Bill-paying tools

[Weebit]

Hello all,

First - as always - a sincere "thank you" to the long-timers and frequent posters who stay here and answer so many questions! I'm not an active poster, but I lurk, read & learn a great deal.

Twenty-plus years ago, my husband and I signed-up to a bill-paying service (Paytrust). This served us well as we moved (including overseas), changed banks, etc. However, it went out of business. We're now paying bills using our bank, HSBC, but their bill-paying service is laughable in how bad it is - both the interface and the mechanics of it.

How do you pay routine bills such as water, electricity, internet? Do you have them deducted straight from your checking account? Do they go to a credit card that you pay off each month? Do you use your bank, and if so, do you like the system? Which bank?

We're looking to revamp our household budget systems in the next few months...and you'll likely see questions from me on that coming up.

Thanks in advance! Weebit

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Anything that will let me pay by credit card, I pay by credit card on a 2% cash back card. I pay off my credit cards every month and take the cash back about every 6 months (it adds up!). The only bills that I have that do not let me use a card are the local gas company, the local internet supplier, and my water/sewer/trash service with the city and my T-Mobile cell service. I permit these to draft my checking account directly.

I will add, that I pay my credit cards from inside my PNC Bank account. I prefer to push my money to the credit cards rather than let them pull it out. Many people do it the other way around. I like to see the account zeroed out each month so I usually pay it off the same day the statement is generated. If you let the credit card companies pull the money, there always seems to be a balance on the card due to charges that come in after the statement is generated but before the balance actually gets paid. I look at my online accounts for the cards almost every day and reconcile it to Quicken, where I track my spending.

 

[frayne]

Bills are paid via credit card, credit card is paid off in full every month via checking account. Everything gets audited each month, and yes, on occasion there are some discrepancies.

 

[sakowitzm]

For everything except credit cards I use a combination of credit cards and checking account; in each case, they PULL the amount automatically. (Don't ask why some of each. Sloth?) For the credit cards I use Capital One's bill paying online. I like to review the charges before paying and I track all of my expenses that way. So there's an answer for you - Capital One for checking and bill-paying. The bill-paying software is fine. (NOTE: It's SOFTWARE g*ddamit! Not an app!!! I was a software developer a million years ago and for me, an app is a tiny little piece of code to accomplish one simple thing. Everything else is software.)

 

[VanWinkle]

Most everything by 2 or 3% back credit card paid monthly by bank account. I have 3 items that charge fee for a credit card so they are direct from the bank account.

 

[Jerry1]

Same here. Anything that will go on a credit card does. The rest, we “push” through our credit union. We don’t let anyone pull directly from our bank accounts.

 

[JCH10400]

I pay everything that doesn't have a credit card fee by credit card, then pay the credit cards and utilities that have a CC fee off every month with a "push" through my bank's bill pay system. My city (sewer bill) and local water company don't have a way to set up an automatic "pull" from my bank account so it's easier to pay through the bank's bill pay system. Fed and State quarterly tax ES payments are done with "pulls" through their systems.

 

[Aerides]

Everything by CC if there's no fee, on auto-pay.

For the few things that don't take a CC, I use my banks check service, on a schedule (like, my lawn guy). They cut a check to him once a month for the amount/date I want, until I change it. I don't have to deal with the mechs or interface beyond the initial setup, then it's auto-pilot. But that's a fixed amount.

 

[audreyh1]

I have been using Bank of America bill pay since 2004. Back then it was probably the best. It’s still excellent. Most of our bills are scheduled online are paid out of our checking account there. A few are ebills and these are automatically scheduled. Some others are the same every month and a few I have to update the amount every month. I also pay a few bills via Fidelity.

Any bill that can be paid via a credit we do it that way preferably.

 

[scrabbler1]

Nearly everything is through autopay from my bank account although there have been some changes in the last 18 months.

My co-op's managing agent changed in late 2023 and the new one accepts ACH. The old one I used my bank's online billpay where they automatically mailed out a paper check every month, so for me it was nearly the functional equivalent of ACH. (I had to change the monthly amount once a year.)

My health insurance company changed last April when I became eligible for plan which has zero premium due. The previous one I chose not to use its autopay because I was in their website all the time to view EOBs and check on emails to their CS reps. It was no big deal to make the ACH payment manually while I was in there.

I don't use autopay to pay my main credit card. I use the same bank for the CC as I do for my checking account, so simply going into my bank's website, something I do very often, and making a few point-and-clicks I can schedule/make the payment. Also, if the CC bill happens to be really, really big, I may not be able to use my checking account to pay it because I don't keep a lot of money in there. I want to retain the flexibility to pay the bill from another source.

 

[walkinwood]

Credit cards for those bills that don't have a credit card surcharge
A direct payment (pull by provider) from my checking account for bills & credit cards.
I audit at the end of every month & check amounts against the bills.

So far - it has worked well for me.

