Folks, I just had an exchange with USMA headquarters, who received my membership renewal by PC Banking. It worked out well from their end, and they encouraged me to share with the List.
PC Banking is quite easy, you pay your bills directly from MS Money or Quicken without any stamps or envelopes. For large insitutions the funds are sent electronically by account number while for small organizations a physical check is printed and sent by surface mail. I've been paying my bills that way for years. Since USMA doesn't have account numbers, you identify yourself by putting something like "Your Name USMA renewal" in the account number field, as in the attached image. Then, when you upload your "virtual" check, PC Banking writes a physical check and sends it by surface mail. The whole thing takes about 4 days. Obviously you don't want to do this if you're a first-time member or your address has changed. But if its just a simple renewal you can store USMA as a regular payee, so it only takes 2-3 mouse clicks to do. Nat
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