Automatic Bill Payment

We had used auto pay on some of our bills, such as Hulu, Prime, and our Phone/internet service. Now that I am on my own, and switched to my own credit card, I have put my cable/phone/internet bundle onto my credit card on Auto pay as well as Netflix which I have just started (cancelled Hulu.). My electric is on budget billing, so it is the same every month, and I just pay from checking as they do not allow credit card. Propane, which usually get filled 2-3 times per winter season I pay as it comes. Same with car and home owners insurance.
I have my auto pays on Discover which has cash back, which I can use when I buy from Amazon if I so choose. Once I pay off my existing, one time only expenses on Discover I plan to pay it off every month.
I am still in process of exactly figuring out my monthly budget and expenses.
 

PVC said:
Right now only my two health insurance bills are paid automatically each month. I should probably start planning on automating other stuff like you're doing. I do pay all my utilities online, either at their website or through bill pay at my credit union.

I read once about this family where someone came home and parked the car in the garage but forgot to turn off the engine. Months later the three individuals were found, two in the bed, and one on the couch with the TV on and they were all dead from carbon monoxide from the running car. Their bills were paid automatically. Strange, though, they were not missed by family or employers or friends? Like most articles, there was a lot of missing info. I think it happened in Florida, because right away I thought of the heat and the smell of decomposing bodies. It was a detached house, not an apartment.
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Indeed that's strange...that someone (relative, employer, etc.) didn't come to check. Months??

Years ago I heard about a former boss who was no show/no call. Wife was out of town. Couple people from his office went to check and found him dead in his garage (heart attack).
 
Now that I have been using the bill payment features in online banking I've started looking at some of the other options offered.

I'm curious if any of you turn your Debit/Credit cards on/off as needed or if you restrict the dollar amount of purchases, cash withdrawals, etc...

I can see some pros and cons to each approach.

Thanks!
 
Aunt Bea, I don't turn things on or off; I've actually never heard of doing that. On my credit cards, I have alerts set so that I am notified if a charge made on one of the exceeds a certain dollar amount, or if a cash withdrawal is attempted (because I don't ever withdraw cash from a credit card).

The cards I have are very good about notifying me of odd things happening on my account. Once on one of my cards somebody tried to charge a bunch of travel in Poland and the card notified me immediately to see if it was me; it wasn't, so the bank cancelled and card, refunded the charges to me, and sent me a new card with a new account number. Another time with another card, somebody stole a new card (issued because the old one was due to expire) from my mailbox and used it; again the bank did the same thing, cancelled the card, refunded the charges and issued a new card.

I haven't had any other problems. Why do you want to turn cards off?
 
When the water and electric companies send a paper bill you are given the option to sign up for automatic billing which I did. If I am in the hospital, electric is vital and water to some extent. Those are public utilities and I can not change providers. For the phone bill I mail a check. There I can change providers.
 
I have been an advocate of the Linux OS since the late 90's. Retired as UNIX/Linux Admin. Supported Win/Mac/UNIX_Linux during the last 15 years of my career. don't do or like Windows. Have focused on Linux since retirement. Found that most seniors disliked change so most are still using MS. One resident asked me to help with her new Chromebook from Best Buy. Discovered that it is basic hardware utilizing Google's Linux distro version. Everything is configured to sync with Google. Never did warm up to the fact that Google knew more about me than I did. Dumped Facebook for the same reason.

A Chromebook can be reconfigured as a Linux system with very little effort, I would call it a MintBook instead. What you end up with is a chopped down laptop, small HD, (I use Flash drives) minimal memory, (OK for my limited use). I only use a laptop for the same basic 5-7 things most users do. Email, social sites, web browsing/banking/bill paying, games, photos and documents. Don't run a business, use LibreOffice Calc for personal budget, LO Writer for document creation.

What I do use is encrypted email (ProtonMail), Firefox or Opera through a VPN & Ad blocking addons. Never respond to unknown email addresses, not even to unsubscribe (gives them a live address for further phishing). Flush 'junk' blindly, (they'll get ahold of me if it's important). My Android/Linux smartphone is also configured as tightly (secure) as I can make it. Watch all my accounts daily, no auto bill paying (too easy to forget). Control my credit cards for maximum advantage, carry a low, low or zero monthly balance, helps with the 'FAKO' scores.
 
Butterfly said:
Why do you want to turn cards off?
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I'm not sure that I want to it's just an option that I noticed.

It allows you to turn off the cards when not needed so that if someone takes them they have no value. When you turn them off they still allow preauthorized payments to be processed each month.

The other option is to set an amount of say $1.00 for cash transactions or $500.00 for purchases to limit any damage if the card is stolen.

I'm thinking about turning off the debit card because I only use it once a month to get some WAM out of the ATM. I can turn the card on/off once a month without much hassle, we'll see.

If you have a smartphone which I don't you can change the settings on the cards using the phone.
 
Maybe you need different cards. My banks all refund fraudulent charges if an unauthorized user tries to use them. Check with your banks and see what their policies on that sort of thing are.

I don't think there's really any wrong or right on this issue, but I would hate the on/off hassle.
 
I use electronic withdrawals for paying the power company, cable company, home and car insurance, and trash service. Has worked out for me and so far no one has misplaced a comma (knock on wood). Traditional checks for medical co-pays, professional services (attorney fees, car and home repairs), fuel oil deliveries. Cash for groceries, gas for car and unexpected expenses where a check isn't accepted. I do not have "plastic" - I've heard what credit and debit cards have done to people. Unfortunately, I cannot buy anything online, rent a car, or make a hotel reservation, but these needs are extremely rare in my life.
 
I've had electric, cable, landline phone and water setup for auto payments on a credit card. The credit card is also on auto pay. A few days before the credit card due date I check the bills to ensure there is no error and transfer money from one bank account to another. I usually keep only a few $ in the bank account where it links to the credit card. With this option I don't worry much about the credit card company accidentally taking too much money out of my bank account. I have been doing this for probably 20 yrs now.
 
fmdog44 said:
I seem to recall a company that pays 100% of all bills. I may be making that up. Ring a bell for anyone?
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If so, wouldn't they have a charge for doing that? Don't know if I would want a stranger delving into my finances anyhow.
 


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