Auto Pay

[Souschef]

i use autopay for everything I can, either to my CC or my checking account. I use EFTPS for our estimated tax as well as the state site.
I just looked at my check register, and most checks are birthday gifts to our sons or some charitable donations.

 

[Sunset]

While I use autopay by the CC, I'm leery of the bank account auto withdrawal.

I know it would be rare, to be wrongly charged, but as 2 folks have stated it has happened.

For about 2 bills, we still manually pay online. When going on a trip, we just schedule a payment of an estimated amount + buffer, which ends up being a credit on the account for the next payment.

 

[karen1972]

I do have concerns about putting a bill on my bank account auto pay.
A simple mistake of missing decimal point and they would drain the account of an extra few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars.
This would then invoke, other payments bouncing, checks bouncing, and bank fees for low balance and overdraft..

So I don't auto pay with the bank account.

Not Auto-pay but I did do this once while setting up repeating transaction to pay my mortgage, instead of like $2100, I had not put a period and made it out for $210,000 monthly. It of course bounced (thankfully) and my credit union was cool and waived the fees, they got a good chuckle out of it and actually updated the software making it much harder to make that mistake.

 

[11522914]

I just paid our annual property taxes using a CC thanks to Covid-19. The state has waived all charges this year, so I grabbed the points - lots!

I got all excited when I read this as I saw you live in NC.

Apparently this does not apply to my county - Wake. When I googled it, it applies to Mecklenburg county.

Damn it. [emoji37]

 

[audreyh1]

I just paid our annual property taxes using a CC thanks to Covid-19. The state has waived all charges this year, so I grabbed the points - lots!

Nice!

That is one area I wouldn’t mind doing credit card pay. I got lucky so far. One year, for various reasons, I used their online billpay after investigating their service which was used by many counties and municipalities. It worked fine for me in Dec but in Jan all hell broke loose. Those using their online billpay service got debited multiple times. Some major provider screw up. I’m sure the county tax office got an earful. It did get straightened out in a few days. But I won’t do it that way again.

I will probably try to use my bank bill pay next time. The timing can be tricky, and the county tax office are slow to credit checks received.

The only issue I’ve ever had with my bank bill pay is twice over 15 years or so, a recipient did not receive a check and I’ve had to follow it up. Both times my bank took over once I reported it, and were willing to pay late fees if needed. Fortunately most of my recipients don’t require to be mailed a check.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

I autopay everything I possibly can and always have. Deployments, moving, long vacations. Never had a problem (knock on wood).

Now for DF we cant autopay his retirement home but through the bank website we can have the bank print and mail the check for free. Even saves me the stamp

Edited to add: we have everything we can autopay to a credit card. Only 3 utilities have to come from checking. Cc is an extra safeguard against error emptying our checking account and also earns us 2.5pct cashback

 

[audreyh1]

I autopay everything I possibly can and always have. Deployments, moving, long vacations. Never had a problem (knock on wood).

Now for DF we cant autopay his retirement home but through the bank website we can have the bank print and mail the check for free. Even saves me the stamp

Edited to add: we have everything we can autopay to a credit card. Only 3 utilities have to come from checking. Cc is an extra safeguard against error emptying our checking account and also earns us 2.5pct cashback

I assume you can set up the autopay as a recurring monthly payment? That’s how I set things up for DF.

 

[rk911]

I'm all for simplifying our finances. If I could I would put all credit cards and Verizon and Medicare on auto payments. DW does all the bill paying and is leery, loss of control she says. From what I see you have control by way of email notification of upcoming debits or charges.
Was wondering if folks on FIRE use auto pay? Any concerns?

Thanks

we've got as many bills as possible and all income on auto pay/deposit. i'm amazed at the number of vendors we have that don't offer it and still want a paper check. most of those are small businesses but at least one is a major insurance company.

a monthly e-mail alert is sent by each vendor...utilities, credit card, etc...between 10-20 days out letting me know how much the current charges are and when the auto debit will occur. i enter the upcoming debit into Quicken just like i would a check. we've been doing this for many, many years and in all that time only one error has occured. our electric utility failed to auto debit our bill one month and again the next month. i caught it and sent a check. enquired why this happened but got a virtual shrug of the shoulders from a ComEd CSR. had to re-enroll and all has been well since. that was easily 15+ years ago. SS and pension are auto deposited like clockwork and my paycheck had been on auto deposit for several years before i retired. auto dep/debit allows us to travel in our MH for months at a time. IMO this is the greatest thing since....well, you know.

btw...we set up auto debit with each vendor rather than thru our bank.

