Mastercard has announced that they will be launching ‘Bill Pay Exchange’ this will allow consumers to view, manage and pay telecom, utility, rent, credit card, mortgage and other bills. Before you get too excited, payments are made from your bank account rather than being able to use a credit card or prepaid Mastercard (update the image does show credit card as a payment from option. Individual banks and credit unions will offer Bill Pay Exchange and Bill Pay Exchange links to The Clearing House’s (TCH’s). This is an interesting development considering Mastercard’s recent partnerships/deals with Plastiq.
The “exchange” name made me think this was a way to trade bill payments with other people, or something like mortgage-backed securities where you buy the income from someone else’s bill payments.
If it were from checking account only, what is their point in creating the service?
I just pay from checking accounts already.
From the article-
“This will enable consumers to pay their bills instantly from their bank accounts – in a matter of seconds versus days – reducing the delay between when the payment is made and when it is reflected in the consumer’s balance.”
What is TCH and how does it differ from ACH?
I hadn’t heard of it before, but it’s not a typo. Google found this for TCH:
https://www.theclearinghouse.org/
“The Clearing House launched RTP® in late 2017. As the first payments system to be built in the U.S. since the birth of the internet …”
“The Clearing House is a banking association and payments company that is owned by the largest commercial banks and dates back to 1853.”
Well, ACH is “Automated” Clearing House. It’s relatively new (from the last few decades) and is owned by its developer, FiServ, the world’s largest FinTech firm.
“TCH” is “The” Clearing House, and is relatively old (19th century), all manual, and owned by the banks.
They’re both payment systems.
“payments are made from your bank account rather than being able to use a credit card or prepaid Mastercard”
The left picture explicitly shows one could select a credit card for payments?
But the bill is for another CC. It would be.. interesting.. to allow paying CCs with another CC.
Good point, updated post.
It says pay from for the credit card as well.
Possibility that might ring up as a cash advance though.