Paying bills online vs. snail mail

[texastami]

With the postal rate increase, are more paying bills online or still sending snail mail???? Or do most do this anyway, and I am just getting up to speed???

I have checks... I just never write any... (one a month for the rent)

Everything else is purchased with the debit card and bills are ALL paid online (I also have opted for online delivery of ALL my bills) I have opted for online banking and statements as well..... much easier since we don't have an outgoing mailbox at our complex and the closest one is about 7 blocks away!! Post office is about 6 miles....


No one charges a fee for paying online so I figure I save about 50 cents each time I don't mail a check and envelope and stamp!!

[freeinalaska]

I haven't mailed a bill payment in years. Those I don't pay online are payed over the phone with a check card. I suspect that the USPS increases are partly due to online bill paying and communicating via email instead of letter.

[HeavenHelpMe]

We do the same as you. Only checks I write are the offering at church each week. All of our bills are paid online and it works quite well for us. We have lived like this for about 2 years now and our finances are better as a result. Everything is tracked and logged immediately. No guess work, no mistakes, no late fees, no postage.

[morrowsmowers]

ING Direct now has an all electronic checking account -- you do all transactions by computer and if for some reason you need a paper check you can put in a request for one to be sent out -- you have no checkbook. I find we do more electronically with our regular checking account but still write a few checks -- mortgage is paid automatically, gas bill is paid online, cable/internet/phone is paid automatically, but we still write checks for water/sewer and electric. Our bank offers free bill pay be I've been too lazy to get it set up. You do need to keep good records with doing things either online or automatically or you will end up with an overdraft.

Ken in Glassboro, NJ

[Snakeoil]

I pay everything I can by email.

[texastami]

Originally Posted by HeavenHelpMe

We do the same as you. Only checks I write are the offering at church each week. All of our bills are paid online and it works quite well for us. We have lived like this for about 2 years now and our finances are better as a result. Everything is tracked and logged immediately. No guess work, no mistakes, no late fees, no postage.

The "no mistakes, no guess work, no late fees" is why I like the online plan so much better.. I am hoping that our finances will show some improvement as well!!

We've only been setup for 2 months doing this... but I already like the process (painless)... and the progress!! Can't wait to see how I am doing in 6 months!!

Edited to add: I don't do the AUTO PAY option on ANYTHING... I keep a very tight budget in excel and know exactly what gets paid when/based on paydays..... and then I do "one time payments" to make the monthly payments... trouble is usually severe and costly when you have things AUTO PAID and something happens to your income or something comes up unexpectedly....

[Callieslamb]

We do on-line banking. It is great. No more entering checks into Quicken. And DH knows what I have spent almost before I get home. I don't have to keep track of my debits because he looks at our finances every day or every other day. We love it!

I haven't written a check in weeks!

[fellini123]

I have just gotten signed up for on-line banking. I love being able to check the checking account any time I want. But I havent gotten brave enough to actually pay a bill on line.
Actually my car payment does charge 8.00 to pay on line.
ALice in Virginia

[HeavenHelpMe]

Edited to add: I don't do the AUTO PAY option on ANYTHING... I keep a very tight budget in excel and know exactly what gets paid when/based on paydays..... and then I do "one time payments" to make the monthly payments... trouble is usually severe and costly when you have things AUTO PAID and something happens to your income or something comes up unexpectedly....

AUTOPAY is eeeeeviiillllllllll.... it seems to ALWAYS come out at the wrong time. We use a billpay system offered from our bank, and we "choose" when the payments are made. But, we just make sure we keep track of what is due when and pay accordingly.

We use Microsoft Money to keep our bank ledger, and our bank data downloads automatically into Money. We keep track of it constantly, and that way we can make sure there are no "problems". We used to be horrible at managing money, because we wrote checks and our account was rarely what we figured it to be. So, we were slammed with overdrafts constantly and never had money in the bank. We tried on our own, and did our best to make it work, but it was just a skill we couldn't manage correctly--much to our detriment. This is one of the few ways technology really has improved our lives.

[Spinner]

All my monthly bill are paid automatically by my bank. I don't trust online accounts b/c I hear so many sites being hacked. My bank gives me the option of setting it up so they send a check for me. It works for me.

[texastami]

Originally Posted by HeavenHelpMe

AUTOPAY is eeeeeviiillllllllll.... it seems to ALWAYS come out at the wrong time. We used to be horrible at managing money, because we wrote checks and our account was rarely what we figured it to be. So, we were slammed with overdrafts constantly and never had money in the bank. We tried on our own, and did our best to make it work, but it was just a skill we couldn't manage correctly--much to our detriment. This is one of the few ways technology really has improved our lives.

