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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?
Old 11-05-2006, 07:05 PM   #41
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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?

I pay all my bills via bankin on line. Works great.

Yet I still get "paper delivery" of the bills each month - I stack them and then log in and pay at once.

Does everyone get "electronic delivery" - I guess an email -of the bill ? I kind of like the paper record and I'd be afraid I'd miss if only came by email.
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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?
Old 11-05-2006, 07:18 PM   #42
 
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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Delawaredave
I pay all my bills via bankin on line. Works great.

Yet I still get "paper delivery" of the bills each month - I stack them and then log in and pay at once.

Does everyone get "electronic delivery" - I guess an email -of the bill ? I kind of like the paper record and I'd be afraid I'd miss if only came by email.
Why not use Automatic Electronic Withdrawals? - No need to even think about bills then! - No need to stack them, Log them in and pay them at all!

When I download transactions into my Quicken Account they are automatically entered into the register and catagorized for budgeting purposes.
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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?
Old 11-05-2006, 07:29 PM   #43
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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Delawaredave
Does everyone get "electronic delivery" - I guess an email -of the bill ? I kind of like the paper record and I'd be afraid I'd miss if only came by email.
Some of my accounts send an email stating something to the effect "New Statement has been posted". But regardless of email notification or not, I know what date a new statement posts, (ins, CC, etc) so I just log on to their site, and pay the piper.

I have gone paperless on some, and am in the process of doing the same with the rest. They say that a vast amount of identity theft occurs through the theft of snail mail. I have not had that problem up to this point, and am making every effort to never have that problem. The mail doesn't have to be lifted from your mailbox either....sometimes it just accidentily gets drop at the wrong address. Ocassionally mail will stick together, and I will get some of my neighbor's mail, which for us is not a major problem since we pick up each other's mail during vacations or whatever.

So you get your paper bill, write a check, and drop it in the mailbox. Will it arrive at the proper destination on time? Or at all? There is no guarantee. You cross your eyes fingers, and hope so. With online payments at the vendor's website (ins, CC, etc) it's a "done deal" in a matter of minutes (or less) and they give you a payment confirmation number right then. Or use your Bank's BillPay option and get about the same benefit, except the payment doesn't post as quick...it may take a few to several days. But it is still more secure than a check through the mail.

In a nutshell.....Paperless is by far more secure!!! (IMHO)
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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?
Old 11-06-2006, 11:40 AM   #44
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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?

peggy said: I have a combination of automatic withdrawals (mortgage, utilities, car payment) and otherwise use my bank's electronic bill-pay program.

-----

Me too! I get most of my bills through email too, less paper for me, the better. I haven't missed a payment by not getting paper.

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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?
Old 11-06-2006, 11:44 AM   #45
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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?

I do not get the same satisfaction from e-bills as I do paper bills. With an e-bill, I cannot wave the statement in front of my spouse and say, "Look! Don't run the A/C so cold because it cost you an extra $638 last month!"


Sure, I could print out the e-bill, but why waste my time?
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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?
Old 11-06-2006, 12:26 PM   #46
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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?

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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?
Old 11-06-2006, 06:18 PM   #47
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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Delawaredave

Does everyone get "electronic delivery" - I guess an email -of the bill ? I kind of like the paper record and I'd be afraid I'd miss if only came by email.
I get sooo many emails, these could get lost in the shuffle, so I stick with snail mail delivery and pay online with BofA. I would consider e-bills, but they gotta make me an offer to share the savings.......my minimum would be $1 per mo or some comparable consideration. My ex-phone co charged this much for paper statements. If I e-bill, I would get paranoid without having a piece of paper, so by the time I print the e-bills to scrutinize, breakdown my cost per unit volume, and extrapolate the results.........its costs me ink, paper, etc.
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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?
Old 11-07-2006, 02:40 AM   #48
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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?

We pay everything online through Bank of America. Works really well for us. We try to charge everything we can on one of our credit cards. At the end of the year we get a few hundred dollars back. If you dont carry a balance its free money
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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?
Old 11-07-2006, 09:44 PM   #49
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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?

One of the best things about doing all electronic statements, electronic bill pay (especially the notification), etc., is that you don't have to worry about bills getting paid while you travel - assuming you travel with a computer, of course. Our lives got a lot easier a couple of years ago when we went with all electronic or automatic bill pay.

And now it's essential! It's much easier being a fulltime RVer when everything can be done electronically, as snail mail has to be forwarded and that really slows things down. I feel much more secure not having any paper bills forwarded (especially not credit card statements). And (almost) all my mutual fund statements are done on-line.

But they still have to send those darn IRS forms by snail mail! Major security problem IMO - I actually had some "get lost" in the mail early this year and had to do the whole credit freeze bit.

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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?
Old 11-08-2006, 04:14 AM   #50
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Re: Best Way to Pay Bills?

Quote:
Originally Posted by audreyh1
One of the best things about doing all electronic statements, electronic bill pay (especially the notification), etc., is that you don't have to worry about bills getting paid while you travel - assuming you travel with a computer, of course. Our lives got a lot easier a couple of years ago when we went with all electronic or automatic bill pay.

And now it's essential! It's much easier being a fulltime RVer when everything can be done electronically, as snail mail has to be forwarded and that really slows things down. I feel much more secure not having any paper bills forwarded (especially not credit card statements). And (almost) all my mutual fund statements are done on-line.

But they still have to send those darn IRS forms by snail mail! Major security problem IMO - I actually had some "get lost" in the mail early this year and had to do the whole credit freeze bit.

Audrey
I don't even file paper tax returns anymore. If you use a financial software such as Quicken you can download your information into Taxcut or TurboTax software and e-file. This will even make it much easier for travellers don't you think?
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