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General discussion

See you later snail mail, hello online bill paying! Advice needed.

Dec 9, 2011 7:42AM PST
Question:

See you later snail mail, hello online bill paying! Advice needed.


Hello, I confess that as far as paying bills, I'm stuck in the 20th
century; I still write checks and snail mail. However, with the news
that the United States Postal Service will no longer process mail
as quickly, I think it's time to manage my bills online. Can you
recommend a program that will coordinate my bills for me so I can
handle my payments through one program rather than individually with
each vendor? Also, what risks do I face from identity theft once my
information is entered on the Web and how can I minimize such risks?
Any tips or suggestions are appreciated. Thanks for all you do. Happy
Holidays!

- Submitted by Cynthia S.

If you have any advice or suggestions for Cynthia, please click the "Reply" link below and submit away. Please be as detailed as possible when providing your advice.

Discussion is locked

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Use bill payer -better than writing checks.
Dec 9, 2011 10:34AM PST

I'm in my 70's and use Bill Payer at a Credit Union and a Federal Savings Bank. It is much easier and faster than writing checks and you have an online record at the bank when bills are paid. My big problem is I write checks so seldom I file them up because I write so few.

Also I don't have to worry about checks being taken from my mailbox and I save on postage,

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Continue to receive bills by mail or email and pay online
Dec 9, 2011 10:36AM PST

I would caution against automatic withdrawals from your bank by vendors unless you also get a bill, either by mail or email. That will also serve as a record with the tax authorities if necessary, so save the pdf attachment or email as required in a folder on your computer.

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paying bills on-line
Dec 9, 2011 10:52AM PST

I pay as many bills on-line as possible, and as many as possible with my credit card.
This way I get my credit card rewards, and I have an extra month before the payments come out of my chequing account.
I have my credit cards set up for automatic payment, so that I don't have to pay interest on a balance.
Almost every recurring bill can be be set up for this, so you have to do this only once!
It is often possible to do this on-line, on the merchant's website.
Some companies are not set up for this, so I pay those bills directly from my chequing account, as they come in,
and set the date according to the invoice's payment-due-date.This way I don't need a reminder.
Many companies offer incentives for automatic payments and paper-less billing.

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online bill-paying
Dec 9, 2011 10:59AM PST

I have used MyCheckfree.com for several years. It does not include all of your bills, but many of them are there, such as our electric company, gas company, phone company (yeah, we still have landline!), some cell phone companies but not others, as well as some department stores. It's a great place to start, you just search for your companies, then enter your account number from your bill, then enter your checking account information. It will take care of at least half of your bills. You get a reminder email when a new bill has arrived. When you log on you'll see all of your bills; each one will say whether or not it's waiting to be paid. You can determine what date you want the bill to be paid on, so you can log on once a week and set up payment for whichever ones need to be paid. You'll save money on postage, plus when you feel comfortable you can individually tell each account that you no longer need to get a paper bill, so you'll help save a few trees!
I have just started using a website called Mint.com for my other bills but the setup is taking some time, plus I don't know much about this site so I'm hoping it's secure! I'll wait and see what others say about this one. But definitely MyCheckfree is a great place to start!

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Snail mail - online bill pay
Dec 9, 2011 10:59AM PST

CYNTHIA: I have noted that many responders are suggesting using your own banks bill-pay feature. I also think it is a good idea as you yourself control how much goes out, to whom, and when!! I never authorize any business or entity to automatically debit my account. The only thing I would like to add is as regards SNAIL MAIL. I never specifically had any problems with the postal service and perhaps the 'snail mail' terminology is the product of someone in one hell of a hurry constantly. Most of us have surely survived many years with it. Let us not forget one of the primary reasons why our postal service is in trouble - fewer people sending out less mail!!!!! And then some of us complain about not getting mail six days a week. If six day a week mail goes away we have only ourselves to blame. So, to insure the death of the postal service lets all continue heavy e-mailing and online bill paying.

