Just paid my mortgage online for the first time

[disneysteve]

I've been using home banking for years, even pre-internet when it was done by phone, but for some reason I still wrote a check every month for the mortgage payment. I'm not sure why I hung on to that one.

I finally went electronic today and made my payment online at the lender's site. I didn't sign up for the auto-withdrawal because they charge a fee for that, but it is simple enough to go on each month and submit the payment manually. That's 12 fewer checks I'll have to write and mail in the next year.

[Saving in So Cal]

Okay. I'll admit I'm surprised. You are so ahead of the curve, financially speaking. I guess you were worried your mortgage was too important to risk to online bill pay.

I was actually late to the online bill pay scene and my mortgage was the first bill I tried to pay that way. (I use my bank's bill pay service and there's no fee.) Now, I would never go back.

I get paid once a month. When my check is deposited, I go online and schedule all of my bills for payment, starting with the mortgage. (Gotta make sure I have a roof over my head.) In addition to being convenient, I probably save $4.00 to $5.00 a month in stamps. I also don't have to worry about missing a payment or inadvertently spending money meant for bills.

[simpleyme]

well then you wont believe us,we pay our payment in person every month!
while i am there i pick up cookies and coffee ;-) ya can't get cookies and coffee online LOL

we always have some business near the bank once a month anyway so i just do them in one trip ,so no extra gas or such

[scfr]

I didn't sign up for the auto-withdrawal because they charge a fee for that,

It's so interesting how things can vary from institution to institution.
We've had 2 mortgages (first for a condo, then for a house), with different institutions. Both times we paid by auto-widrawal because we got a lower mortgage interest rate (I believe it was 1/8%) for paying that way and there were no fees. I had always assumed it was the same everywhere. Good reminder not to assume.

[boefixepa]

My first loan was held with a company that would auto withdrawl from your account on a given date, but it was too close to my pay check date for my comfort and that was the ONLY date they would do it on??? So when I refinanced I went with a company that would e-bill me and I pay through my Mvelopes bill pay without a problem! What was the first company thinking!

[Ima saver]

Well, I have never paid anything online. I don't have a mortgage, but when we had a payment on some land we bought, I always went to the bank in person to pay it.

[disneysteve]

Both times we paid by auto-widrawal because we got a lower mortgage interest rate (I believe it was 1/8%) for paying that way and there were no fees.

That's how our home equity loan works.

Actually, I just checked again and I'm wrong. Autowithdrawal is free for a once/month payment. There is only a fee if you want more frequent payments, like twice/month or every 2 weeks. I guess I can sign up for the automatic payments.

Saving in So Cal - Thanks for the compliment.

[buzz]

You shall no longer be referred to as "grasshopper". You are disneysteve.

[Broken Arrow]

Oh yeah, we paid our mortgage online as well. It was a bit nerve-wracking at first, because it's so much money moving around, but after a few months of working flawlessly, our fears subsided....

We paid all our bills online actually, and we liked it that way. Looking back, the only thing I can complain about is that our mortgage lender's website wasn't very user-friendly.

[Coleroo]

Haha... when we were getting our house loan last year, one of my top priorites was "abillity to pay online". I would have been very displeased if our broker would have found an "antique" lender who didnt have that abillity.

Guess theres a generational gap somewhere?

[rvtraveler]

My better-half and I started to RV fulltime about 2 years ago now. And I had to force myself to do everything online, from paying all my bills to banking online. It has been and was a very easy. And I do believe safe. I have not had any problems.

I just moved some savings to a GMAC MM account for a much better interest rate. Lovin it...

[ericlargo]

Paying bills online saves so much time and money (stamps). What do you guys think about the automatic payment programs that most companies seem to have?

[Broken Arrow]

I pay everything manually so that nothing will "automatically" slip by without me knowing.

But that's just me.

[disneysteve]

What do you guys think about the automatic payment programs that most companies seem to have?

Let's see. I have our alarm company fee, our gas/electric bill, our water bill, our local, long distance and cell phone bills, our internet access, our life and disability insurance premiums, a couple of investment accounts, DD's 529 plan contributions and our cable bill charged automatically. There might be others but that's all that comes to mind right now. Some of those come right out of the checking account. Some get billed automatically to our credit card. Charging to the CC is the best option because that way we rack up reward points for bills we'd be paying anyway.

[myself]

I've been using home banking for years, even pre-internet when it was done by phone, but for some reason I still wrote a check every month for the mortgage payment. I'm not sure why I hung on to that one.

I finally went electronic today and made my payment online at the lender's site. I didn't sign up for the auto-withdrawal because they charge a fee for that, but it is simple enough to go on each month and submit the payment manually. That's 12 fewer checks I'll have to write and mail in the next year.

I pay everything and anything I can by using online bill payment with my bank. I don't allow anyone into our checking account, except ING Direct, and Emigrant Direct, which is only so I can set up automatic savings transfers.
I try to stop every paper based mail being sent to me, and have that directed to a special email that I set up for just that purpose. That way, I get a limited amount of paperwork that I have to shred every month.