Can Anyone Tell Me About On-Line Bill Paying?

[BethR]

I am really interested in doing this, but can anyone tell me about it?
Are there usually fees for doing this?
Can you have the money taken from your bank account or do you charge paymenst to a credit card?
Anything bad about it that I should know?

Thanks in advance for any information!

 

[RhondaS]

Hi Beth

We use Bank of America. At this time, their online bill pay system is free for account holders.

It's extremely easy to use and the money is taken directly from our checking account.

It saves your payee information and you can set up payments to be made automatically or you can make them individually.

Between our debit card and now online bill pay, it is extremely rare for us to ever write a check anymore, and we are also saving on the cost of stamps.

 

[cinmell]

I use online bill payment for any of my bills that offer it. It is free and simple and I've never had any problems. I link the accounts to my checking account and I make the payments manually, I do not have the payments automatically withdrawn. I like online bill paying because it's quick, simple, there is no check writing and it eliminates trips to the post office or mailbox.

 

[FOJMO]

I do this ALL THE TIME! A lot of vendors offer online payments directly through their web sites.

For those who don't, or if you want to pay several bills on one simple web site, I use www.checkfree.com. There is no charge and you can list several vendors and make your payments as you want. One word of caution -- CheckFree usually has a 3-4 day lag, so you can't pay a bill that's due today, today. You can schedule them to be done on a certain date. You can also receive E-bills instead of paper ones, if you so choose, and if the vendor offers this.

I don't believe you can use a charge card -- it comes out of your checking account. You supply the info once and they store it.

I've never had any problems with any of my online payments and I LOVE IT!!!

 

[janette]

I pay almost everything online but don't do it with a third party. There are no costs for any of my payments. Tried checkfree a long time ago twice and both I had bad experiences, wouldn't do it again. My mortgage, water and a couple of installments are paid with an automatic payment with the bank. Credit cards, electric & telephone I pay online with that vendor. Almost all credit cards have an online pay option. There are a few others like toll payment & directv that I pay automatically with a credit card.

One thing that is nice is being able to know when they are going to get your payment, unlike mailing a check you can sometimes set the payment up for a specific date or if they are applied immediately you can time your payments much easier. This is very helpful for me with the credit card I use the most as I tend to pay it at the last minute because it adds up pretty fast but instead of having the money tied up for mailing / bank time I can pay it the day it is due online.

 

[BethR]

Thanks Everyone!

It is sounding very good!
I am in the process of registering my credit cards right now. Can you do with utilities as well?

 

[RhondaS]

I pay our utilities and everything else this way.

 

[janette]

If you use a 3rd party like a bank or checkfree you can usually pay all bills. Our utility company just recently added on-line payment so it would depend on the company whether you can do it with them directly.

 

[Robinrs]

I just finished doing my 15th of the month mega bill paying! I do all my one bill online, and that's only because they don't offer it!

I love the convenience, the instant printable receipt, it's so much more precise than snail mail. I had a monstrous nightmare with a bill going by the USPS and not getting there and my insurance was cancelled! I vowed never again!

I understand the Post Office is losing millions because of online bill paying but I can't feel sorry for them. My sister works in a town where most of the residents are elderly so she's still very busy!

 

[BethR]

Originally posted by Robinrs
I just finished doing my 15th of the month mega bill paying!

That's what I was doing YESTERDAY, Robin and what led to my question. I am not sure if my bank offers on-line bill paying - I am sure that they probably do and I would bet that there is a fee for that. I use the most basic (and cheapest) banking services that there are. I would probably be more inclined to pay at each company's website. I have already registered at some of my credit card's sites and now I will have to take a look at my utilities. I will also check out our mortgage holder's. But they are a local bank and I would be willing to believe that they do not do this.
So Robin, you DO print out a receipt everytime that you make a payment? I guess that is the safest route to take. I just was unsure if it was absolutely necessary.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts so far.

 

[Robinrs]

Yes, I print the receipt or record the confirmation number, VERY important because one of my bill payments went to someone else's account once... ... but when the number was checked they fixed it!

Human error, computer error, nothing's perfect so CYA!! !

 

[WebmasterAlex]

I do it through my bank.. have been doing it for years now and it is WONDERFUL!!! They charge like 3.00 a month but I don't have to buy checks, stamps or envelopes. As Robin pointed out if you have a problem it makes life far simpler. The few times there have been questions about missing payments the bank has called the vendor directly. Let's face reality if I call and say "the check was mailed" they aren't going to really believe me. When the bank calls they believe.
Having it all on one site is wonderful, all I do is check the boxes for the bills I want to pay, hit a next button, a screen comes with an amount box for each one that I checked, I hit next and I am done, I can pay 10 bills in 2 minutes. I can also move money around from my checking, saving, reserve credit of home equity line all at the same place!

 

[BethR]

OK Alex, I will check to see how much it costs through my bank. And it sounds as if you can pay most any bill - mortgage, utilities, credit - through the bank?

 

[WebmasterAlex]

absolutely ANYTHING with the one exception being federal taxes, they won't accept it.
When you put the info in for the payee if they have an electronic agreement with them they use that, if not THEY will mail a paper check, the charge stays the same.
I was thinking of an incident that happend once. I recieved my monthly credit card statement and they said they hadn't recieved my last payment and there was a late fee. I called MY bank, explained what happend.
20 minutes later I recieved a call from the credit card company saying it was their fault, sorry the late fee was gone. I never even had to call the credit card company. Try that if you sent a paper check! It's also why I pay the little bit for the bank as opposed to checkfree. I think they have more credibility.

 

[janette]

I agree Alex, the problem I had before was with checkfree. My mortgage payment arrived late and checkfree basically told me too bad, it must have gotten lost in the mail. It took me 6 months to get it all worked out. I've considered that using a bank would probably be better but after such a bad experience I like doing it myself. I can go to each site and see payment history and know that everything is in my account It's not quite as obvious using a 3-party pay service. There are a few CC companies that are using checkfree but it's free when you are using it from a vendor site. Now I only have about 2 checks I have to mail a month.

I do my banking online and download transactions from my credit cards so I have very little to do

 

[BethR]

I just checked my bank - $5.00 for their on-line services. That includes 10 bills per month. I would bet that I have more than that. I will have to call them to see if you can pay more with an additional fee...

 

[WebmasterAlex]

OH that's a lot more than mine!!!!

 

[janette]

Beth, do you do online banking now? For just the banking it is usually free and you can download transactions into Quicken or Money. Most do charge fees for bill payment, you might just check how many of your bills you can pay directly and then decide if it's worth it.

 

[BethR]

$2 to do the Quicken thing - $5 if you want that and Bill paying too. At $5.00 - well it is a little more than 10 stamps.
I can access my account on-line, view my account and recent transactions and do transfers. But I cannot download anything. That is free.
Perhaps paying at each account's site IS my cheapest option right now!

 

[janette]

I'd probably have to pay the $2 to download, I really like being able to do that. Some credit cards will also download transactions and it is free from their site. Discover downloads current transactions and Citibank downloads statement data. I don't do much typing