Auto Pay

[MikeWillRetire]

As I get closer to my retirement date, I have been transitioning to autopay and e-bills because I plan to do some travel in the early years. I don't want to worry about missing a payment or missing a bill while away. I have liked the transition. I have even embraced using Zelle as a way to pay family and friends!

 

[Doribe]

I have been using autopay for decades. I have a separate credit card account for autopay bills. It serves a couple of purposes

1) If my day-to-day credit card is compromised, I won't have to resubmit all the information for autopay with a new credit card number.

2) I can easily track my internet, phone, Netflix, gas, charity and other monthly charges and they are not commingled with my day-to-day spending for a quick scan.

I autopay my credit cards using automatic transfer from my bank. I never miss a payment.

I try to keep my accounts organized the same way because my memory isn't as sharp as it once was.

 

[Idnar7]

I also have been using auto pay from a cash back credit card for many years. The only issue is if your card gets compromised and you have to get a new card (has happened three times). Last time I had to notify 17 accounts, and all were different. Some online, some by phone, and some by combination. Some that are annual, such as subscriptions, are easy to forget about. The last time I compiled a list with accounts and how to change them. Plus my banks dings me $25 bucks to FedEx the card to me because I can't wait the 10 days to get my new card number.

 

[Cobra9777]

We auto-pay most bills using our Fidelity 2% cash-back VISA. The credit cards themselves are auto-paid in full, on the due date, from our checking account.

A couple exceptions... our retiree health insurance is pulled from our checking account by each of our former employers (no CC option). Federal tax is paid quarterly via EFTPS and local property tax is paid annually using the bill-pay service in our checking account (CC option includes 2.5% fee).

We track and validate CC spending in real-time using email notifications. I also log-in to Fidelity's Full View application every 2 or 3 days to check categories, monitor balances, etc.

Never had a problem of any kind with auto-pay, whether by CC or direct from the checking account. I suppose it does require a somewhat different approach to control. But for me at least, I feel like I'm more in control now than the old days of waiting for a statement to validate charges and then writing a check or scheduling a bill pay.

 

[Doribe]

I also have been using auto pay from a cash back credit card for many years. The only issue is if your card gets compromised and you have to get a new card (has happened three times). Last time I had to notify 17 accounts, and all were different. Some online, some by phone, and some by combination. Some that are annual, such as subscriptions, are easy to forget about. The last time I compiled a list with accounts and how to change them. Plus my banks dings me $25 bucks to FedEx the card to me because I can't wait the 10 days to get my new card number.

This is the reason I use a separate account for all auto pays. It has never been compromised. If my day-to-day credit card is compromised, which has happened, I don't have to scramble to fix the automatic payments. Both credit cards collect points that can be used together.

 

[RetMD21]

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

Although I like autopay if DW was in charge I would be very happy let her do it her way

 

[seraphim]

Everything is on autopay via my Amazon card, which I pay off right after the bill arrives. Just got $120 to use on Amazon last month. We get text notifications days before a payment hits the card, in case there’s an issue to be resolved. I love it.

 

[ownyourfuture]

I've used auto pay through my checking account for 20+ years.

City water sewer garbage
Electricity
Natural gas
Cable TV/Internet
Landline

That's a lot of stamps!

Would love to pay any/all of these on my credit card but they don't allow it.
The city knocks $2.00 off your bill monthly for using auto pay.

As for credit cards:
I have a Visa Rewards Card through Fidelity.
Also pay my American Express, and MasterCard directly from there.
I've also used it to make car payments in the past.

 

[davebarnes]

Very few for us.
T-Mobile for the $10/month discount.
Hulu, Netflix, etc.

Not the: water, gas/electric, insurance, internet.

 

[a60dan]

I only forget to pay the credit card bill when there is a very large balance.

We have too many credit cards because I followed thepointsguy.com ��

Fixed that by going to autopay.

We autopay to credit card whatever we can. T-Mobile gives us $10/month discount.

All else including credit card is auto-debited from credit union checking account, which has $5K line of credit, just in case.

Credit card bills (my biggest risk of forgetting) are always paid on time. If the line of credit is hit, the interest is very low and I transfer from reserve fund to cover.

Life is too short to pay bills when they can be paid automatically.

