How Many of You Pay Bills Online?

hearlady said:
Do you pay them yourself online or use automatic check withdrawal?
Have you ever had any trouble with someone getting into your account, etc.?
I'm starting to do this but still unsure. Always mailed checks.
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The reason that I never pay online is because it has to be done with a card, obviously. Therein is my reason for not purchasing or banking online. When you use a card, be it a credit, debit, loyalty or other card, your sales purchases and the rest can be profiled, and believe you me, it is.

Data profiling is a multi-billion dollar, largely unregulated industry where companies aggregate, analyse, and sell detailed, intimate profiles of individuals to third parties for targeted marketing, fraud detection, or risk assessment. This process often occurs without the explicit,, informed consent of the individual.

That is why I always pay in cash, simply because cash is anonymous.
 
I've been doing it for years without any problems. Do I worry about it? Sure, but then it's not the only way you can be taken by criminals. It's just one more way. And checks in the mail were hardly secure either. But it is wonderfully convenient to do it by automatic withdrawal. It still amazes me at how nice it is.
 
The ones that I'm able to pay online, I do manually each month (some are 3-month). Like you, I always did checks and didn't trust online, but I've been doing it for a couple of years now. There are some that do not allow online payments like the local taxes (school and real estate) so I write a check for those and some of the workers I've needed to pay were check only.

Truth be known, I still don't fully trust online payments, but so far so good. I've never had a check "get lost in the mail" in decades, so that's not a worry. There's no way I can see myself doing the automatic month by month where they get it directly out of my bank account... too much room for error I'd have to fix instead of seeing the error and having it resolved *before* I pay it.
 
horseless carriage said:
The reason that I never pay online is because it has to be done with a card, obviously. Therein is my reason for not purchasing or banking online. When you use a card, be it a credit, debit, loyalty or other card, your sales purchases and the rest can be profiled, and believe you me, it is.

Data profiling is a multi-billion dollar, largely unregulated industry where companies aggregate, analyse, and sell detailed, intimate profiles of individuals to third parties for targeted marketing, fraud detection, or risk assessment. This process often occurs without the explicit,, informed consent of the individual.

That is why I always pay in cash, simply because cash is anonymous.
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I agree but the Payment comes straight out of my checking account, no cards. Still cash is safer if they take it.
 
All, the few that remain the same cost are on direct withdrawal.
Others that fluctuate (utilities, CC) I pay online.
I only have my trash company who bills tri-monthly that is by their choice, not paperless, so they get a check.

I my bank is really fast on asking me if a charge was me that they see is not my usual or resembles a scam going around.
I have a table style Spread sheet saved on PC with names, dates due, when I paid info in a yearly format. And just
update that as I pay off bills each month. Mine also come out of the checking account # not my debit card #
 
JustDave said:
I've been doing it for years without any problems. Do I worry about it? Sure, but then it's not the only way you can be taken by criminals. It's just one more way. And checks in the mail were hardly secure either. But it is wonderfully convenient to do it by automatic withdrawal. It still amazes me at how nice it is.
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I'm drawing the line at automatic withdrawal. They'll need to work a little harder to get it if I work a little harder to get it there 😊
 
horseless carriage said:
The reason that I never pay online is because it has to be done with a card, obviously. Therein is my reason for not purchasing or banking online. When you use a card, be it a credit, debit, loyalty or other card, your sales purchases and the rest can be profiled, and believe you me, it is.

Data profiling is a multi-billion dollar, largely unregulated industry where companies aggregate, analyse, and sell detailed, intimate profiles of individuals to third parties for targeted marketing, fraud detection, or risk assessment. This process often occurs without the explicit,, informed consent of the individual.

That is why I always pay in cash, simply because cash is anonymous.
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Not it doesn't have to be paid using a card... Most peope just transfer payment straight from their bank to the account of the Business...

or in fact have a direct debt in place...
 
That Lady in PA said:
Not obviously at all.

I have no card (credit or debit) for he bank I use for paying bills.
It goes from my checking account right to them... usually electronically, sometimes via check.
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I do the same..so do most....no cheques tho' they've not been in common use for many years....

I have credit cards but unless I was poverty stricken I would never pay my bills with those... they come out of my account either by direct debit or standing order.. and some I pay from account to account online...
 
If I must allow a company to reach into my account and take the money out then I use a separate small account I have with a local credit union. The amount of money in it is not very much, just enough to cover small withdrawals that I have OK’d. If somebody wants to pay for their first class tickets to Fiji using that account they will be in for a very unpleasant surprise.

I use this account usually to get a discount for the payment(s) on autopay. It can add up.
 
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hollydolly said:
Not it doesn't have to be paid using a card... Most peope just transfer payment straight from their bank to the account of the Business...

or in fact have a direct debt in place...
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I agree. Something that bothered me was that DH had paid two bills from a credit card. That's not usual for him but anyway
I closed that credit card without realizing those payments came off that card.
Then on my bank statement I see two payments with PayPal added. Paypal?
I determined they weren't pfishing. They were legit.
Went into PayPal and realized since the card was closed they snatched those payments out of his PayPal account!
I will be closing PayPal after I'm sure I don't miss any other bills that need paying by a different method.
 
I use a bill payment service thru my bank for that standard bills etc . I set up the account # of bill with the bank not giving banking information to the companies.

I go in and make payments to utilities or such direct I chose date to pay etc
I am not fan of auto withdrawal from anyone. I have had too many friends had issues with fixing errors if any occur.
 
Automatic withdrawal. Paying online leaves the possibility of missing the deadline. If you were travelling at the time, ill, or just plain busy, it’s not worth the worry of a black mark because of missing a payment.

Whenever anything comes out of my account, a text message or email is sent.
 
Jules said:
Automatic withdrawal. Paying online leaves the possibility of missing the deadline. If you were travelling at the time, ill, or just plain busy, it’s not worth the worry of a black mark because of missing a payment.

Whenever anything comes out of my account, a text message or email is sent.
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My DIL is a financial manager. She does all her bills automatic withdrawal. She must think it's safe. I may do it at some point but I'm not there yet.
It would help when away. Another thing is I like to pay from my computer. I never do any of that on my phone.
 
Jules said:
Automatic withdrawal. Paying online leaves the possibility of missing the deadline. If you were travelling at the time, ill, or just plain busy, it’s not worth the worry of a black mark because of missing a payment.

Whenever anything comes out of my account, a text message or email is sent.
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For my most important accounts, the provider warns me that a payment of X amount is coming up, just to make sure I know I'm going to need money in the account. I think I get another warning a day or so before the withdrawal, and am again notified afterwards by both the provider and the bank.

Smaller accounts, like a streaming service or subscription to NYT, I'm never notified about anything until I see my monthly bank account email.
 
Most of my routine bills are set up to automatically be paid from my checking account or from my credit card and all of my income is set up for some sort of direct deposit or electronic transfer.

I’ve never experienced a problem and IMO it’s safer than sending a paper check in the mail. It also gives me some peace of mind knowing that my bills will get paid if I end up in the hospital or have some other unavoidable disruption in my life.

The two exceptions for me are my income tax and my monthly rent.

My landlord charges $5.00 or $6.00 dollars a month for the privilege of paying electronically so I continue to drop a check at his office and let him pay someone to scan it and make the deposit. Seems penny wise and pound foolish to me. 🤷‍♀️

With my income tax I send paper checks but that may be changing. This year my accountant requested a voided check so that in the event of a refund the government could make a direct deposit. It wouldn’t surprise me if they make a similar requirement to draft payments electronically at some point.
 
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