Paying Bills Online

[xoxoxoBruce]

My brother is working in the town tax collectors office, logging and crediting tax payments. Most people wait until the last minute, or close to it, to pay their taxes, and sometimes don't make the deadline. There have been numerous people claiming they paid online, the money is gone from their checking account, but the tax office has not received it.

It turns out, if you go to the tax office website, and enter your bank information, the money is transfered right away... piece of cake.
But, if you go to the bank's website, and tell them to pay the bill, they mail a check. Worse than that, the bank relies on a third party to mail the check. These check-mailers provide the bank with this service for free, working on float. So the money is gone from your checking account right away, but the check may not be mailed for a week.

I know there is more than one or two banks doing this, but I don't know how widespread this is. You might question your bank as to how they work, if you have this problem. OK?

[regular.joe]

Thank you Bruce for the helpful tidbit. I am away from home a lot and rely heavily on online banking with USAA.

[Juniper]

I had this problem with a mortgage payment, multiple times.

Now I just write checks.

[BrianR]

I used to do nearly all my bill-paying online since I'm away from home a lot, usually can't mail a letter right away, am out of stamps and just plain scatterbrained. Now my wife has taken over.

But before that, my credit union generally got the bills paid on time. I simply figured out that lag time and then posted the payments a few days ahead to be sure the bills were paid when they should have been.

[skysidhe]

I like online bill pay but if I do it from the bank it takes too long and the money is in the pending que too long and I don't like that. I found this annoying but I didn't know that was what was happening so your post bruce explains that. Thanks

I always go straight to the service providers website I feel better knowing they know the payment is coming and it does seem to take less time.

The paying by card at the gas station is the worst. It always is a good several days to a week before the transaction is shown as paid.

Originally Posted by Juniper

I had this problem with a mortgage payment, multiple times.

Now I just write checks.

Sometimes,I like to go straight to the bank and ask them to cut a me cashiers check. The larger the check the better.

Sometimes it is nice to make a major down payment or rents and deposits that way. It gets the money out of your account quickly and efficiently and you don't have to wait days for the payment to be processed.


....and they better not even pretend to have my best interests at heart by reminding me I have bill pay either.


It's very empowering. Everyone should try it at least once.

[SteveDallas]

My bank will do a straight electronic transfer if it's possible. (I think "possible" has to do with whether the receiver is set up with the Automated Clearing House, but I'm not really sure.) Otherwise it mails a check. If you log in and look it's easy to see which are being paid by which method--obviously the check-mailing takes longer. However they suggest a 7-day lead time, and they have always met that.

[bbro]

Had a problem with this last year when my car payment was never made. Found out that is what my bank does if they don't have an e-bill agreement with the entity you are trying to pay. I bitched them out for never having anything anywhere that stated this. I now only pay one bill through my bank and that is the only one that I cannot pay through the entity's own website without a fee.

[Cloud]

My bank keeps sending me "pay your bills online" notices. I vote no, because I pay my bills online direct through the providers' website. That is, I pay my phone bill, my cable/internet and my car insurance online. I mail my electric bill check in, because they charge $2.50 for online payment. Cretins.

[Glinda]

Originally Posted by skysidhe

I always go straight to the service providers website I feel better knowing they know the payment is coming and it does seem to take less time.

I did this with my mortgage payment, with the same idea in mind. BIG mistake.

On the 4th of the month, I went to my mortgage lender's website and paid the mortgage online. A few days later the money was still in my bank account, so I tried calling the company to ask what the holdup was. Their phone queue put me in an endless loop.

A few days later, I tried again. Same result.

The "late payment" date came and went. Money is still in my account. Two days later, I receive a letter from the mortgage company claiming that my account is past due and late charges have been filed (how nice of them to wait till after the late payment date to let me know there was a problem - they had TWO FUCKING WEEKS to inform me before the late fees kicked in).

I try calling again, and eventually manage to speak to a real person, who tells me that the bank account number I entered was incorrect. I go back to the website and type in the first number of my bank account; the auto-complete feature kicks in and BOOM, there's my account number. My CORRECT account number.

I argue with the a-hole that the auto-complete function PROVES that I entered the correct account number, but they insist I entered the number wrong, and the only documentation I can offer is my computer (which I'm not about to send them). I end up having to pay the late fees, just to keep a black mark off my record. (As it turns out, the mortgage company was going bankrupt at the time, so I have no doubt that all this crap was just their way of squeezing a few more dollars out of me before they went belly up. FUCKERS.)

So now I ALWAYS use my bank's bill pay feature - at least that way I have all the documentation I need to prove when/if I paid a bill.

[Cloud]

But don't you get an email confirmation? I always do with mine, and that's my proof I paid if I ever need it.

[glatt]

Call me a luddite, but I've never put any of my bank account numbers onto a computer that's connected to the internet.

We've set up automatic billing with many various utilities and stuff, but it's all been with good old fashioned paper forms sent through the mail, and it's automatic each month. I'll only pay for stuff online with a credit card, because if a credit card number gets stolen, it's the credit card company's problem, not mine.

I'm probably being paranoid, but with worms and trojan horses and keystroke loggers and all that crap out there, I am very distrustful.

I'm even a little nervous when I check my 401K account on the web even though there is no way to withdraw money from it. You can only move money around from one fund to another.

One of my greatest fears is that one day I look at my account balances and they are zero because some jerk in Russia hacked their way into them.

[Cloud]

so? somebody could steal your mail from your mailbox, your card number from a restaurant, your pin from watching you at Target, or your checkbook from your purse/car etc. and get the numbers that way. Risk remains, life moves on.

[Glinda]

Originally Posted by Cloud

But don't you get an email confirmation? I always do with mine, and that's my proof I paid if I ever need it.

Well, sorta. They send a confirmation that you went to their website and authorized money to be taken from the account, but the confirmation does not include banking information.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Cloud

so? somebody could steal your mail from your mailbox, your card number from a restaurant, your pin from watching you at Target, or your checkbook from your purse/car etc. and get the numbers that way. Risk remains, life moves on.

So? So it's a lot of money that I have been saving up for decades. I put it in the bank to be safe. I'm not going to increase the risk of losing it for no good reason.

Have you ever had a computer with a virus problem? Chances are, you have. Which means you should know how easy it is to get an infected PC. If your PC gets infected with spyware that sends the dude in Russia your account information when you type it in, there goes your life savings.

[Cloud]

I don't think paying your bills online is going to significantly put your 401k at risk, but that's my opinion, and you are free to do your own risk assessment. We all take risks with our identity and information--that's pretty much a given unless you live off the grid which none of us do.