 

[Bamaman]

Only auto pay I do is auto and homeowner's insurance--on a credit card. At least on the credit card, I have rights of chargeback.

I would never do auto pay on any ATM card attached to my checking account.

 

[rayvt]

At Schwab, they first hit any cash in my brokerage account if I overdraw checking, then they hit a $10K credit line ... No fees involved although IIRC the credit line interest is no bargain.

Some banks are now charging an exorbitant fee for accessing an overdraft credit line, like $35. IIRC Wells is among them,

At Alliant CU you can set a savings account as source of funds to cover a checking account overdraft. No fee, and of course you pay no interest. Because it isn't a loan.

The thing I always worry about for autopay is having to keep a safety buffer in the checking account--which earns no interest. so I keep as little as possible in the checking account.
That was better when the savings account paid 2% instead of the current [-]0.75%[/-] 0.65%, but [-]0.75%[/-] 0.65% is better than 0.25% the checking pays.

 

[richardf]

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

Only problem I had with autopay is changing it or stopping it quickly. Specifically WowWay jacked up their prices without warning and I couldn’t stop it.

 

[Koolau]

Call me old fashioned (I call myself old fashioned). In addition to my tag line, I am concerned about mistakes being made which would be difficult to unwind. I certainly see the advantages of auto pay. Risk vs benefit comes to mind but YMMV.

 

[maingram]

I have an unusual situation that I see hasn't been addressed yet. I am retired and my husband still works. I have always been responsible for paying the bills monthly. My husband doesn't use computers and refuses to learn. Never has wanted to be involved with the monthly bill-paying experience. I would love to switch everything to CC and autopay each month. My concern is that if I pass before he does he would have no idea what is due or when. Are any solutions available for this? Unfortunately, he has no interest in learning to use the computer. It would make life simpler if I could switch everything to CC and have it set up to autopay from my checking each month. Would appreciate any insights or thoughts on this.

 

[wallygator69]

I have an unusual situation that I see hasn't been addressed yet. I am retired and my husband still works. I have always been responsible for paying the bills monthly. My husband doesn't use computers and refuses to learn. Never has wanted to be involved with the monthly bill-paying experience. I would love to switch everything to CC and autopay each month. My concern is that if I pass before he does he would have no idea what is due or when. Are any solutions available for this? Unfortunately, he has no interest in learning to use the computer. It would make life simpler if I could switch everything to CC and have it set up to autopay from my checking each month. Would appreciate any insights or thoughts on this.

If he doesn't want to be involved Just do it!

 

[braumeister]

My husband doesn't use computers and refuses to learn.

I have a couple of older neighbors who are the same way, and they do just fine. It will probably cost an extra buck or two each month to get a paper bill, and there is the cost of a stamp to mail a check in for payment, but those are small issues.

 

[CJ57]

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!

Hope my tax collector will let me use CC to pay too ! Points!

 

[jazz4cash]

I have an unusual situation that I see hasn't been addressed yet. I am retired and my husband still works. I have always been responsible for paying the bills monthly. My husband doesn't use computers and refuses to learn. Never has wanted to be involved with the monthly bill-paying experience. I would love to switch everything to CC and autopay each month. My concern is that if I pass before he does he would have no idea what is due or when. Are any solutions available for this? Unfortunately, he has no interest in learning to use the computer. It would make life simpler if I could switch everything to CC and have it set up to autopay from my checking each month. Would appreciate any insights or thoughts on this.

I don’t think your situation is unusual at all. My situation is nearly identical and I know DW will “figure it out” if I’m not around. I am more concerned with leaving a paper trail for assets than getting bills paid. One thing I do is maintain paper bills by mail as much as possible in addition to getting statements via email or ebill.

 

[cathy63]

I have an unusual situation that I see hasn't been addressed yet. I am retired and my husband still works. I have always been responsible for paying the bills monthly. My husband doesn't use computers and refuses to learn. Never has wanted to be involved with the monthly bill-paying experience. I would love to switch everything to CC and autopay each month. My concern is that if I pass before he does he would have no idea what is due or when. Are any solutions available for this? Unfortunately, he has no interest in learning to use the computer. It would make life simpler if I could switch everything to CC and have it set up to autopay from my checking each month. Would appreciate any insights or thoughts on this.

I have a similar situation. DH is computer savvy, but he just doesn't like auto pay.