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It's been a long time since I've needed a buggy whip, too?
Dec 10, 2011 1:52AM PST

I doubt the USPS will go away, but five day service and longer delivery times are something we can live with without a big problem. The changes in the USPS will be just like other changes in our societal norms. My car takes me where I want to go in quiet, air-conditioned comfort. No buggy whip, and no horse-droppings in the street, either!

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Death of the Post Office, reply to aBoppa
Dec 10, 2011 4:05AM PST

aBoppa. If the Post Office was run like a business, instead of a hobby, they would do OK. Think UPS o FedEx is worried??

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The USPS problem is congress.
Dec 16, 2011 1:19PM PST

If the congress would stop requiring that the USPS pay into the special retirement fund it setup to kill it. The USPS would be on the road to profitability.

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SOLUTION TO PROBLEM
Dec 9, 2011 11:02AM PST

Hello I'm a senior citizen, and I've used on line bill payment for a long time. I solved my similar problems by banking with a bank that has free checking and on-line bill pay. Sometimes smaller banks offer this service, you should check around, it solved my problems, my bank pays all my bills and it limits the amount of places with your information. Good Luck fred436

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Hello on-line bill pay.
Dec 9, 2011 11:04AM PST

Make it easy on yourself. Use your bank to pay all your bills. Everything will be assembeled in one place and payments can be scheduled as needed; even from a smart phone in many cases.
Security will be managed by the bank and hopefully there won't be any issues.
One heads-up! An early bank I used allowed scheduling of payments on-line but then the bank actually mailed the check. I dropped them quick.

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Online Bill Paying Service
Dec 9, 2011 11:15AM PST

Hello Cynthia,

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Use your bank's online bill pay
Dec 9, 2011 11:21AM PST

I started using my bank's on-line bill paying several months ago after the post office lost a couple of my payments. I was very nervous at first but it works great. The transactions are secure, nobody but you has access to your account. You can put in your payments at any time and select the date when you want the bills paid. I don't know about other banks but mine (UMB) lets you create a list of payees. You go to your payee list and select a payee, amount and due date. They suggest a processing date that you can accept or select another one. Enter the transaction and it gives a reference number. I jot the number and processing date on the bill and that is it.

I would never give the payees access to my bank account. First, I don't trust them. As one reply stated some of them are semi-fraudulent at the best. Next you never know what kind of security they have - if any. And if you ever have any disputes, you are still in control. They can't just make a withdrawal of what they think you should pay. And it would make it easier to manage if you were unfortunate enough to get in a situation where you can't afford to pay all your bill in full and on time.

I also keep my account on Quicken. It is not necessary for bill paying but it is useful for tracking deductions at tax time among other things.

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Pay all my bills on the internet...
Dec 9, 2011 11:43AM PST

I use my bank's "Bill Pay" functionality for this. It is really quite flexible and functional. When you pay a bill, it tells you about when the payment will be delivered. There's one section where you list all the companies (and people) whose bills that you pay, your account number, their address, etc. There's another section where you can list the status of all your recent payments, whether and when they were delivered and so on. You can make the payments automatic, or just make them yourself when the time is right. Personally, I make all my payments manually, because that's the way that I like to do it *smile*. This also reminds me of all the bills that I'm paying, so I don't get over my head in bills to pay.

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Paying online.
Dec 16, 2011 10:08AM PST

I too have been paying at my bank's site online for several years.
I think it is more secure than sending checks via snail mail.
I made a mistake and somehow entered one of my payments to be sent electronically on 9/14/2012 instead of 9/14/2011, but I am now more careful.

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Use Bill Pay selectively
Dec 22, 2011 1:08PM PST

Whoops. There's an issue that I hope that you won't incur in bill paying. With a little selectivity, it can be avoided.

There are two types of transactions that bill paying systems process. One is direct pay, and the other is indirect pay.

