Will Payments made Online at your bank now be Real-Time? | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

There is an update April 16 at Canada's Real-Time Rail program resumes with renewed momentum:

… said Jude Pinto, Co-CEO (Interim) and Chief Delivery Officer, Payments Canada. “The last component of the RTR, the clearing and settlement build, will continue through 2024 prior to initiating testing of the new system through 2025 and into industry testing in 2026. We know the ecosystem is anticipating the launch of the RTR, and we will have further details to share in the coming months.” …

I see little justification in real-time rail for bill payments. Doesn't matter to utilities and other billers if the bill payment shows up next morning instead of in 10 seconds.

So don't wait until the last minute. Before I automated the paying of bills with pre-authorized credit or PAD, I'd schedule Bill Payments at least 2 business days in advance. There is no logical reason not to do that.

RetirEd said
AltaRed: some stressed people have to wait for paycheques or pension remittances, and for them those delays matter.  

To that, I respond....exercise better cash flow management. However, for what it is worth, pre-authorized debit or credit works perfect because the vendor doesn't draw on it until the actual bill payment date and the payment does not typically get posted in one's bank account until the next day. There is no particular reason to use manually executed Bill Payment for most payments. I do agree there are some vendors I would not give pre-authorization too, but they are few and far between.

Nothing stops us from automating, either through pre-authorized debit (or credit), or scheduled Bill Payments, as many of these payments as we like. It is true the bills won't get paid if the cash is not there, but that means a late payment fee regardless of whether the automated payment does not occur, or we are late with a manually initiated Bill Payment. What I am saying is automation takes care of the concern about lack of real-time bill paying because the withdrawal by the vendor does not happen until the date the payment is due anyway.

This thread was about the concern that Bill Payments are not real time yet and thus being late with payment. It makes no difference one way or the other as the bill must be paid in time to avoid charges.

I do not believe we will see any more rapid bill payments than we currently have, unless the banks are regulated to do so in the future. The benefits to the consumer are many, but the banks are all too happy to keep collecting late fees and interest from those who just missed paying their bill on time. There is no motivation for them to discontinue their predatory tactics to those with low income or poor budgeting.