Tell me why you don't auto-pay your bills?

[vraiblonde]

I auto-pay everything I can because I'm a busy person who can't be bothered with things that will auto for me. When we first moved into our house I was paying the resort fee manually....until one month it was late being billed and I forgot about it until the resort mgr texted me that I hadn't paid yet.



Any Luddites on here still paying monthly/annual bills manually? And why?

 

[Sneakers]

The utilities are on autopay, but the credit cards are not. I want to see the statement before it gets paid and check for anomalies. And then I pay it online via EFT.

 

[TPD]

I don’t autopay any bills. I need to see the statements and make sure there are no mistakes AND I don’t trust businesses to have access to my bank accounts at their will.

But I have found out that businesses still have access to my accounts And can and will take out any amount they want. About 3-4 months ago, I sent a check to Taylor Gas to pay for the propane bottle exchanges from them for the last month. Just as a side note, I have expressed my frustration with them numerous times over the last 2 or 3 years since they went to their new billing/payment system-we can no longer give a check to the delivery driver on each visit he makes to the store. We prefer COD but they don’t. It sucks! Anyhow, for ease of explaining this issue, let’s say I mailed a check to them for $1000 to pay our monthly bill. As I was reconciling my bank statement Weeks later, I kept coming up about $50 short. Took me almost an hour to figure it out. Taylor Gas does not physically take my check to the bank to deposit into their account. I think they use QuikBooks to take the account number and routing number from my check to withdraw money from my account. If I have 4 separate invoices I am paying with one check, they do 4 separate withdrawals from my account, not one. So somehow, even though I wrote the check for $1000, they withdrew $1050 over 4 separate transactions. This is what made it so difficult to catch this when reconciling my account. I went into the office very upset over this matter. I still have not gotten an answer on how this happened.

* Dollar amounts/numbers are not exact but estimated In order to highlight the issue.

 

[TPD]

Oh yeah, sometimes businesses such as mine use the check “float” to buy time for cash flow purposes, another reason not to use autopay. And sometimes we take advantage of the grace period.

 

[Sneakers]

I don’t autopay any bills. I need to see the statements and make sure there are no mistakes AND I don’t trust businesses to have access to my bank accounts at their will.

But I have found out that businesses still have access to my accounts And can and will take out any amount they want. About 3-4 months ago, I sent a check to Taylor Gas to pay for the propane bottle exchanges from them for the last month. Just as a side note, I have expressed my frustration with them numerous times over the last 2 or 3 years since they went to their new billing/payment system-we can no longer give a check to the delivery driver on each visit he makes to the store. We prefer COD but they don’t. It sucks! Anyhow, for ease of explaining this issue, let’s say I mailed a check to them for $1000 to pay our monthly bill. As I was reconciling my bank statement Weeks later, I kept coming up about $50 short. Took me almost an hour to figure it out. Taylor Gas does not physically take my check to the bank to deposit into their account. I think they use QuikBooks to take the account number and routing number from my check to withdraw money from my account. If I have 4 separate invoices I am paying with one check, they do 4 separate withdrawals from my account, not one. So somehow, even though I wrote the check for $1000, they withdrew $1050 over 4 separate transactions. This is what made it so difficult to catch this when reconciling my account. I went into the office very upset over this matter. I still have not gotten an answer on how this happened.

* Dollar amounts/numbers are not exact but estimated In order to highlight the issue.

I noticed a couple of my bills being handled that way. I want to say Verizon? when I had them? I sent a check, but they use the routing number on the check and draft directly from the bank.

 

[GURPS]

Any Luddites on here still paying monthly/annual bills manually? And why?

All of my bills,

I am constantly shifting money around with High School expenses from my daughter in High School

 

[frequentflier]

I don’t autopay any bills. I need to see the statements and make sure there are no mistakes AND I don’t trust businesses to have access to my bank accounts at their will.