 

[jebmke]

We do as much with direct debit and credit cards (on autopay, once a month). Bill Pay checks initiated by us are few and far between. Manual checks almost never -- maybe once in last 5 years?

We use USAA but banks are a commodity -- I would expect something like the new AMEX checking account would also work well.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

Credit cards are all on autopay and debited from my checking, all bills that accept CC without a surcharge are charged for convenience/protection and points. I only "manually" pay one bill and that is my city water bill and I do that via my CU's bill pay. Only company that debits directly (not CC) is Duke Energy. Given that water and sewer are the only expenses I have that don't take CC most of my spending gets me 2% or better cash back.

 

[Pointby2]

Just an added note. Once you have completed your changes make a comprehensive note about what bills you have and where they are being paid from. If you ever lose a credit card, it's nice to have a listing of what bills are being paid from what accounts.

 

[qwerty3656]

Alot of banks have online bill pay options. We use fidelity to pay all our bills.

 

[pacergal]

We use B of A also, some we push through, some ACH if we get a discount for it.
We are considering switching to putting as many on credit card as we can, just haven't done it yet.
The bill pay system on B of A is so easy and I like to use their budget/expense analysis program to review monthly/yearly.

 

[brett]

Everything possible goes on our credit card. Cash back, points, no FX fee cards. Two that do not, and are set amounts per month, are on bank autopay.

We pay our credit cards through the bank payment transfer.

It has been that way for years.

 

[audreyh1]

Just an added note. Once you have completed your changes make a comprehensive note about what bills you have and where they are being paid from. If you ever lose a credit card, it's nice to have a listing of what bills are being paid from what accounts.

Quicken to the rescue yet again.

We also have a credit card dedicated to the smaller routine monthly bills. Larger and variable bills we generally use one of the rewards CCs.

 

[frank05]

Use autopay (pull method) for everything, on the rare occasions, when I require bill pay BoA works fine. For taxes, I just connect my bank account to the government tax authority and initiate a transfer from the government site. Use Venmo for sending money to family and friends and some local contractors.

 

[Kings over Queens]

Still working so all money gets deposited into high yield savings.

Almost all bills are set for auto pay to our discover card.

Credit card gets paid in full EOM.

Real Estate tax and sewer charges are due quarterly requires a manual payment done electronically. I have a reminder set in quickbooks.

We bought our daughter a car, 2.99% loan is in her name, the bank pulls the money from out high yield account. Verizon and ATT pull from our account only because the cost savings for automatic bank (NOT credit card) payments are too great.

There are a few transactions that will be done using Zelle going forward between us and our adult kids. We still make them pay for the cell phones and back charge them when they use our Costco Visa.

 

[rk911]

At least 20-25 years ago we set up automatic bill payments with our bank and the utility companies...electric, natural gas, telephone and then cellular, water, sewer, garbage, credit cards, etc. We get e-mail notifications ahead of time and there is no $ charge for this. Worry free. And although we're off the road we still pay our routine monthly bills this way. Super EZPZ!

 

[disneysteve]

Anything that allows credit card without a fee gets auto-charged that way.

Anything that doesn’t allow credit card without a fee gets auto-withdrawn from checking.

The things I pay manually are the credit card bills and tax bills. I also pay auto insurance manually with credit card on their website. For some reason I’ve never automated that one. I don’t know why.

 

[5Miler]

I used to primarily use bill pay service through Bank of America. After retirement our vacations sometimes ran over 30 days and the main resort we would stay at had an open network not requiring a password so I couldn't really use it for any financial transactions. I finally setup automatic CC payments for everything I could and had automatic bill pay from my checking setup to pay the credit cards. My electric company would only do a draft from my checking so I set that up as a backup but go online to pay via Paypal each month (as they don't take American Express) and my Paypal auto charges to my American Express.

For my lawn service, mosquito service and pest control I prepay annually via CC and also earn a discount. I pay home and auto insurance at USAA via CC also and then have the CC paid off through auto bill pay at USAA. It gets me my CC points, what can I say. RE taxes are my sticking point as I refuse to pay the 3.5% service fee so I do a bank draft for them. Fortunately as a senior my RE taxes are under $900 annually so the CC points hit isn't too great.

In a nutshell, I pay everything possible with my AMEX card and most of it is automated so I can travel for extended periods without worrying about missing a payment.

 

[PatrickA5]

Anything that can is paid automatically using a credit card. The others are direct debited from my checking account.

I have one bill a month (yard guy) that I write a check for.

I manually pay off the credit cards using the credit cards online payment feature.

 

[OldShooter]

I use Schwab's bill pay. I would say it is acceptable but not wonderful. Of billers who do not participate I have one or two whose bill is always the same ($60 internet) so I just have automatic periodic payments set up. Others, mainly lake home electric, lake home gas, and city water utilities I have to schedule a payment when the paper bill arrives. I think those are the only three and AFIK the problem would be the same with any bill paying gadget.