Short term financial needs in a crisis..

[rayinpenn]

The Mrs and I were thinking who would pay the bills if we were suddenly stricken with an illness. It got me to thinking. Who would have access to our funds? We have a will but I’m thinking about short term stuff.. I assume our bank account will be locked up?

 

[REWahoo]

The Mrs and I were thinking who would pay the bills if we were suddenly stricken with an illness. It got me to thinking. Who would have access to our funds? We have a will but I’m thinking about short term stuff.. I assume our bank account will be locked up?

Why would an illness "lock up" your bank account?

 

[target2019]

The Mrs and I were thinking who would pay the bills if we were suddenly stricken with an illness. It got me to thinking. Who would have access to our funds? We have a will but I’m thinking about short term stuff.. I assume our bank account will be locked up?

We added child to each checking account. First reason was to add POD. Second reason is to pay the bills if necessary. There are possible consequences of course.

 

[Helen]

We keep a good chunk of change in our checking account and everything is on autopay, except I suppose medical bills.

 

[audreyh1]

Most of our stuff is autopay. I moved extra cash into our two main bill paying accounts a couple of weeks ago.

I am not concerned about our accounts being locked up because we are ill.

 

[rayinpenn]

Why would an illness "lock up" your bank account?

If both of us are too ill to write checks or make payments it is effectively locked up (unavailable)

 

[freedomatlast]

Easiest solution is set up and use autopay for all recurring monthly expenses.

 

[RunningBum]

I use autopay for all monthly bills and have overdraft protection in case I don't have enough money in checking, but I've usually got plenty. Unless I were in a coma, I assume I'd have access to my laptop to transfer more money, or write checks. If I were in a coma or otherwise unable to do such things, keeping up with anything like that would be the least of my worries, but I do have a medical POA in place that would let my son have access.

 

[Sunset]

Easiest solution is set up and use autopay for all recurring monthly expenses.

I use autopay for most things, it is actually autopay by a CC, then the CC is on autopay itself. So I get points for paying bills.

Now it's true , my taxes are not on autopay, but that is to give the gov't incentive to cure me

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

having just dealt with this with FIL, if you have a healthcare and legal POA setup and most things on autopay, theres very little problem with money during an enduring hospitalization bc the medical folks don't come begging for money for months afterwards. We are still getting first bills for a July - Sept 2019 hospitalization. The upfront money we needed to get ahold of was for private pay skilled nursing, appropriate clothing for rehab etc. I will also add that FIL had not setup any online accounts which was incredibly HELPFUL to me bc if I found a paper statement/bill or one came in the mail, knowing just a little data about him we were able to walk thru online account setup and handle a few things digitally that otherwise we couldn't have handled. On the other had, FIL kept his money at 2 diff archaically run credit union that for example would not transfer money between each other. So I do recommend keeping your pot of cash atleast in the same institution as your checking account.

 

[Live And Learn]

We keep a good chunk of change in our checking account and everything is on autopay, except I suppose medical bills.

Ditto. However I push payments to vendors rather than having them tap into my account. I know how much my monthly payment is for many services (cable, alarm system, etc) and for those that fluctuate (credit cards, electric, water, etc) I keep a one month credit as a buffer and pay an average bill amount each month . I don't like giving vendors the ability to pull money from my account.

 

[FrankiesGirl]

I also don't do autopay, but I do pay through my bank's online portal. I prefer to review all my payments, so I do a push instead of allowing individual accounts access to pull.

If I was concerned about bills being paid for any real length of time, I'd likely go ahead and set up auto pay on things like utilities and cards. It is likely my being paranoid more than them still being wonky in the early days (I remember reports of double charges, incorrect amounts, etc. but that has been some time ago and they must be reliable for the most part now).

I honestly only write 1 check a year now - my HOA's dues are ONLY allowed by check to avoid a ridiculous "processing" fee of $40.



In the event that both myself and husband were unresponsive for longer than a month, I'd think we'd have worse things to worry about than if the bills got paid in a timely manner.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

We have everything we can set on autopay. CCs are set to pay "minimum due" but since I pay the balance each month, this doesn't happen...it's only for emergency situations such as the OP describes. The *only* bill we get that isn't on autopay is the property taxes and it would take quite a while to actually have the house sold for unpaid taxes. As a matter of fact, I don't think they would actually foreclose on the house, just keep adding to the tax lien.

So, as long as my pension check keeps getting deposited and there wasn't any errors by the banks, everything would be on autopilot for quite a while.

Nonetheless, my SIL/BIL has access to our "doomsday" folder which includes instructions, account passwords and a durable POA in the worst situation.

 

[Just_Steve]

Just thinking if wife and I were both stricken ill enough at the same time where we could not pay the bills I don't think that would be at the top of my concerns list. Now who would feed my dog is at the top of my list.

 

[omni550]

I recall reading several articles over the years where someone had their bills on autopay.

Their dead body was found a few month or years after death, when their checking account finally ran dry.

IIRC, it was usually nonpayments of a large amount (mortgage? taxes?) that FINALLY triggered a site visit to the address where they'd find an overstuffed mailbox, unkempt yard, and the body.

Smaller bills, like utilities, that went unpaid would eventually result in the service being turned off, but no site visit.

omni

 

[pacergal]

We have a few things on autopay, most are push pay/online from our checking acct.
We have kids set up as medical POA and trustees, so that is covered if we are both unable.

 

[CardsFan]

Just thinking if wife and I were both stricken ill enough at the same time where we could not pay the bills I don't think that would be at the top of my concerns list. Now who would feed my dog is at the top of my list.

+1000

While we have most bills on auto-pay, some are not. If we are both incapacitated for a few months, and recover, then we pay (maybe) some late fees. If we don't make it, not our problem.

The dog, however, needs to be cared for and fed daily. We have friends locally, and a son 300 miles away, that can take care of the immediate dog needs.

Financially, we have POA in place with DS as the person in charge if neither of us can function.

 

[rk911]

Why would an illness "lock up" your bank account?

the answer...it wouldn’t. if you’re worried about day-to-day stuff have your income direct deposited into your checking account and put your routine bills on auto-debit from that same account.

we’ve been doing this for 20+ years with just one hiccup and that was a bill that was not paid.

 

[GNXGuy]

Its prudent to have a living trust.