In a direct pay, payees enter into agreements with your financial institution to alllow the transfer of funds directly from your account to the payee's account. When you search for your payee in their list of payees, you will find out if this is a direct pay. Your financial institution has the payee's account number behind the scenes.

In an indirect pay, also called a deferred pay, the payee has not entered into an agreement with your financial institution. When you search for your payee, you will find out that this is not a direct payee. Your financial institution does not have the payee's account number. When you pay these bills, a check is printed with your name and the payee's account number and sent via snail mail. You are normally forewarned to allow five or more working days for receipt and posting of these transactions (current postal schedules). Now here's where the problems start with indirect pays.

By example, I will relate an incident that happened to me. I had my car repaired at at local shop. The shop later called me to say that the bill was short $15.00, so I said that I would use bill pay for that amount.

The shop wasn't in the direct pay list, so I set up an indirect bill pay with their address, and paid them right then. A month later, I received a phone call from the shop that the $15.00 never arrived. So, I checked my bill pay, and the bill had been paid the bill on the same day as my phone conversation with them. I called up my financial instiitution. They told me that, per my agreement with them, as soon as the bill paying system marks the bill paid, they are no longer responsible, even if the check hasn't left the building yet. My options, I was told, were (1) place a stop order on the check and pay them their normal fee (~$30.00), or (2) wait until the check goes stale (several months).

My options were then (1) to pay again on bill pay, (2) to snail mail a check, (3) to drive a check to the auto repair shop, or (4) to let the bill pay check float out there somewhere. Paying again via bill pay would only complicate the issue. So, I drove a check there, and left the outstanding check float open in my Quicken for several months.

Read your financial terms. I think you will find that they will abrogate any responsibility once you click, "Pay". Stop orders are a money maker for them. If this was a large check, such as a mortgage payment, I would have had to eat the $30.00, or leave a large balance to cover the duplicate floating check with an ensuing recovery hassle.

Personally, after this very bad experience with financial institution terms, I have completely stopped using bill pay. I only use auto transfer, credit card or PayPal. If I were to use bill pay, I would only use direct payees - no exceptions.

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GoodBye Snail Mail!!
Dec 9, 2011 12:10PM PST

I found myself in the same position almost 2 years ago. Since then, rather than having to buy a fresh book of USPS stamps (which keep getting more expensive) every other month or so, I think I may have bought a total of 2 books (in 2 years). And I've been getting my bills paid on time much more frequently ('cause it's so easy) and coincidentally have been watching my credit rating go UP! (Simply because the rating agencies think it's great when you're NOT late with your routine payments). I set up "eBill Payments" through the bank where I have my checking and savings accounts. I believe there are a few good reasons to do this. 1. The online security through the bank is protecting my bank accounts, and my identity, and my bill payment records, with much better security than I could afford to maintain. 2. I now do all my banking without getting out of my jammies; because my monthly income arrives at the bank in secure fashion with Automatic Deposit, I don't have to worry about my mailbox being rifled, or getting to the bank to make my deposits, and stand on line, and all my accounts are tied together. I can transfer cash to savings, pay my bills, and count what's left over (not too much), all from my recliner! So, check with your local bank (or any other that you trust), and set up your finances without having to buy or maintain or re-license any software, (with the people who look upon you as a customer!) and enjoy your entry into the 21st century! (By the way, I don't use Direct Debit for automatic withdrawls to pay bills becuase I want to be the only person responsible for taking money out of my account. And the monthly activity allows me to avoid getting lazy, and provides me with the incentive to keep an eye on my affairs) Good Luck!!

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Go Online Through Your Banks Website
Dec 9, 2011 12:28PM PST

Hi Cynthia,

Glad to hear that you are considering using on-line bill pay. I've used it for 20 years and have nothing negative to say about the process. There are always risks associated with anything you perform on-line but with the right security for your computer (i.e. secure network, firewall, anti-virus/anti-malware programs) and practice of safe computing habits you shouldn't worry.

