Automatically Pay Credit Card Bill

[TromboneAl]

I pay almost all my bills automatically through the credit card, but I'd like to have the credit card bill paid automatically every month from my VanguardAdvantage account.

Vanguard's BillPay can get an eBill from the BofA credit card each month, but can only pay the minimum balance automatically.

Anyone found a way to pay the full balance automatically each month?

 

[saluki9]

Usually that only works when they are from the same institution.

 

[Bimmerbill]

DW has an LL Bean BoA card and on the rare occasions she uses it, I have a hard time trying to pay the full balance online. They do not make it easy! Everything defaults to the minimum payment.

 

[saluki9]

Have you tried going through BOA, giving them the ABA and Acct# and then having them pull the balance from Vanguard?

That is how Citibank does it.

 

[FUEGO]

Have you tried going through BOA, giving them the ABA and Acct# and then having them pull the balance from Vanguard?

That is how Citibank does it.

Chase does the same. You can set it to pay the min or pay the full statement balance.

The only annoying thing about it is that if I return something after the bill is sent out but before the payment is made (usually 25 days later), then the returned amount (say $20 at walmart) is treated as a credit or payment and then the autopayment is reduced accordingly. I don't get any penalties or interest assessed on my CC, but I have to manually fix the changed payment amount in my checkbook to maintain proper balance.

 

[OAG]

Seems like Saluki9's suggestion may work. Personally, I have a PFCU VISA Card and even tho the auto pay comes from a PFCU account, I had to send them a signed form telling them which account to pull it from. I also had to specify, Payment in full, Minimum Payment or some amount over the Minimum (but not the full payment). I opted for Payment in Full.

 

[Rustward]

Different card companies do it differently. Some give you the option of automatically paying the full balance each month. Don't think BofA does that. I don't know why they would not add that feature if the competitors have it.

Personally, I have my cards set up to pay the minimum automatically. This means that when I manually make a payment (which is every month that I have a balance greater than the minimum payment) I have to subtract the minimum from my manual payment. Some might consider this a PITA but I watch the cards closely for fraud (only happened once and the merchant caught it and issued a credit before I knew about it -- changed the card number anyway) and once about 15 years ago when the card company decided on their own to switch from using "paper" ACH items to "electronic" items and I was using a credit union that had different routing and transit numbers for paper and electronic. It was an unpleasant mess, but not my fault. So I watch the CC's pretty closely.

I would not just put this on automatic pilot and set it and forget it.

 

[saluki9]

I would not just put this on automatic pilot and set it and forget it.

Been doing it for close to 10 years now without a single problem

 

[Rustward]

Been doing it for close to 10 years now without a single problem

I understand. I am not suggesting against using the service altogether, but that it should be monitored.

 

[Animorph]

I couldn't get Fidelity BillPay to pay the full balance either. My Chase cards are paid automatically in full by direct debit using the Chase website. The rest I have to pay manually.

 

[travelover]

I have LL Bean and REI VISA cards and a Costco AmEx card, all paid in full automatically. The Amex card autopay was easy to set up but the other two cards required more searching on their respective web sites to set it up.

I suspect that the credit card companies make such fat fees off late payers that they discourage an easy way to pay on time, every time.

 

[thefinancebuff]

All my credit cards are automatically paid in full from my bank account. Some cards let you enter a routing number and account number on their web site. For some other cards you have to call them and ask for a paper auto-pay enrollment form. Never have to worry about paying a late fee after a one-time setup.