CheckFree: one more time

It started it innocently enough. A reader reported receiving a letter stating that his CheckFree service was being discontinued. The letter included a free copy of Quicken 98 Deluxe (for the Mac of course) as an alternative method for making online payments. An update to the MacFixIt item suggested that only the ability to use CheckFree through older versions of Quicken was being discontinued; the stand-alone version of CheckFree would remain. Yet another posting (referring to a page on CheckFree's Web site) said it looked like all forms of CheckFree were vanishing.

This, in turn, led to numerous replies from readers saying "It ain't so."

Readers madevarious claims (supposedly all confirmed by CheckFree itself). In one scenario, the CheckFree standalone software for the Mac will continue to work, at least for another year. It is only an "older" version of the software that the CheckFree page was referring to. Another reader, in avariation of this theme, said that the CheckFree Web page was only referring to the PC version of the software. In another spin, a reader claimed that the page only referred to users who were using anything but the standalone version of CheckFree or CheckFree through Quicken.

Earl Yoshino offered yet another slightly different take on this: "The old CheckFree software which was used for direct dial access (not Internet) is not Y2K compliant and will not be updated. So by year 2000, it will be discontinued. CheckFree purchased from Intuit the Intuit Online Payment system. So that means that CheckFree still processes the payments that I'm making through Quicken 98 on the Mac. (I know this is a fact because I spoke to the processing center. They are also transitioning to new computers and software with this change.)"

Bottom line: The people at CheckFree responsible for explaining what's going on here need to go back to school and take a course in clarity and consistency. As for me, I am not going to waste any more bandwidth on this matter. It appears as if CheckFree users will continue to be able to use the service in some manner, at least for another year. Beyond that, you are on your own.