 

[SecondCor521]

All my bills are autodebited from my checking account. I know the risk, but have not had a single problem in 15 years. And if a problem happened probably either the bank or biller would fix it with minor hassle, or I might end up paying some junk fee - worth if for 15 years of automation.

All my credit cards are set up to autopay full amount on due date.

I use Quicken balance projections like @pb4uski to monitor how much money I need in there. I used to be more aggressive about moving back and forth between saving and checking, but not worth bothering about now with low interest rates.

I also have been switching everything over to paperless billing. I used to worry that I needed the paper bill to make sure I could keep track of everything. But then I realized I can use an email about the bill in the same way just as easily. Risk of losing an email is probably roughly the same as losing a bill in the mailbox or recycle bin or whatever.

Have Quicken bill reminders set up for everything, so even the handful of paper checks a year are monitored that way. I can set all those up either in the bank's ebill stuff (for professional ones) or Paypal (for family and friends), so I really don't think I'll write more than two or three checks a year from now on.

 

[Katsmeow]

I use Autopay for some things. The risk you want to guard against is that there is some wrongful charge in a huge amount and it drains your bank account. You can mitigate against this if you can cancel the Autopay before it happens.

In my experience, AutoPay dates tend to be of 3 varieties:

1. Based immediately when billed -- Avoid these if there is any possibility of an unexpected amount. Classic examples are some times I have heard of utility errors were people were charged amounts in the thousands. I would not want that to go to autopay. But if it autopays immediately, then you can't guard against that.

2. Billed on a date you select. I prefer this. I usually pick a date midway between when billed and when due. I have enough time to check and cancel if need be and can fix any problems if the auto pay doesn't happen for some reason.

3. Paid on the due date. I don't like these because I do worry about some error. But, at least it gives me a chance to fix things.

So -- I don't like to use autopay for utility bills unless it will occur late enough I can cancel it if a problem.

For credit cards I usually set the auto pay for the minimum payment. I actually pay the full amount each month but I just do the minimum payment in case I am unexpectedly ill or something.

 

[jazz4cash]

I just paid our annual property taxes using a CC thanks to Covid-19. The state has waived all charges this year, so I grabbed the points - lots!

Cha-Ching! Made me look but our county is still charging 2.45% for credit card payment vs. $1.50 for ACH from checking or savings.

 

[target2019]

The added surcharge for credit card used for property taxes is evil.

 

[Gumby]

The added surcharge for credit card used for property taxes is evil.

To be fair, the town has to pay a merchant fee to the credit card company.

 

[mickeyd]

We do auto pay on all accounts that offer it as a payment option (at no added cost/fee). We have done this for as long as I can recall. If OP is unsure about the process, just sign up for only one payment (perhaps a CC) and see how it works for you. After that, you can add one at a time until you are 100% auto. Just make sure there is enough in the checking account to clear all auto-checks monthly.

 

[rk911]

The added surcharge for credit card used for property taxes is evil.

why should other taxpayers subsisize that cost? if you don't want to pay the fee then write a check.

 

[OldShooter]

... Just make sure there is enough in the checking account to clear all auto-checks monthly.

Of course, but there is no reason to worry about overdrafts or deposit timing issues. At Schwab, they first hit any cash in my brokerage account if I overdraw checking, then they hit a $10K credit line I have deliberately established as a backup. No fees involved although IIRC the credit line interest is no bargain. But it's paid off in a day or three so the amount is irrelevant.

Some banks are now charging an exorbitant fee for accessing an overdraft credit line, like $35. IIRC Wells is among them. But even if you are looking at ripoff fees IMO it is still better than an overdraft or a refused transaction.

