Am I the only one who won't bill online?
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Am I the only one who won't bill online?
| Mon, 08-23-2004 - 11:45am |
I feel like I'm stuck in the 80's, but I am too scared to pay my bills online! We get our car loan taken straight out of DH's pay, same with life insurance. And I love that. But everything else I send a check or take it there myself (water bill.)
I hear it is such a time saver--but I feel like I would be out of control if I didn't sit down and write those checks and mail my bills. What if my computer crashed? How can I believe that they will actually pay those bills? and not take it twice? I'm so paranoid about my credit being ruined. Am I the only one who refuses to do this online thing, or am I just weird?
But I do love shopping online though! (Old Navy is my weakness)
Nicki

Only thing that stinks is using up like 30 stamps a month.
One of your concerns was a computer crash. I think it is more likely your payment will be late or not show up at all when you send it through the mail.
I don't use an online bill paying service, but rather, use the "pay on-line" service offered by most of the companies that I have accounts with. I have instant confirmation that my payment was accepted and there is always a reference number that I tag onto the memo part of my transaction in Microsoft Money. That way, if there was ever a problem with payment, they have a way to track it. But, I have NEVER had a problem with late or missing payments since I started paying bills online. I have also never had double payments taken out, except when it was my own fault and forgot that I had already paid something.
If you can shop on-line, then there is really no difference to paying your bills on-line. It is a huge timesaver and I don't float checks anymore, which is really unsafe.
You'll have to let us know if you try it. It would be interesting to see if you get the hang of it and start liking it.
Windy
I pay everything I can through direct withdrawals from my checking account - my DMP, DirecTV, electric company, phone companies, car loan, insurance of every kind, gym membership. I arranged it with each of them directly, and I get monthly statements from all but the gym membership (looks like a bill, but there's no envelope enclosed). I get paid once a month, so around the first of the month, I sit down with the checkbook, add in my monthly paycheck, and take out all the automatic withdrawals at once, even the ones that don't get taken out until the end of the month. That way I know just what I have to work with, because there isn't going to be any more money going in after the first of the month, so there is no point in even trying to float checks. Whatever's left after the regular bills, that's what I've got to spend on groceries, clothing, gas, oil, gifts, etc.
It is even easier than banking online with a 56K connection, plus the checkbook is RIGHT THERE. My DH writes most of the checks, so it's important that he can see what the balance is.
Kelly
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I had to laugh, cuz I too have a dial-up connection and banking online SUCKS. Especially when things time out and you have NO idea if it went thru or not an if you're now going to send TWO payments....or not.
One reason I stopped using a Bank Online type of thing was that it would take 5 days to process. 1. The mail is faster, 2. sometimes I can't pay a bill until 2 days prior, 3. They pull the money out the day the check is processed, instead of when the check is