There are four options for on-line bill pay:

1. Direct payment through the payees website (you control payment amount and time of payment)
2. Direct debit via your bank account - (payee controls fixed payment amount and time of payment)
3. Personal Bank - Online bill pay through its website (you control payment amount and time of payment)
4. Third Party program - Quciken, Paytrust, Peachtree (you control payment amount and time of payment) *

* The following links provide information on the Third party programs:
http://quicken.intuit.com/
http://paytrust.intuit.com/
http://www.peachtree.com/productsservices/peachtreeaddons/onlineBillPay
http://www.consumersearch.com/online-bill-paying (provides a rating analysis of the aforementioned programs)

As you already know option 1 requires the management of multiple websites. Option 2 requires no maintenance other than the one time setup for the automatic debit (payment). Option 4 requires the purchase of a software program and possibly a monthly fee for administration...not to mention the associated learning curve to master the software to your satisfaction. Since I skipped Option 3 you've probably surmised that it's my personal choice.

Personal Bank - Here's a short list of benefits offered (they may vary by banking institution)

01. Secure login to bill pay site
02. Every account is listed in one place (by name and/or nickname)
03. Use the same payee information as listed on the monthly invoice to setup the account (i.e. account number, mailing address)
04. Accounts can be a business or a person with street level or P.O. Box address
05. Payment amounts are entered manually (a recurring amount can be set but must be paid on same date each month)
06. Delivery dates are set automatically or manually (a recurring date can be set for same amount each month)
07. Last payment amount and date visible below each account
08.Twenty-four Month payment history available for each account
09. You can setup an account for a payment that only occurs once a year (i.e AAA, Insurance premium etc.)
10. Bank may offer elimination of paper invoice for some accounts (i.e. gas, electric, credit cards)

Another advantage for on-line bill pay is that you can access it from any computer. However, I would exercise caution and not use public computers nor a laptop on an unsecured network (wired or WiFi). That's all I have and I believe the majority of the advice you receive in this forum will be pro-online using your banks bill pay system.

Happy Holidays!

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Direct debit
Dec 9, 2011 6:04PM PST

Your description of DD is wrong. Others have already, and correctly, raised concerns about DD.

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Hi Richteral...haven't heard from you in a while...
Dec 9, 2011 11:14PM PST

Regarding Direct Debit (DD). When I investigated it many years ago I was advised to only use it with a fixed amount unless the payment decreased over time (and even that was not the best scenario). If one uses DD for a credit card, utility bill or anything that is not constant the payer may have trouble balancing their account. Therefore....my comment that the payee controls most of what occurs in that scenario after the initial setup. I'd be interested to read your descripton.

Also, I did not advocate using DD (as your second comment seems to indicate). Tduffy1770 IMO had already addressed DD (and cautions) so I saw no need to reiterate the same. Like it or not DD is a viable option (for some) and therefore deserves to be mentioned.

For the record I've probably missed some other options such as "mycheckfree.com" mentioned by davewest4. I didn't know the service it existed. But then that's the purpose of this forum...to fill in the gaps...because no one person can know everything.

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Quicken 2011 Is Not Reliable
Dec 16, 2011 2:37PM PST

Quicken was referenced in a comment above. My experience with Quicken 2011 is that the Quicken one- step downloading of transactions from my major bank to Quicken is unreliable. Quicken frequently stops downloading transactions or skips downloading some transactions. My bank has reported multiple customer problems to Quicken as have I and others. I pay most of my bills through my bank's free bill pay - None through Quicken. And pay a few with snail mail. The bank has been absolutely reliable and my bank account is always accurate. The problem is that Quicken doesn't reliably download the resulting bank transactions so that all my financial records from all sources can be consolidated in one place. Another problem is that the Quicken Help desk is in India not the U.S and they need to be contacted repeatedly so you have to deal with an on-going communication issue.

