Online bill pay

[DivaJen]

Out of curiosity, I checked to see if my credit union was offering free online bill pay. The last time I had looked, they were charging a monthly fee for it, so it would only have saved money on postage if I wrote above a certain number of checks each month. Anyway, I looked today and now it is FREE. Woo hoo!! So I'm going to give that a try and see how it works out. It would be nice to pay bills with a few clicks and not have to write checks and buy stamps.

[Tammy]

I have it through our bank and love it. It's great and a timesaver not just a money saver.

[terry1156]

I would recommend it to anyone who has problems getting payments out on time. I have mine set up so that the payments are automatically taken out each month and I don't have to do anything except keep tract so there is enough money in the account and double check that the charge is correct. It's a great time saver and money saver.

[Tree0164]

I love it. I have been doing it for over 5 yrs now.

[kzz]

Our credit union just recently started offering it for free. I love it!!!!

[PennyPincher]

Silly me.

Previously, I was under the impression that online bill pay was just paying bills online, so I thought I did it. (I went to each website, and either auto-deducted the funds regularly or made a visit every month to pay.)

Last month I signed up for the real BillPay with my bank, Wachovia. Everyone gets paid from one place ~ with wonderful ease. They used to charge for it, but it's free now ~ GREAT for me!!! It is truly wonderful! It takes me mere seconds to pay a bill. (Rather scary that I can 'spend' hundreds/thousands in minutes!)

The biggest attraction for me is that I can schedule my payment as soon as I receive the bill, but I don't have to see the money go out right away. I've been against paying bills when they first come in because I feel like somebody is getting my money (and earning interest on it) before they need to. Now I can SCHEDULE the payment, and be done with it anyhow. Then the bill gets paid when it should.

I can pay any company ~ not just from a select list. It took a few minutes to set up my payees, but now I have all my records in one place. I could not be happier with it.

Just thought I'd share my recent experience in case anyone out there was like me.

[Armywife]

The one good thing about Online bill pay.. it takes the money out of your account the next day.. no more wondering when the check gets cashed (a BIG problem since I don't have overdraft protection in my bank).

I've been doing it since 1998 and I am a #1 Fan!!

[jhd815]

I too am a fan of online bill paying. I just started doing it this year in January and it's absolutely wonderful. I also have money transferred from my payroll deposits (automatically deposited by my employer) into my savings account, and I don't even miss that amount. I know I wouldn't be making those deposits regularly on my own.

[jhd815]

Wow, I just noticed that I've finally made it out of the sixth grade and into jr. high!!!

[shawni]

I am another fan of online bill pay, I have used it over the last 5 years at a total of 3 banks. None of which I have left because of the bill pay hehe. People seem to find it intimidating and worry about thier payments getting there on time. My experiences are....1. The money comes from your account right away. 2. You can do a direct electronic transfer to some companies. 3. You can always check online to see if they have in fact received the payment. 4. You have all the proof you need to dispute payments right online and the bank will back you up if there is a problem.

[jmjj215]

I'm yet to do it with our personal bills. Business bills I manage that way. I suppose I would be more inclined to do it if we had more bills? Just kidding. I should look into it for Wells Fargo - although last time I checked I thought they charged. Just have to make sure you still track your spending as Terry mentioned!

[DivaJen]

I think I'm officially a convert! I love using fewer stamps, not worrying about mail getting lost (or stolen!) in transit and being able to schedule payments. AND it's free!

[nate]

Me too.. Huge fan of bill pay. I always had trouble keeping track of bills, getting them out on time, etc. Not anymore.

Originally Posted by jhd815

Wow, I just noticed that I've finally made it out of the sixth grade and into jr. high!!!

Congrats

[zakity]

I love my bill pay service. It saves me tons of time and money. I pay everything that way.

[mhsgemini37]

I work for an online bill pay service. Most the people love it.

[neatdesign]

With the exception of paying rent and a few other things by check, I pay for everything using Web BillPay through USAA. It's free since I have direct deposit into my USAA checking account.

Online bill paying isn't without its potential problems, however. I see this nearly every day at my job at a credit card company. There are two problems I see pop up quite frequently when people pay online through their bank/credit union's online bill paying service:

1) Creditors don't receive the online payments by the due date. A lot of people get thrown off by this because they think electronic online payments are instantaneous; they're not. It's always a good idea to set your online payment up to go through 3-4 days before your scheduled due date, just in case there's a processing delay.

2) People send payments to the wrong creditor. Many online bill paying services have a drop-down menu to select the creditor you want to send your payment to. Some people think they've selected to pay Company B when they've actually selected Company A -- the electronic equivalent of putting the check in the wrong envelope. Or they have two accounts with Company B and select the wrong account number to pay. I work in payment investigations as part of my job and see this happen all the time. So always check and double-check which payment you're sending where before you click "confirm" or whatever.

~ Jenney

[al0061]

I've been using online bill pay through my bank for over a year. I love it too. How could you not?

I have historically done this twice a month, the day after payday. I have not yet tried the 'scheduling' function, to set the payments up to go out on a specific day that is not 'today'. I think I might try that soon, thanks to Penny Pincher's comments. Thanks.

I've found that, with my bank, at least, if I use the 'Pay Multiple Bills' function, I don't have to risk using the drop-down lists. The 'Pay Multiple Bills' page at my bank's site just provides a list of my payees with amount fields next to them.

I have discovered that if you make a selection in any drop-down list, and then use your mouse's scroll wheel, it 'scrolls' through the list, so you may not be paying who you think you're paying. You have to click away from the drop-down list field before using the scroll wheel to avoid this danger. Luckily, that hasn't happened to me when paying bills, but in other situations, it has, like selecting States from lists.

Torch - aka al0061

[stone]

Originally Posted by terry1156

I would recommend it to anyone who has problems getting payments out on time. I have mine set up so that the payments are automatically taken out each month and I don't have to do anything except keep tract so there is enough money in the account and double check that the charge is correct. It's a great time saver and money saver.

Its a double edged sword in some ways. I have mine set up for automomative withdrawals as well, but sometimes it causes me to be a bit lazy looking over some bills like my Verizon phone bill. But in the end, it is really a nice feature to sign up for.

[marglo]

I get it as part of my Mvelopes service and I love it! If I ever stop using Mvelopes, I will probably sign up with another service. Our CU has one but I don't think it's free though maybe I should check on that.....

[stone]

Does anyone have their credit card automatically get billed? That seems a bit dangerous to me...?