BTDT years and years ago (xdh was the problem - always taking $$ out and never telling me) so I swore off banks about 8 years ago.... haven't had an account and paid all bills with money orders for all these years.... taught me some very valuable lessons and now I feel I am much more diligent in keeping the "books".... (reason I quit using money orders was we had some stolen from the outgoing mail box and what a PITA to try to get them cancelled and get my money back... and then pay the bills) UGH! Online is clean and very organized -

I have quicken but it makes my computer slower than snot... so I just keep my own ledger and budget on excel.... easy to use and easy to see! (In fact, I hate the thought of ever changing - used it for the last 8 years and can't fathom having to try something else!!)

[tiffnzacsmom]

I pay most of my bills on line too, life insurance, car insurance, cell phone and electric. Can't pay my gas that way because my ex was the one who couldn't balance a check book to save his life and screwed up our account 7 ways to Sunday. So that, cable (phone/net)water are the only monthly bills I pay myself and the water bill I pay in person. It helps me because I am horrible about remembering to put mail out, I've been known to leave bills on a the desk and forget them for weeks so it means no more late fees for me.

[Wildwood Flower]

I have auto-pay for every bill (except one). Now we have purchased a vacation home in our hometown, and I am trying to figure out how to do the same with the bills there.

The only way is to get a bank account that automatically sends them. I would NEVER GO BACK TO SNAIL MAIL for bill paying--too easy to forget.

By the way, with auto-pay, all of mine actually send a bill in advance, so you always know how much it's going to be.

I also made a budget (10 years in advance--no kidding) on Excel. In 2 years we have no credit debt (from $16,000 under), we have savings in the bank, and we were able to put a down payment on ANOTHER little house (and pay the payments).

My husband declared: "Well I'll be darn, I never had a blankety-blank thing until I married you!" Now there's a compliment!

By the way, we actually have LESS income than when I started doing this.

[fordy]

.....................I still make most payments by check . I do monitor my banking bal's several times a day . I still write checks at W.Mt. and I get my check back from them so I am able to track what I spend . I will Never allow any Auto drafts on any account and I removed the overdraft situation where If I were to be overdrawn on my checking the imbalance will automatically be transferred from my savings . I use a debit card occaisionally but a thief can only withdraw what is in my chking , and never access my savings .
......................If people would only take time too realize that your "Bank" balance is ALWAYS going to be MORE than your "Check book" balance because of the timing factor keeping track of your money would be relatively easy ! , fordy...

[via media]

I travel a lot, so I started paying bills online a few years ago because I didn't have any real choice.

Now I'm sold on it!

/VM

[belladulcinea]

I started paying my bills online a long time ago as I hate using the snail mail. I like that I can just click and pay everything but the water bill. Since I use the direct sites it doesn't cost anything for the utilities but my stupid mortgage payment costs 10.00, which I think it should be 10.00 for mailing it in. Nobody has to open the envelope and record it! I don't like automatic payments either as I want to be able to control that myself.

[Wags]

I've been doing on-line banking for a few years now. The mortgage comes out automatically, but it is something I set up on my end. So I can change it or stop it anytime I choose without any hassle.

As soon as a bill arrives I set up for it to be paid with the scheduled arrival date being the day before the due date. Took me 13 months to get through one pad of checks. On the rare occasion I do write a check, I can access a photo of the front/back online once it clears.

Another nice feature is being able to sort and pull up all payments made to a particular payee such as the hospital. Very handy at tax time!

[BaronsMom]

Pay nearly all my bills on-line.

My mortgage/insurance is the only payment I have automatically done each month - it never changes.

I do schedule six-month increments for a government student loan for my kids.

Otherwise, I go in at the beginning of the month and schedule all the payments for that month.

So much easier - haven't had any problems.

[OldNavyGoat]

Almost every bill is autopay. It's wonderful. I have to travel quite a bit, so having the bills taken care of automatically eliminates the concern of having may mail forwarded to me in a timely manner. The autopay debits are at the same time each month, and you can set them up to be done when you want them.

[happycat]

I've used online banking for about six or seven years and I have only had 2 problems; both times the bank determined it was their error and all was fine (yes, I've had credit reports done after the errors and no blemishes at all).

I only have auto pay for our newspaper subscription $9 a month. Everything else I set up when I have the money sitting in my account.

Still write several checks each month though, for horse boarding, gas at the local station which is family owned, not a big chain; ds & dh haircuts, school events, and a couple smaller stores around town.