will indicate
"Electronic ACH (2 working days)." Otherwise, the field will
say "Mailed Check (5 working days)." Payees are not
converted to an electronic payee until thirty to sixty days
after adding the payee.
When Metavante converts a payee
from a mailed check to an ACH, they may change the payee
record address to reflect the appropriate address for an
ACH. As a result, the user is not allowed to change the
payee address or phone number.
You cannot edit the payee
address or account number after you have added it. At that
point, you can only edit the payee account number, the
recurring status and the account from which the money is
being withdrawn. If you have entered the wrong payee
information, you must delete the payee, and re-add it with a
payee record that reflects the correct information.
The information regarding
payment due date and payment amount is strictly in relation
to the recurring payee functionality. Unless you want to
setup that payee as a recurring one, you must go to the Add
a Payment screen and make a manual payment to that payee.
The system automatically adjusts
for Federal Reserve holidays, and weekends; therefore, the
payment will be set to be due on the last business day prior
to December 25th. The system does not include the
due date when considering and calculating the processing
date. In actuality, the system says that the payment must be
received by December 25th, in which case it would
try to have the payment there sometime on or before December
24th.
A recurring payee is one that
will automatically generate payments for the same day of the
month, for the same amount. You do not add payments for a
recurring payee; the system does it for you. To add a
recurring payee, you simply need to add the payee with the
required fields, and then click on the appropriate box to
indicate the payee will be recurring. You then must choose
the due date and amount of the payment.
Adding a recurring payee is
slightly different than adding a manual payee and then
adding a manual payment. The recurring payee system is
always one month ahead of itself. For example, if you set up
a recurring payee on November 4th to generate
recurring payments with a due date of November 30th,
the system will generate payments for November and December.
This is because on October 1st, payments for
recurring payees were generated for the month of November.
And, on November 1st, payments for recurring
payees were generated for the month of December. In this
case, the deadline for generating payments has been passed
for both the months of November and December. As an interim
means for the payment to go out, the system, if time allows
(i.e., if the payment is added at least five business days
prior to the due date), will generate payments for November
and December.
Provided the payments do not
have the same due date, you can simply add a manual payment
for that month that will be sent in addition to the already
established recurring payment. The payment that was added
manually will not become recurring at any time. It will only
be made one time as requested by the member.
No, the system will only change
the amount for that single payment, not for any other
payments. To change the payment amount from that point on,
you would need to go to the Edit a Payee screen within the
Payee Maintenance area, and edit the payment information at
the bottom of the screen.
If the payment amount for a
recurring payment needs to be changed, you must go to the
Payee Maintenance, click on Edit Payee, and edit the payment
amount. All payments added from that date forward will be
added with the new payment amount. All payments already
pending will need to be edited individually.
There are only two ways to stop
a recurring payment from being made. The first method is to
go to the Edit Payment screen and skip the payment. The
second is to go to the Payee Maintenance screen and delete
the payee. Please note that by deleting the payee, the
system will skip all pending and future payments to this
payee. You cannot delete a payment generated by a recurring
payee in the same manner that you can if have added the
payment yourself. Essentially, if you add the payment, you
can delete it. However, if the system adds the payment for
you, you cannot delete it. You can only skip the payment or
delete the payee record.
If the payee is setup to
generate recurring payments, the only payments that will be
skipped will be the one that you manually skipped. The
system will continue generating cyclic payments until you
choose to stop it.
A payee can be changed from
manual to recurring by clicking on the Bill Payment button,
and then choosing the Payee Maintenance option. After
clicking on the Edit Payee button, the option will be
presented to make the payee recurring. It is important to
note that the system will not automatically add a payment
for the current month, nor for the following month. On the
first day of next month, a payment will be generated for the
following month. For example, if today is July 13, the
payment will not be issued for July, or August, because
payments for July were generated on June 1, and payments for
August were generated on July 1. However, on August 1, the
first recurring payment will be generated for September, and
show as pending. This process ensures that duplicate
payments will not be made.
A payee can be changed from
recurring to manual by deselecting the appropriate box in
the Edit Payee screen in the Payee Maintenance area. You
must also deselect the amount and date of the payment. By
clicking on this box, the check should disappear, indicating
that the payee is now a manual one. Please be aware that
pending payments already added based on the previous
recurring status will not be skipped or deleted.
Your bill payer idea is a number
assigned to you by Metavante, the third party vendor that
has been contracted to make payments on your behalf. Should
you ever need to contact Metavante with a question or a
problem, it’s important to have this number handy.
It is perfectly OK for you to
contact Metavante regarding certain issues. Fort Financial
Credit Union can also contact Metavante on your behalf. You
will need to have your Bill Payer ID number from the Current
Payments screen handy. Metavante's phone number is
(800) 825-4321
Metavante can only answer
questions regarding processed payments. They will not be
able to answer any questions relating to pending or skipped
payments, or payments that are not processed.
If you are inactive for fifteen
minutes or more, the system will automatically log you out.
If the payment method is a
mailed check, you may contact Metavante to request a stop
payment for a check payment that has not cleared. However,
you cannot stop payment on an electronic (ACH) payment.
Metavante can provide check
copies for a nominal fee. The member or financial
institution can contact Metavante to request this service.
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