What I have done is:
1) Create a bookmarks folder on my computer with a link to every login page for something I've set to auto charge to a CC or auto pull from a checking account
2) Print out a document that has:
- instructions that say "do not report my death to any bank or credit card issuer until all the following autopay bills have been updated"
- my windows password
- directions to find the bookmarks folder in Chrome
- a list that has columns for bill name, login name, password, payment account
3) Show DH and DD the document and then put it with our wills/trust documents

 

[Scrapr]

I have been transitioning to online bill pay since Mrs Scrapr passed last year. She paid everything by check. And recorded all payments in a ledger. She could go back & find misapplied payments very easily in her ledger. This helped us several times. Mostly mortgage companies iirc.

So I have gradually transitioned over. I go directly to the providers site & pay there. I have not had the 'guts' to auto pay. But I'm sure that is coming. I set a Google calendar notification. Then some providers will send out a email as well. I missed the internet people a couple months ago so my method is not fool proof. I'll be moving in a couple months so will need to set up a few new accounts.

Is there an advantage to bill pay from the bank site vs the provider site?

 

[scrabbler1]

I have been transitioning to online bill pay since Mrs Scrapr passed last year. She paid everything by check. And recorded all payments in a ledger. She could go back & find misapplied payments very easily in her ledger. This helped us several times. Mostly mortgage companies iirc.

So I have gradually transitioned over. I go directly to the providers site & pay there. I have not had the 'guts' to auto pay. But I'm sure that is coming. I set a Google calendar notification. Then some providers will send out a email as well. I missed the internet people a couple months ago so my method is not fool proof. I'll be moving in a couple months so will need to set up a few new accounts.

Is there an advantage to bill pay from the bank site vs the provider site?

I use the provider's site for autopay, especially if the amount changes from month to month. The provider knows how much is due so they can make sure the right amount is taken from my bank.

My one autopay done through my bank's website is for my co-op's monthly maintenance, an amount which very rarely changes within a calendar year. If I pay it through another electronic means, I am subject to a fee.

Other one-time bills such as car/home insurance, estimated income taxes, and medical bills I do through the provider's site, when possible. My CC bill I do through my bank's website because the CC is from the same bank as my checking account is (i.e. I have no choice).

 

[jazz4cash]

Is there an advantage to bill pay from the bank site vs the provider site?

I feel like I have more control by pushing payments from my BOA checking account. Everything is centralized so I don’t have to go to a bunch of websites and keep all those IDs and passwords. Their billpay is excellent. They have ebill for many accounts. The monthly billing notice shows up on my BOA Online Banking account with a link to the billers website with statement image. You can choose auto pay minimum, statement balance, other amount or manually authorize that months payment. If my account is hacked, I don’t have to go to all those websites to cancel autopay.

 

[Scrapr]

I feel like I have more control by pushing payments from my BOA checking account. Everything is centralized so I don’t have to go to a bunch of websites and keep all those IDs and passwords. Their billpay is excellent. They have ebill for many accounts. The monthly billing notice shows up on my BOA Online Banking account with a link to the billers website with statement image. You can choose auto pay minimum, statement balance, other amount or manually authorize that months payment. If my account is hacked, I don’t have to go to all those websites to cancel autopay.

My CC was compromised last month. It was fairly easy to switch over accounts to the new card. I am all in on Google/Chrome so that makes it fairly easy. Go to the providers site, set up new payment type, 1 click & card number comes up. I feel just a little bit better about being able to push the payment. I have control issues I guess. LOL

I haven't travelled since taking over the bills so that may swap to auto pay if we ever travel again. Of course my system with calendar alerts would work on the road. It might hang up if the site flags a foreign location though

I also stay away from mega banks. B of A was awful in settling Dad's account on his passing 2 years ago. IMO it was intentional in stretching out closing of the account. And my Sister in Law was handling all that. I would only hear the stories

 

[RetMD21]

I would love to switch everything to CC and autopay each month. My concern is that if I pass before he does he would have no idea what is due or when. Are any solutions available for this?

There was a lady in Pontiac Mich who died in 2009 and her body wasn't discovered until 2014 apparently partially due to auto pay of bills. I think a live spouse could deal with autopay. What I do every month is pretty much look at the payment email.

https://www.cnn.com/2014/03/07/us/michigan-mummified-body-found/index.html