 

[brett]

Like others, we have autopay whenever possible. Some on our checking account, as many as possible on our credit card.

There has never been an issue. Except when our credit card was compromised and a new card was issued.

 

[target2019]

To be fair, the town has to pay a merchant fee to the credit card company.

To be fair, I am a low impact taxpayer (no chillens in the schools). Forgiveness of the evil surcharge to seniors does not sound to me like an extreme or outrageous position. But I do understand there are other thoughts on this.

why should other taxpayers subsisize that cost? if you don't want to pay the fee then write a check.

I do pay by check, and have forever. On the bottom line I think we are subsidizing the tax base, but that's just me sayin', I guess.
It was just a comment on the surcharge. Never asked for a subsidy of any kind, but I admit we do get a few in some areas.

 

[jazz4cash]

I am moving to full autopay. I try to push payments from BofA billpay. Their billpay is great. They have ebill for many vendors that show up when I log into Online Banking. Usually you can also keep paper billing in addition to ebill. Those payments can be set to min payment, full balance, or other amount. Other vendors I manually enter generally or use a fixed amount that is above amount due. I resisted auto pay from the biller's website because if the account is compromised, all the biller's have to be contacted individually. I finally gave in and set up autopay at the biller's website for accounts that accept credit card payments so I could get 2% cashback with the Fido Visa. That includes some major expenses like home and auto insurance. Then I have Fido Visa on autopay.

Many times I ask friends or family why they don't like autopay, they have some misperception or worry about some risk that is not directly related to autopay and they've never tried it. If I was worried, I would set up a separate account exclusively for autopayments.

 

[Deuce]

I had a recurring cc payment for dental insurance and the cc company said I could not cancel the recurring payment only the vendor could. I cancelled the dental insurance and am leery of securing payments.

 

[Gumby]

To be fair, I am a low impact taxpayer (no chillens in the schools). Forgiveness of the evil surcharge to seniors does not sound to me like an extreme or outrageous position. But I do understand there are other thoughts on this.

I do pay by check, and have forever. On the bottom line I think we are subsidizing the tax base, but that's just me sayin', I guess.
It was just a comment on the surcharge. Never asked for a subsidy of any kind, but I admit we do get a few in some areas.

It's not a surcharge to seniors; anyone who pays by credit card has to pay the fee to reimburse the town for the merchant fee it must pay to the credit card company.

We never had children. Nonetheless, just about half of our property taxes go to the schools every year. In current dollars, I would estimate that we have paid over $180,000 to support the schools in our town since we bought our house. Is that subsidizing the tax base? I think not, because the tax is based on property value, not on whether you use the town services those taxes pay for (including schools). That's just the way the system works and always has.

 

[Rianne]

I pay CC’s EOM totals, not statement end date amounts. Helps me with monthly budgeting. Paid online. Utilities are on autopay and so are homeowners/car/umbrella policies. If not on checking acct autopay, bills are on CC autopay. I might write 3 checks a month.

 

[braumeister]

I'm another very happy autopay user. Everything is automatically paid from a credit card except where a fee is charged, and then it's autopaid from a checking account. And all the credit cards have their statement balance autopaid every month as well (except one where I have to pay it manually).

I've never had a problem and I've been doing it for many years.

The only checks I have to write are for things that seldom happen, like property taxes, passport renewals, etc.

 

[target2019]

It's not a surcharge to seniors; anyone who pays by credit card has to pay the fee to reimburse the town for the merchant fee it must pay to the credit card company.

We never had children. Nonetheless, just about half of our property taxes go to the schools every year. In current dollars, I would estimate that we have paid over $180,000 to support the schools in our town since we bought our house. Is that subsidizing the tax base? I think not, because the tax is based on property value, not on whether you use the town services those taxes pay for (including schools). That's just the way the system works and always has.

I was suggesting forgiveness of the surcharge to seniors.
That is all. Over and Out!

 

[jazz4cash]

I had a recurring cc payment for dental insurance and the cc company said I could not cancel the recurring payment only the vendor could. I cancelled the dental insurance and am leery of securing payments.

I think I would’ve closed the cc account. Which one was it?