Are most of your bills on auto bill pay? Like it gets paid (full bill, minimum or specific amount) every month no matter what.
Or do you use your bank's bill pay but don't have it set up for automatic withdrawals?
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We have automatic bill pay for our electric, gas, rent, car payment, Netflix, and credit card. But the rest don't have the option.
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I bill pay through the bank, but it's not automatic. Auto insurance and Direct TV are the only auto pay we have.
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Yes now with a baby I have no time to pay bills the old way anymore! Also reduces the chances I will forget to pay!
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I don't have any set to auto withdrawal because I like to check everything first! I figure it's easier to dispute before they've already sucked the money out of my bank account. I learned from a bad experience with bloomie's a few years back...
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@betsyboop: yes there are some vendors I just do not trust. Our lawn treatment incorrectly billed us for a second treatment I didn't authorize. The rep tried to argue with me a second application after the 90 day guarantee results in a new charge. Hmm interesting because the date of service was day 70 well within the 90 day guarantee. That extra charge was $172!
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Yes most of our bills are deducted automatically - mortgage, gas/electric, cell phone, etc.
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Most things are auto pay. I just put con Ed on a time out though. They were doing estimated bills for 3 months then when the person got an actual reading they billed me for whatever they missed with the estimated bills. 3 months worth = way more than they should be drafting. So they've lost their privileges.
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I don't like auto bill pay but I pay my bills online!
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I pay my bills online but I don't use auto-pay. I like to know how much the electric bill is each month. DH uses auto-pay though and loves it. I just can't get past not knowing the exact bill amount coming out of my bank account but I'm willing to admit to being the wierdo that keeps an old school checkbook register and know exactly how much money is in my accounts down to the penny.
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@gracecat: Yup, most of my bills are on auto pay because of this reason.
@betsyboop: I didn't have the time to call AT&T about some reocurring charges. I ended up using the chat feature to talk to someone and they ended up crediting my account months of charges. For my next bill, which is usually $200, it was only $90. Score! Although, yeah, I'm not happy that I let go that far. I should have called to complain to them about it sooner.
@PointeShoesTutus: Yeah, that's the one down side to using it. Especially when I want to get back on a budget and start tracking where all my money goes.
I do need to be more careful about companies that overcharge you.
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our mortgage is automatically withdrawn, we had no choice on that. other than that I manually pay all our bills online, because I like to see how much they are first!
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Any fixed amount (car loan, student loans, phone, gym, etc) is on autopay if available. Rent is the only thing that requires a written check. Makes life so easy to just drop $X into the account for the month and be done with it. My bank app on my phone gives me text alerts for withdrawals and at certain thresholds and I can check balances anytime, so I stay on top of it incase there are any random charges.
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In Austria, it is pretty standard to have regular bills automatically deducted, rent, utilities, phone, Internet, daycare, etc. As far as I know checks do not exist here, we weren't given the option of having them when we moved here last year so you have to pay everything electronically.
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Most everything is on auto-pay except the mortgage. We do that online but manually enter it each month, since we like to pay extra toward principal but don't always tack on the same amount each month. I also manually enter my credit card payments, since I pay the new balance in full each month but neither one gives me to option to automatically pay off the statement balance each cycle. I have most payments set up on my credit card, though, so I a) get points and b) have an extra layer of protection if I have to dispute something, since it's not automatically sucked out of my checking account. I do verify the amount of the bills each month, but I like not having to worry about whether I'll remember to pay them all on time.
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@PurplePeony: Oh, that reminds me. I could use my credit cards with rewards and just pay them off each month. I have been in debt with credit cards for so long that I just wanted them paid off and gone forever. Once I pay off our cards, I'll use one for rewards.
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our insurance is the only thing on auto pay.
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@bluestriped bee: I put everything on my cards and then pay them off, but it definitely takes willpower to stay under my limit each month (not the card limit, which I never get close to, but the amount I know I have to stay under in order to pay off the new balance without dipping into savings). If you're only using the card for bill payments, though, it should be easier because you won't have other purchases to worry about -- just make sure to set aside the amount of the bill that got paid so you don't accidentally spend it on something else, and then pay the card off each cycle. You'd be surprised at how fast the points add up.
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@PurplePeony: Ah, good point. Thanks for the tips.
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We do autopay for our insurance, phones, and TV. Generally, they are the same each month. But we always look at the.statement first, so we can cancel and dispute if need be!
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Most our bills come out automatically.
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Anyone else?
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I pay one of my bills on autopay (about $50/month) but then the others I hand enter to be paid. The reason for this is that I get paid every two weeks so I don't have a regular date I get paid, and it's easier for me to make sure that the money is in the bank and then pay them, versus have them taken out and I haven't gotten paid yet.
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I don't like auto bill pay, I prefer to receive a bill and then pay it in case I have anything to dispute. The only things that come out automatically are: car insurance, netflix, and spotify. Everything else is either scheduled or I receive an e-bill and pay it online.
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I pay for pretty much everything with auto pay. Mortgage, utilities, cell phones, dog walker, etc. The only thing we pay more manually is the credit card bill.
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All of our medical bills from having LO come out automatically; this way, the interest rate is cut in half. The only other bills that we have are for insurance and Dish Network.
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Auto pay ALL the bills! We had one bill that didn't give us the option, and I forgot every single month. Finally they came out with the option and we jumped on it. It can be a bad thing though, because we can go months without seeing how much our credit card bills were and that we might need to tone down our spending a little
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We auto pay everything, but I get them emailed to be also. It helps that I can check to make sure something's not amiss!
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Just curious... those that are saying they like to "see the bill first", do you not get the bill BEFORE the company takes the money out of your account?
Everything that I paid with automatic withdrawal (only my credit card now, since DH pays the bills, but used to be all of my monthly bills) I received the bill and it stated that "X amount will be taken out on X date", usually 2-3 weeks later, the same amount of time one has to physically pay the bill.
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I have automatic bill pay from my bank account only with bills that are set numbers. Like internet and TV. With power and cell phone I pay them myself because they ALWAYS tack on hidden fees.
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@DiamondEyes: I was wondering this, too. I always get an advance email notification that the bill is available to view online and what the amount is. If something looks off, I click into the billing statement to figure out what it is and have time to address it before it gets paid.
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