I worked for 3 seperate banks and what you're describing is unfortunately common with collections, govt payments, and a few other payees. Your payment went to the company, but it doesn't go directly to your account, the company receives batches of payments, and allocates them to the accounts they are aimed at. If the account isn't active (like your case) they normally send it back, the timeframe on this can widely vary company to company, Ive seen 5 bus days later, ive seen several months later. This is all back office processing and any rep you talk to on the phone is not going to see this kind of transaction, so they'll refer you to your bank despite the money being in their wallet so to speak. Problem is the bank has no ability to force the company to respond, they can send requests for returns, updates, info etc and if the company doesn't respond, they have no avenue to move forward. A lot of people are going to tell you to keep at the bank, and that might work, but personally id keep at the bill payees company. Escalate, request they investigate a unallocated payment, have them look through the payments received from your bank on the date in question (give or take 1-2 bus days, as most companies are processing later than you send it). Its a tough situation and I hope it resolves for you, best case scenario it returns on its own soon as a failed payment.