How do you pay your bills?

[2moretrees]

I was reading this blog and it got me thinking about how I pay my bills.

I still do a lot of mine manually. Is it worth the effort to have them paid by the bank directly. Are there problems that can arise with this? I've done my system of paying my bills as they arrive for so long that it's a habit and it works, but maybe it's time to upgrade?

[PrincessPerky]

I lke the automatic and online bill pay.

BUT getting them to stop autodrafting is a royal PIA.

and if you tend to pay bills 'out' like waiting at the drs or something online bill pay wont work (unless your phone does internet or something.)

[aida2003]

Our water and natural gas are paid by auto-draft because they didn't offer other options.
I receive an email notification when our phone and electricity bills are ready and pay them electronically from their websites.
Mortgage payments are also withdrawn automatically from our checking account each month.
Investments are done on auto-pilot (no sending checks).
The only time we pay postage is to send checks of quarterly home association dues. Most of our checks are used to pay for the daycare.

ETA: Oh, yes, I also pay postage yearly to send checks for property taxes (auto and house) as well as all insurance premiums.

[MonkeyMama]

I use online bill pay which is kind of the best of both worlds. I pay the manually when they arrive, but can just set the pay date to the due date.

I still pay a few checks every year (very few).

I just realized recently that I could bill pay our individual vendors (preschool and gardener). Which is so awesome!

But I prefer to pay manually. I personally find it hard to control things as far as auto drafts. It's easy not to look at the bill carefully, and yes, anyone who has tried to stop an auto draft knows how that goes. So I prefer just to not go there.

Though I used to just pay my bills when I received the, I've come to prefer online bill pay a bit more. Bills come at different times, but the due dates tend to stay rather steady. So paying by the due date, makes it easier to keep on a solid monthly budget. Heck, I don't even wait for most of my bills to arrive. Around the 1st of the month I enter everything I have fixed amounts for into my checkbook and into online bill pay. So it is just very simple. Not very time-consuming.

The exception is the credit card. I pay it when it arrives. I don't know what the amount will be until the card closes, and heck if I would give them the benefit of a late fee, by cutting it close.

[skydivingchic]

I'm not comfortable doing the one-stop online bill pay thing, though I do pay alot of my bills online through individual company sites. The cell phone bill, the electric bill, and my credit cards all get paid online at the individual websites. I still do paper checks for the mortgage (which gets paid in person at the bank) and HOA (which gets put in their drop box). Car and condo insurance (single insurer) is set up on auto draft from my checking account and my gym membership is auto drafted to a CC. Once a year I am able to renew my vehicle registration online through the DMV website. I have reminders set up on my Outlook calendar at home so that I am reminded about a week and a half before a bill is due so that I don't forget to pay anything.

[noppenbd]

I do online bill pay through USAA. Many of the larger payees (Verizon, CC companies, etc) will allow you to receive what is called an "e-bill" which means the amount due will be sent to your bank, and an email notification will be sent to you at the same time. So you get the benefit of autodraft (paying irregular amounts) without the difficulty of removing it. You can also set up recurring payments for regular bills (mortgage, auto loans, etc).

[disneysteve]

I do a combination. A couple of bills (gas/electric, life/disability insurance and home equity loan) are on auto-pay from my checking account. A couple (credit card bills) I pay manually with online banking. I pay the mortgage electronically at their website. Several others get charged to my credit card (phone, cell phone, cable, internet, auto insurance, alarm monitoring, etc.) so that by making one credit card payment I am actually settling multiple bills and getting reward points in the process.

[PrincessPerky]

i wish more companies did the email bill...I have just one bill that does and it is wonderful, I generally get it taken care of the day I receive the email but don't have the money drawn out till the day or two before the due date.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Some are auto-pay, but not auto-drafted.

[osadg]

I also do a combination of a few options.
I do have some regular bills that are auto-draft, because they offered a discount with that option. I have two bills that I still have to write a check for and send out in the mail, but on most of my bills, I receive an email alert when the bill is due and simple pay it online that day.
I tried auto-pay (only once) and it just didn't work out for me-all my bills were late that month. I know other people who love it, I just had a not so great experience, and I kind of get a self-satisfying feeling whenever I manually pay my bills.

[fruitbowlk]

I automatic and online bill pay.

[feh]

I pay bills once a month, and I usually don't have to write any checks.

My approach:

1. if possible, have them automatically charged to our CC, to cash in on the rewards
2. if that's not possible, have them automatically withdrawn from our checking account when due
3. last option - write a check and throw it in the mail

I review all transactions when our statement arrives, to make sure nothing unusual is going on.

[Terin]

I pay over the phone or through the internet. I cant remember the last time i wrote a check. I agree with feh if you can have them auto charged to your cc and dont have to worry if you have the funds or not, thats the best way to go.

[Pitman]

I pay all my bills online except for my car insurance (Allstate), I tried once to pay them online, but they took such a long time to withdraw the money, which ended in a late fee for me. So now I pay them in person, but thats no biggie, they have an agent thats about 5min from my house.

[Ima saver]

I am the old fashioned one; I still pay all of my bills by check twice a month. I pay all of the business bills by check also. I usually write 300-400 checks per each house we build.

[stressedmama]

We pay all bills online. It saves a lot of time and money in stamps. The only checks I write are for daycare and church.

[sweeps]

Online bill pay through my own bank. I do not let other companies auto-debit my checking account. But if they want to auto-debit my credit card, then I'm fine with that.

[glock35ipsc]

All of our payments (house, life and auto insurance, retirement and investments, and utilities) are auto drafted each month via bill-pay on our banks website. When the statement gets emailed, I go to their site and print them to put in the binder, then note it in the checkbook. Easy as pie.

The only checks I write is to daycare, and the occasional yard sale or thrifty paper find.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Pitman

I pay all my bills online except for my car insurance (Allstate), I tried once to pay them online, but they took such a long time to withdraw the money, which ended in a late fee for me.

I pay Allstate online with my credit card. Never had a problem. You might want to try that.

[amberbamber]

Everything is through the bank. Not auto-drafted ever.