Looking to go paper free w/online payments

[dr_ml422]

Hi everyone. I'm getting tired of righting out checks and stamping envelopes for my bills. My cc I pay straight at the bank. Being that nothing's 100% safe how do some of you guys feel about making online payments? Say for instance your isp and telephone etc...? Forget about automatic payments from your checking/cc.

[NightTran]

I pay either cash or phone but not computer, you can pay once awhile but have to cancle the card and get new one to be on your safe side

[dr_ml422]

Hi NightTran. Paying by cash is not convenient because they'll charge a fee at the check cashier. By phone they charge even a bigger fee. when you say phone you talking about putting your routing number from your account and having whom ever take it out? Paying my cc is no problem cause i go directly to my cc's bank and pay cash and get a receipt right there. Bottom line i'm trying to eliminate as much clutter as possible and old statements and bills make up a huge part of it. They do prove worthy if say someone says you didn't make a payment. Thnx.

[PurpleDemon]

Most banks have bill pay service these day's.

With mine I have all my account info set up. I just need to log in to my online banking, schedule who gets what and I am done.

Most payments are sent electronically so it goes even faster. I control when I spend because I do not like surprises from an automatic payment.

Also it is usually posted the same day you schedule your payment, so you don't have to wait for a check to clear.

I did have a few occurrences of my Banking card getting double processed so I stopped

I was reluctant at first, now I don't look back.

Good Luck

[dr_ml422]

Hi Burrell. Can you just go online and pay the bill you want to on the day you want, or do you have to have a schedule? A schedule is almost like automatic payments. I'd prefer to log on pay and out. I had an incident about 21/2 yrs. ago w/time warner regarding automatic payments. they took it out of my account and then someone made an online payment also. I closed my account, cancelled my cc and got a new 1 and reported it as well. Oh yeah and I let time warner have it as well and cancelled their service. someone on the inside paid my bill online and if I hadn't of caught it they would of rerouted my mail to another address and bye bye dr. That's just 1 way of identity theft.

[Kabuchan]

You can set them up as automatic payments or one-time payments. There is no fee either. Bear in mind that it takes a fews days to go through, same as if you mail a check. So if the bill is due on the 1st, you want to pay on the 25th.

It is worth the initial hassle of setting everything up. I used to spend a few hours paying bills, writing everything out. Now I am done in 15 minutes.

I think BofA has better security than Wells Fargo or Wachovia. With BofA, you have 3 questions to answer after putting in your user name whereas the other two banks have only a user name and password.

[PurpleDemon]

Yes,
I have my creditors set up before hand in the banking system with all the account numbers and addresses.

Then on the day I want to pay I just log in, select the payee and how much and select one time payment.

That way I am in control.

Just a few clicks and buttons. No envelopes, no stamps, and I have a record of the payment of who was paid and how much on my bank statement.

[katzdvd]

I have been doing online bill pay for years, have never had a problem. (knock on wood)

For me, it is easiest to go to each of the websites & pay from there. That may not work out for you if you have a lot of bills to pay, I guess. I pay around 10 per month, so I don't feel that it takes me too long to do.


I have a budget sheet typed out with the due dates of each account, & I simply check off each when I pay it. Insurance & mortgage are autopay, since they pretty much stay a fixed amount.


I use paypal for some stuff like ebay, etc. The online thing definantly does reduce the paper clutter. After I make a payment, I then save the screen shot to a folder. At the end of the year I make a cd backup of that folder & file it with the rest of the yearly receipts/ taxes info., etc.

Ironically enough, my ISP (Comcast) was the last company to get onboard with the online payment option. I was sending them checks long after I was paying everything else online.

Of course there is the element of risk/security/privacy, but the way I see it, we don't really have much left in the way of privacy anyway, so I just take the chance & if I run into a problem I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

That being said, I do have a friend that was the victim of identity theft, & it was a major hassle for her to get that straightened out. She is not sure how it happened, because she doesn't use her pc for any online purchases/payments at all.

[dr_ml422]

Burrell>Most payments are sent electronically so it goes even faster.

Also it is usually posted the same day you schedule your payment, so you don't have to wait for a check to clear.


Kabu>Bear in mind that it takes a fews days to go through, same as if you mail a check. So if the bill is due on the 1st, you want to pay on the 25th.


Ok guys which one is it? It's posted the same day, or takes a few days to go through?
Would guess it would go through faster since they actually prefer payments made this way. I don't have experience w/this so some clarification would be appreciated as always. Thnx.

@Katz> thnx for your post as this was mainly what I was looking to do. Go to the website and pay from there. That screen shot idea is great also. Some back up is better than none. Wtf is up w/these cable companies? Seems all of them are a pita. A necessity like that should be covered from all angles. Time Warner to me is a joke and I've heard all kinds of complaints about Comcast also.

[katzdvd]

Kabu - Bear in mind that it takes a fews days to go through, same as if you mail a check. So if the bill is due on the 1st, you want to pay on the 25th.

Really Kabu? Maybe I am misunderstanding your post...

I can't say I have experienced this. When you go to the companies website & make the payment, a littl calender is usually present on the page there somewhere, & you can select the actual day that you want the pmt. to be credited. However, if your bill is due on the 10th, for example, I wouldn't sign in that morning & make the payment. I would sign in anytime before that & just select the pmt. to be made on the actual due date from the calender on the pmt. page.

EDIT - One thing I forgot to mention; after I make the pmt. at each site, I will go to the browser's tools/options & clear all the history/cookies. etc. Maybe that is a bit paranoid, but for some reason it seems like the right thing to do.

[ed klein]

1. Almost all bills get paid by mail
2. NO automatic withdraw from a checking or savings account
3. Cash basis on paying at grocery store, department store, food store, hardware store, blockbuster
4. One credit card for convient payment for things like REDBOX, large one time payment. Credit card gets paid off at the end of each month.

Had to change credit card twice because of fraud.



P.S.

Deal in cash only when possible and don't give out any information on anything. This computer is ALWAYS on the defensive mode, and on the offensive mode when hackers are at the input line.

Old School Rule
Never put anything on your hard drive that you would not be willing to give to your worst enemy

[locoeng]

I'm sure if you schedule a payment which recurs monthly like a mortgage or car payment you could schedule the money to come out "that instant", whereas regular online payments which may vary from month to month like your utilities and you "manually" pay each month (online) take 5 days to process. I use BB&T.

[dr_ml422]

Well I'm glad I posted this thread because I've always had my doubts about this online payment thing. It would be for my utilities. I have to go w/Ed on this one for now. Maybe I'll change my mind at some point, but not right now.

It'll be interesting to see more input and the overall consensus on this though.

[gonwk]

Hi folks,

@ Ed Klein ... do you care to explain how you got zapped on Credit Cards!?!?

Was your CC info sold by a dishonest Waiter or ...

Thanks,

G!

[dr_ml422]

There's a million ways to do it. In my case right after I caught on to it, a rep from Time Warner had to be the one that paid my bill online. I had just finished talking w/them and providing the basic necessary info when the following day I was at my bank closing my account, stopping the automatic payment, canceling my cc and getting another one and notifying them and the police as well. I had to personally go down to their office to bring back their box, talk to a supervisor which they refused to do on the phone, and cancel my service and get my money back as well. If my address would of been rerouted w/out me stopping it at the butt there's no telling what might have happened. For sure some cc's under my name w/my info would of been out there having the time of their life. Mind you it was the girl at my bank that told me to close everything and file a report because that was one of the sure ways to commit identity theft.