Banking/bill paying online?

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2001
Banking/bill paying online?
4
Sat, 10-30-2004 - 7:06pm
I picked up a brochure at my bank regarding being able to check my accounts online and for $5/month, pay all my bills. No more check writing! No more stamps and runs to the post office! :P I could live with that, LOL! However, online security is my number one priority. I *do* shop online, but only on a couple of sites, well-established names, etc. Does anyone here pay their bills online? Do you like it? Why? Why not? Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Gypsy



Blessings,

Gypsy

)O(



iVillage Member
Registered: 07-27-2000
Sun, 10-31-2004 - 1:20pm
Like you I just got tired of the routine of sitting down with a pile of bills and a book of checks, plus since we've had a couple of "situations" with our mailbox being tampered with or ripped open with a baseball bat, we NEVER send any mail that way, so it's also a trip to the P.O. for each bill. For each bill I have, I get into THEIR web site and see what their options are for paying bills, most go thru a major bill payer like PayPal (there are others, just not popping into my head). Conveniences are if you confuse dates and are too close to a due date to avoid a late charge, it will go thru faster online (usually, but you should still send ahead to be certain). That hasn't happened in a long time, since I set it up so I get my statements online rather than paper statements and they send an e-mail when a bill is coming due soon, which also eliminates a risk of someone laying their hands on your credit card envelopes in your mailbox. It's also very fast to do it online and you can print out the e-mail they will send verifying the exact date and time your payment was received. Even when I receive an e-mail about when the next payment is due, I exit the e-mail and go to THEM to make the payment. You just have to decide if you have enough faith in the system to set this up, if not, just don't do it. Nothing is 100% secure.

FYI, what convinced me to finally stop using the mail to pay bills is my best friend wrote to me once, saying she was really surprised at the content of a letter I'd sent her. I had no idea what she was talking about, but she told me somebody had taken one of my letters to her I had put in our mailbox and added a bunch of pornographic stuff to it, put it into another envelope and sent it on its way. She knew the additional stuff wasn't my handwriting, although whoever did it tried awfully hard to make it look like mine! I really hadn't given it that much thought, but that just showed me how simple it really is for somebody to tamper with your mail. She and I wrote letters about twice a week, somebody must have gotten curious why two chicks would be writing that often! (So we've always secretly suspected a post office employee!) We never use our mailbox now for outgoing mail.

 


~~joannaran~~

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-01-2003
Sun, 10-31-2004 - 1:32pm
I do just about all of my banking online and it is so easy. At my bank it is totally free so that is a great deal. When I get the bill I just go right to my website and click on bill pay, check a box of when I want it to be paid and it's done. No worries, no hassles, no forgetting anything. I have not had one security problem with it so far and it's almost been a year. It is really great. I highly recommend it.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2001
Sun, 10-31-2004 - 2:18pm
Thanks for the info! :D I never put mail out with checks in it (and very seldom *any* outgoing mail at all) at home. I always mail at the post office, INSIDE. No outside mail boxes for me! :P I have all my bills set up in Quicken and pay twice a month only. I prefer nothing to be "automatic," but under my total control at all times. Call me paranoid, LOL! :P Gypsy


Blessings,

Gypsy

)O(



iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2001
Sun, 10-31-2004 - 2:52pm
Thanks for the info. I'm not totally convinced yet... In my other thread someone posted re the bank not sending on electronic payments in a timely manner. You'd think it would be instantaneous! So will have to call my bank about the time span involved. Sometimes I think it's better not to "fix something that ain't broke," KWIM? :P My current system works just fine and I get tax reports I can print out from Quicken for our tax guy. *And,* I have hard copies of all my checks plus carbons of each. All in one place. Maybe I really don't want to mess with my "system" that works... :D Gypsy


Blessings,

Gypsy

)O(