Use the free bill pay of your bank, but don't use Quicken.

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Quicken
Dec 17, 2011 12:28PM PST
I have said it in other posts here. Quicken wants to be in contro! Don't let it!!
It will want to store your user ID and password for each acount. User ID OK not password. At least I trust it with ID.
It will want to auto track/download all your acounts in real time mode. Do not let it. I go to my acounts individually and download.
I also do not buy the latest greatest newest Quicken. They have the program wired to advertise by telling you you need the newest year several times toward the end of the current year.
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Re:Go online through your banks website
Dec 16, 2011 10:52PM PST

A word of warning for paying bills through your banks website. I found out the hard way, by having to pay a late fee, that my bank (and probably others) do not make your payments that you submit through their site electronically. They actually physically cut a check and mail it to whomever you are paying, so you still have snail mail to contend with. This means that you will still have to submit you payment(s) early enough that it can arrive on time. I personally dumped the banks bill pay after that incident and reverted back to using each merchants individual bill paying site, as they use electronic transfer to retrieve their payment from your bank. The result is no late payments or fees, and the payment is made exactly on the date you schedule it to be made.

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Late payments with bill pay
Dec 17, 2011 12:39PM PST
It helps to watch what time span the bank displays before hitting the submit. The larger banks will eft most bills the smaller banks probbally do not electronically connect wih very many.
If you slip and are under the time slot for billpay to pay go to that customer and do a direct withdrawal. A one time only. If a local account like a doctor or some othr type that dose not charge interest or late fees, carry the check in or wait for the next bill or just bill pay it anyway.
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On-line bill pay
Jan 27, 2012 10:46AM PST

Your bank has every incentive to make sure your transactions are safe, secure, private and on-time. I have complete control of my transactions, and can always talk to someone if there are any problems. I wouldn't bank any other way. My wife, I admit, does most of the bill paying. We have separate accounts in separate banks. She has the accounting mentality. She loves to balance the check book, a task I detest. Therefore, she is very slow to switch over. I argue that I always know my balance in the my account. I don't have to worry about checks being cashed or not cashed because I have rarely written a check. I can always instantly check for any cash withdrawn from my accounts. I can look at the list of bills to be paid next month, check the balance available and within two weeks of a problem have it solved. I just wouldn't have it any other way.

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Online bills
Dec 9, 2011 12:36PM PST

I have used "mycheckfree.com" for several years with no problems. I do not use my banks online bill pay feature as they just write out checks and mail them same as I would do

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Perhaps some banks do
Dec 10, 2011 1:52AM PST

Perhaps some banks universally mail checks to payees but not all. Even if the bank does not do electronic money transfer with most major companies and institutions, at least they save you the cost of postage. A check mailed from the bank will arrive at its destination at the same time that your stamped mail would arrive if mailed from the same location. Most banks and credit unions offer electronic money transfer to all major retailers, credit card companies and other financial institutions, insurance companies, and many local utilities. In these cases, your payment is usually delivered "next day". If your bank only offers mail delivery and you want quicker delivery, search for a bank that offers electronic delivery to most payees.

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Most bills are paid electronically.
Dec 10, 2011 5:35AM PST

Most of my bills including all utilities are paid electronically.

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Your stamp or my stamp
Dec 10, 2011 1:54PM PST

I prefer to use the banks samp instead of mine.

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Depends on the effort you want to invest
Dec 9, 2011 12:41PM PST

Cynthia,
I have business and personal accounts in several banks. I am amazed at how widely they differ in making online bill paying the proper choice. Some are easy; some are just impossible. I've found a great bank with a great web presence, and use that for all of the household bills and many of the business bills. I think the way to go is to find a bank you can live with, and use their service.

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PAYING ELECTRONICALY
Dec 9, 2011 12:53PM PST

Hello cynthia.