do you autopay?

[rudeguy]

your bills that is. Most of my bills come directly out of my checking account. I suck at paying bills, I usually forget to pay them. Also my check is direct deposited in my account...havent been to the bank in a couple years. Anyone else as lazy as I am?

 

[fr]

Nah, I pay all my bills around the same time each month so I check each one off after I pay it. It also lets me sync my balances so I can better prepare for hot deals

 

[kranky]

I have direct deposit but I don't have any bills automatically withdrawn from my account. If you know you can't pay your bills on time, it's a good idea though.

A couple friends have everything in the world set up with autopay and at least once or twice a year they have some problem. My neighbor bounced checks last winter when his gas bill was mistakenly entered as $2000 instead of $200 but by the time he found out the money was already taken out. And a co-worker overdrew his account last month because he had his credit card set up to pay the full balance every month, and his wife bought a bunch of graduation gifts for different kids on the card which drove the balance up (he wasn't expecting it to be that high).

I just don't like the idea of money coming out of my account automatically. If they screw up MY gas bill and it says $2000, I can just decide to pay what it should have been, until it's corrected.

 

[mfbf]

whoa..i read that as "do you autopsy" at first

 

Yeah, I've realized in the past few years that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. I've had my stuff messed up my corporate drones more times than I'd like to relate.

For that reason, I only pay my bills with checks from my own grimy hands.

 

[Eli]

Nope.. I like to have full control over the payment of bills.

 

[FatJackSprat]

You're pretty much allowing someone to reach into your pocket and take the amount of cash he thinks you owe him. This probably isn't going to be a problem in most cases, but if they overcharge by mistake that cash is gone until you work things out.

A few years ago my wife and I bought a futon for $400 by using a check card. The store charged us twice by mistake and were immediately willing to work things out, but in the mean time that cash was gone. If we had earmarked that cash for other obligations we would have been sol.

 

[TheCorm]

Autopay is called Direct Debit over here in the UK and almost everyone uses them for most bills over here.

You can cancel at anytime, so you have full control....much easier than remembering to post off a cheque or go into town and pay something in etc.

Jamie

 

[BurnItDwn]

I have some bills on autopay ... (Cable modem, Car insurance, Car payment) .... I am a really big procrastinator ... and by autopaying .. This ensures I make the payments on time.

 

[bunker]

Just my mortgage.

Everything else I make payments through the bill pay service of my bank. I say when the payments are made and how much.

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: Eli
Nope.. I like to have full control over the payment of bills.

 

[erub]

I have my internet and cell phone autocharged to my credit card, i go over that with a fine tooth comb each month to make sure its correct before i pay online on the website..neither company that I have my credit cards thru (AMEX or MBNA) has the option to autopay the balance AFAIK, but I wouldn't want to anyway..

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

Absolutely. Low effort required, no additional paperwork hitting the landfills.

I did, however, create a separate account to hold the funds for the various debits, though, and I manually (electronically) transfer funds into it on a periodic basis.

 

[RossMAN]

I usually refer to autopay as ACH (automatic clearing house) where your payments for loans, credit cards, utilities, etc. are automatically debited from your bank's checking account every month.

Usually on mortgage and car loans you receive a discount of 0.25% for having ACH payments setup. So on the same day every month your bank's checking account is automatically debited for your payment and your loan is always paid on time, this is assuming of course you have sufficient funds in your checking account.

I do not do ACH because I like to have total control over my bills and unfortunately live "paycheck to paycheck"

Plus if I have a gas, electric, telephone, cell phone, or loan payment ... I usually go to their website, login and pay with a credit card. This way all my charges are itemized at the end of the month in one statement. Thanks to the "grace" period, I get an extra 25 days to payoff those bills. Best of all I earn Alaska Airlines credit card miles for paying my bills online using my cc. The bad thing is I can't always remember when and what is due, yes I could use Outlook or another PIM but I'm just too frickin' lazy.

 

[Maverick]

I have bill pay set up to take money straight out of the checking account, but I don't use the autopay feature. As soon as I get a bill I just go to the computer, enter it in, and let it go. Beats writing checks and mailing them.

 

[Kelemvor]

My bills that are always about the same (phone, electricity, insurance, etc) automatically come out of my checking account. Other bills like Credit Cards I pay myself. I still pay them online, just not automatically until I can view them first.

 

[Toasthead]

autopay is the bomb!!

 

[SCSIfreek]

Originally posted by: RossMAN
I usually refer to autopay as ACH (automatic clearing house) where your payments for loans, credit cards, utilities, etc. are automatically debited from your bank's checking account every month.

Usually on mortgage and car loans you receive a discount of 0.25% for having ACH payments setup. So on the same day every month your bank's checking account is automatically debited for your payment and your loan is always paid on time, this is assuming of course you have sufficient funds in your checking account.

I do not do ACH because I like to have total control over my bills and unfortunately live "paycheck to paycheck"

Plus if I have a gas, electric, telephone, cell phone, or loan payment ... I usually go to their website, login and pay with a credit card. This way all my charges are itemized at the end of the month in one statement. Thanks to the "grace" period, I get an extra 25 days to payoff those bills. Best of all I earn Alaska Airlines credit card miles for paying my bills online using my cc. The bad thing is I can't always remember when and what is due, yes I could use Outlook or another PIM but I'm just too frickin' lazy.

Isn't there a option of having a email send to you every month when the statements are ready for your viewing? That is how I remember to pay my bills. unfortunately, I'm a little tight on cash this month.

Here is the break down:

$1500 credit card #1
$880 credit card #2
$1500 Rent
$200 Utilities
$500 for Parents
$500 for Sister's New Washer for her new house
$1000 Car payments
--------------------------------
$6080 <------------------:Q Dammit i'm piss poor now

 

[ggavinmoss]

Originally posted by: mfbf
whoa..i read that as "do you autopsy" at first

Glad to hear I'm not the only one.

-geoff

 

[Electric Amish]

No. There's too much chance that there won't be any money in the account. Sometime I need to be "creative".

amish

 

[rh71]

The only thing that gets autopaid is my car insurance.

Everything else has to be manually done by me online (I like that sense of security of doing it myself). I have everything reminding me from my Yahoo Calendar.

The only thing I cannot do online as of yet is my cable bill (damn their web-technology ineptness)

 

[ggavinmoss]

I autopay my car payment and my water bill. Most others are online. Rent, cable, and student loans are by check.

-geoff