Do you auto-pay your CC accounts?

[Montecfo]

I get a paper statement and autopay the credit cards. I let them pull.

[rk911]

nope, but we pay off the balance every month and have since about 1972. all of our other monthly bills are auto paid. why not the CC's...i like to think it's becuz i want to retain control but it's also about being able to delay payment until 72-hrs before the bill is due.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kwirk But it IS annoying to get an alert when autopay charges are processed in the middle of the night.

You need to turn on the Do Not Disturb feature!

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rk911 nope, but we pay off the balance every month and have since about 1972. all of our other monthly bills are auto paid. why not the CC's...i like to think it's becuz i want to retain control but it's also about being able to delay payment until 72-hrs before the bill is due.

We have autopay pay the day due or 1 day before so we get max delay. Only on the Costco VISA have I needed to pay 2-3 days ahead.

[Doribe]

I basically use two credit cards. One is set up with all my autopay bills, utilities, Netflix, newspaper, gym membership, toll pass, etc. The amounts are close to the same every month and a quick monthly scan confirms no hanky-panky. The CC is set to autopay. My second card I use for everything else and is set to autopay. I collect points on both. I have one utility that is pulled from my checking account.

This is effecient and easy to scan for fraud. I used to own more real estate and changing the utilities to auto pay was a great time saver.

I have had fraud occur on my general CC, which the bank caught and sent me a new card. With all of my ebills on a different card I don't have to go through the work of changing the ebills to a new autopay CC.

[Helena]

.

My CC is with the same bank as my checking account. It takes me less than a minute by phone to transfer funds from my checking to pay my CC.

.

[kitesurfer2]

all chARGES go to one cc. that cc is bank aUTO PAY.

[Dtail]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Helena . My CC is with the same bank as my checking account. It takes me less than a minute by phone to transfer funds from my checking to pay my CC. .

Exactly my situation.

[brett]

Never.

We get an on line statement and then we pay it.

[iloveyoga]

I have all my regular bills on autopay. For my ccs I go on and review all the charges on line and then schedule the full payment on line.

[donheff]

I auto pay everything I can. I bill as much as possible to CCs and let the CCs pull from checking. I have never had a serious problem although some of the charges that go to CCs were late when the CCs expired. I don't want to incur interest on the CCs so I don't rely on manual payments which could get screwed up during travel. I have never encountered a problem with insufficient funds but I have a $20K overdraft line of credit associated with checking so I would not bounce a check if something went wrong.

[mrfeh]

Both of our primary CC accounts are paid automatically, pulled from the CC companies.

I keep a close eye on all charges, so there aren't any surprises.

[gtweath]

I play the rewards game so always have a lot of cards. I charge everything unless there is a fee (my water bill for example). The only way to manage it all is auto pay, otherwise something would fall through the cracks. All transactions get downloaded to quicken which I review daily. Quicken also lets me see at a glance how much outstanding balance I have on all cards and what my checking account balance is so I know if I need to transfer any money to cover the current balances when they autopay. Works wonderfully!

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Helena . My CC is with the same bank as my checking account. It takes me less than a minute by phone to transfer funds from my checking to pay my CC. .

You have to call?

[RunningBum]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kwirk But it IS annoying to get an alert when autopay charges are processed in the middle of the night.

I have those alerts come via email, and I don't have a notification for incoming emails. The only one that forces me to get a text is AT&T mobile. I tried to turn it off but it never worked, even after I opened a case. Finally I just blacklisted the number those autopay messages come from.

[jazz4cash]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gtweath I play the rewards game so always have a lot of cards. I charge everything unless there is a fee (my water bill for example).

I’m rethinking this. I just paid our water bill even though they charge $1.75. With a 2% cashback card It’s only 1/3 of the reward. I had to schedule it at the vendor’s site which I don’t like to do either. Its the first time I’ve paid a fee to use a card. OTOH I think the fee to pay property taxes is 3% so that’ll never work.

[bada bing]

I am an autopay nut. Everything that can possibly be set up to autopay, is.
Every recurring bill that can autopay from credit card is, those that won't do
CC are set to pull from checking account. The credit cards are set to autopay
when due.

I am not a very organized person. Autopay has been a boon to my financial
management. I went full autopay 15 years ago and haven't looked back. I
haven't had a glitch in 15 years. I do usually check online prior to payment
day and I get email notices when stuff happens. Before using autopay, I
would occasionally miss due dates. Since autopaying:

1. Not a penny in CC interest in 15 years
2. Haven't lost a day of CC grace period
3. Last 5 years continuous a perfect 850 FICO8 on all 3 bureaus.

My hat is tipped to all the super organized finance whizzes who manually pay
their bills on time, every time. I know from experience that isn't me.

One thing I have wondered about autopay is if having PIF autopay set on a
CC account influences the credit card companies. I know that credit card
companies have buckets based on payment behavior - broadly called
transactors and revolvers. By setting up a PIF autopay, you are very much
indicating you are a transactor. Given that credit companies expend some
effort tracking payment behavior for their computer models to infer your
future actions, it would seem a slam dunk that setting up PIF autopay would
label you in their systems.

[CaliKid]

Everything that can be on auto pay is on auto pay and has been as long as I can recall - 15-20 years!? I usually check credit card statement when I get email, verify no problems, and then it gets paid automatically a few weeks later. I can't imagine writing a check or doing a manual push of the money. That makes absolutely no sense for any bill from any reputable company.

[DeborahB]

I tried having all the bills come electronically. I found I’m not organized enough to save the bills online, or routinely look at them online. So I’m back to paper. The ppayments are automated. And I gave up on the points game for paying bills with cc. I charge almost everything and get those points. I get a real benefit on amazon when the credits show up on the payment screen!

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaliKid Everything that can be on auto pay is on auto pay and has been as long as I can recall - 15-20 years!? I usually check credit card statement when I get email, verify no problems, and then it gets paid automatically a few weeks later. I can't imagine writing a check or doing a manual push of the money. That makes absolutely no sense for any bill from any reputable company.

Same here. For me it has been 19 years and never the slightest error; I check each payment when I record it in my spending spreadsheet, and for 19 years every single payment has been correct to the penny.

My guess is that many don't do this because they have read frightening (clickbait?) stories about it in the media that cause them to fear losing money if they do. Each person has to find their own comfort zone. For me, the convenience of not having to deal with monthly bills for 19 years, and the boost to my credit rating due to no bill ever being paid late or incorrectly, are worth quite a bit. That said, since none of my payments have been incorrect or excessive I have not paid even one cent for this wonderful service.