Do you pay your bills - by check or online?
By coffeebreak
@coffeebreak (17798)
United States
February 11, 2008 8:03pm CST
Do you pay your bills online or USPS with a check? I have not come into the 21st century yet - I sill mail a check. But since postage is going up...again....think I'll have to look into online bill pay. I alwasy worry that once they have your checking account number - who knows what they can do! But there are so many FREE checking account these days, so I'll probably open one for free, deposit only the money I am using to pay the bills and hook that account to the creditor and not give them my "main" account. At least that would limit them to the cash they could take, should they so decide to. At least I could keep a budget straight this way
How do you do your bill pay?
3 people like this
12 responses
@luvstochat (6907)
• United States
12 Feb 08
I pay just about all of my bills online. You get a confimation code that the bill has been paid no it must of got lost in the mail worries.
It does not cost anything extra to pay the bills online I am paying for my internet so might at well use it.
It is to expensive to mail things anymore and stamps are going up again!
I do my bill paying and my banking all online I love it, it is so easy to keep everything balanced that way.
2 people like this
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
12 Feb 08
I've been doing it online ever since CheckFree was born and then I used StatusFactory for a while and now you you do it from may of the different banks finally. I don't know why people fear this, as long as their computers have firewall software and that sort of thing, because the banks all use computers for their stuff, why shouldn't we. I also send all my postcards from the USPS online site, uploading graphics as needed and using the addresses stored there. Much better than fishing for a stamp.
2 people like this
@emarie (5442)
• United States
12 Feb 08
most of ours is online or by phone. we don't mail in anymore because we always forget. my sister uses the online banking featured offered by our bank and it automatically pays out all of her bills. most of ours is automatic like utilities, phone, cable and my kids insurance. the rest my husband does online. its easier i can tell you that and its pretty safe.
2 people like this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
12 Feb 08
To me, that is to easy to loose track of what money I have or how much I am spending or am I spending to much. I can see where it'd be beneficial to some or to those that can keep it all straight, but for me, I'll just stick to the check book register. I do so much better hands on!
1 person likes this
@trinale (1479)
• United States
12 Feb 08
When I was in the Air Force, being single, I needed a way to stay on top of my bills. I used PayTrust.com to pay everything online. Came in real handy during those extended deployments. Now that I've retired and the mortgage company, along with all my utility companies excepting online payments, I pay everything online using my debit card. I purchased my last box of checks about 4 years ago.
2 people like this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
12 Feb 08
I can see where online paying would be a big asset to some!
1 person likes this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
12 Feb 08
That's been my thinking too! And since I dont' have many I will probably just stick with it, but might look into online - get with the groove as they say. In this case, a little dap'll do ya!
1 person likes this
@5SCPapaLou1 (143)
• United States
12 Feb 08
I pay approximately 50% of by bills through a check draft,
30% on-line and 20% by check. The good thing about check drafts and on-line payments is you don't have to worry about a bill being lost in the mail, a bill being paid late, no postage and fewer checks used. As soon as I pay on-line I have a record of my payment with a confirmation number.
2 people like this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
12 Feb 08
Yeah, you got that right! I just recently had a check lost and I only found out cause I called the bank and went through the automated thing to see which checks cleared and my balance. Cost me $30 late fee cause the USPS lost the check! I sent another one right away and tey got it 3 days later, but of course 1 day after the due date! Should have paid online!!!Guess that is a costly lesson to tell me to "move on with the times!"
1 person likes this
@smartbrain69 (2790)
• Canada
12 Feb 08
As i live in Hyderabad, South India and we have option to pay our utility bills by cheques, online credit card payment, online bank transfers, and he have seperate place known as e-seva ( a place where computer with internet facility is installed and it is operated my person ) we pay by cash and pay all bills under one roof.
As most of the people prefer to go this place (e-seva) to pay their bills.
Earlier i used to pay my bills through this service but now i am using online facility to pay bills and i don't feel any problem and life is much easier as i don't have to take token and stand in queu.
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
13 Feb 08
They got the post office so automated these days, the lines are not that long anymore - unless you go on a friday and monday when business drop off and pick up mail. You can get stamps from a machine, envelopes from a machine, do your own Priority Mail and buy a stamp from the machines and drop it in the slot. You can even weigh the package yourself and put appropriate postage! Then I think, wait, I am doing all the work and they are rasing the postage rate....what's wrong with this picture!
@arkaf61 (10881)
• Canada
12 Feb 08
WE pay most of our bills online.
ONe of our computers is only for that kind of stuff. We also have a separate account just for that the way you mention, and we only deposit as much as its needed to cover the bills so there is never much money in there.
It works perfectly well for us and we feel it's much better than checks.
1 person likes this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
12 Feb 08
That's what I am going to do - open a free checking account and just put bill money in it and not co-mingle it with "other" money...just in case!
1 person likes this
@Savvynlady (3684)
• United States
16 Feb 08
I pay via mail, but I plan on using my debit cards a bit more for that since I do have them and they can do the same thing online. I also have paid by phone as well and locally, but that's the gist of it with me. I noticed that Walmart has a bill pay there and I plan to use it for my student loan payment but that's about it.
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
12 Feb 08
I pay most of my bills on line. It is so much easier. I go thru my bank and none of them can just get in and take payments. I have to authorize it and what day it can be transferred out. Some bills, I still pay with check but very very few. If you do decide to go online, I think you should go thru your bank. It just seems more secure and all your bills can be paid on one screen. I've been doing it this way for about a year now and wish I'd gone that route before.
1 person likes this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
13 Feb 08
Well I hadn't thought of that. I know my bank does that but it seemed like I had to ...well forget what it was that made me not want to go that way. But it might be safer than just going to the creditor myself. That way if there was a problem, the bank would be in the middle and might be on my side if I threaten to close the account if they dont' fit the problem! I'll look into that. Plus, double the security, mine and the banks... I'll look into that. Thanks for suggestion!
@shootergirl78 (426)
• Canada
12 Feb 08
Here where I live alot of companies wont even take cheques anymore. We either pay internet banking, telephone banking, or we allow them to the payments directly out of our bank account. I hate allowing them to take the money out of the account because there is the odd time their computer messes up and takes the money early and then I end up with bounced fees. No matter how much I flip out, they wont refund the money for the bounce. So I pay most of mine online :)
1 person likes this
@kiran1978 (4134)
• Australia
13 Feb 08
I pay most of my bills online now, it is so convenient. Then I can print off a receipt. Sometimes I pay bills by phone banking, but I prefer to use the net as that is no extra cost, phone banking you have cost of call.
1 person likes this