But I have found out that businesses still have access to my accounts And can and will take out any amount they want. About 3-4 months ago, I sent a check to Taylor Gas to pay for the propane bottle exchanges from them for the last month. Just as a side note, I have expressed my frustration with them numerous times over the last 2 or 3 years since they went to their new billing/payment system-we can no longer give a check to the delivery driver on each visit he makes to the store. We prefer COD but they don’t. It sucks! Anyhow, for ease of explaining this issue, let’s say I mailed a check to them for $1000 to pay our monthly bill. As I was reconciling my bank statement Weeks later, I kept coming up about $50 short. Took me almost an hour to figure it out. Taylor Gas does not physically take my check to the bank to deposit into their account. I think they use QuikBooks to take the account number and routing number from my check to withdraw money from my account. If I have 4 separate invoices I am paying with one check, they do 4 separate withdrawals from my account, not one. So somehow, even though I wrote the check for $1000, they withdrew $1050 over 4 separate transactions. This is what made it so difficult to catch this when reconciling my account. I went into the office very upset over this matter. I still have not gotten an answer on how this happened.

* Dollar amounts/numbers are not exact but estimated In order to highlight the issue.

Our propane tank got topped off last week from Burch oil. The driver took a check.

 

[vraiblonde]

The utilities are on autopay, but the credit cards are not. I want to see the statement before it gets paid and check for anomalies. And then I pay it online via EFT.

Same - I don't autopay my credit card because I want to go over the charges.

 

[OccamsRazor]

The utilities are on autopay, but the credit cards are not. I want to see the statement before it gets paid and check for anomalies. And then I pay it online via EFT.

Same - I don't autopay my credit card because I want to go over the charges.

Why not log into your card account online and verify charges? Available almost instantly and much faster than a paper bill

 

[Sneakers]

Why not log into your card account online and verify charges? Available almost instantly and much faster than a paper bill

I do. Didn't say I used paper copy. Just that it's not autopay.

 

[OccamsRazor]

I do. Didn't say I used paper copy. Just that it's not autopay.

 

[vraiblonde]

Why not log into your card account online and verify charges? Available almost instantly and much faster than a paper bill

I do, plus the cc people send me an email every time there's a transaction. But it's a good reminder to go in and check charges when I'm paying the bill because if it just auto debited I'd probably forget.

 

[Clem72]

All of my bills,

I am constantly shifting money around with a teen in High School

Listen up Epstein, you're supposed to keep that on the down-low.

 

[Kyle]

I auto-pay everything I can because I'm a busy person who can't be bothered with things that will auto for me. When we first moved into our house I was paying the resort fee manually....until one month it was late being billed and I forgot about it until the resort mgr texted me that I hadn't paid yet.



Any Luddites on here still paying monthly/annual bills manually? And why?

I have three.

One is a check and no way around that one.

The other two are extortion payments and subject to change on the monthly basis.

 

[RoseRed]

Only autopay's are for Netflix, YouTubeTV and my EZPass to my VISA. I pay everything else online with my debit card.

 

[GURPS]

Only autopay's are for Netflix, YouTubeTV and my EZPass to my VISA. I pay everything else online with my debit card.

Oh right I have a couple of subscriptions that are paid automatically ...

 

[ArkRescue]

Only autopay's are for Netflix, YouTubeTV and my EZPass to my VISA. I pay everything else online with my debit card.

yup my only auto Pays are YouTube and T-Mobile but they go to a credit card, both I know the exact amount is the same every month. I do not auto-pay anything from my bank account or I'd have NSF charges regularly because my bank account is empty between paydays since I have more bills than I have money, so timing is everything.

 

[ontheriver]

I tried auto pay once. For DIRECTV I think. Problem was they would add extra channels and such. I didn't pay attention to the bills. No way will I allow any service to add things I did not authorize. Cured me.

 

[RoseRed]

I tried auto pay once. For DIRECTV I think. Problem was they would add extra channels and such. I didn't pay attention to the bills. No way will I allow any service to add things I did not authorize. Cured me.

Back in the late 80's, I worked for a health club/gym in the corporate office doing data entry. New clients would come in and sign up but had a 72-hour grace period to cancel. This place was notorious for not cancelling the memberships and these people had to really fight to get their monies back, sometimes having to go as far as cancelling their credit cards to make the payments stop. I learned then.

 

[LightRoasted]

For your consideration ...

Auto pay is great, when using your credit card to pay for everything instead of attaching to your bank account number. Cash back, points, or travel miles really adds up quick this way. Even use credit card to pay the mortgage. Then just pay the credit card balance off every month. Win-win.