Do you Autopay your Monthly Bills?

[F.I.R.E User]

Auto pay and paperless for everything.

 

[ERhoosier]

I use autopay for utilities and have the bills sent to my e-mail. Convenient but I do NOT find it a significant time saver. I still ALWAYS make the effort to cross-check that the amounts paid match the bills due. I've caught a couple times the charge was NOT for the amount due, but the differences were fortunately minor. One utility tried to shift me to their 'level payment plan' (with the associated upcharges) without my consent, an issue I would not have noticed unless I deliberately checked my e-bill.

Big mistakes, although uncommon, DO happen. A couple years ago there was a local family who had their overseas vacation ruined because a just before their scheduled departure a utility erroneously overcharged them a HUGE amount (beyond their credit limit) on their only major CC. Local investigative news reporter picked up the story and helped them get things sorted out over time. Multiple issues with this family finances (like having only 1major CC!) but still a huge PITA for them.

 

[mickeyd]

We autopay all bills.

Have not written a check in years. Not sure I recall how to do it. If I can put it on CC it goes there. City owned power company does not take CC, so it comes our directly from checking. We verify all CC bills and reconcile checking each month. Common sense.

 

[djsander]

We have the ISP and streaming auto pay to our credit card. The wifes Medicare supplemental gets auto paid. We still go in and manually pay the other bills and have considered using bill pay or autopay, but just haven’t got around to doing it. Since we get an electronic bill for everything I don’t see how it wouldn’t matter as we still see the bill. Working on simplifying everything and this would cut out sitting at the computer, logging into each account and then paying.

 

[Fufina]

I've used autopay for all my bills for years without issue. The only bill I do not autopay is my county's water/sewer bill. They have a long history of wrong billing including several thousand dollar bills. Mine have never been wrong but no way I'm letting them have my account number. But I also always check the bill amounts to make sure it is reasonable for the billing period.

 

[ddoorn]

I autopay everything I can except my credit card, as I always review that before paying.

I love the convenience of autopay! There’s never been a problem with it for me.

 

[TB1960]

I auto pay for bills that are the same every month. For instance, the cable and cell phone bill.
For others that vary from month to month I like to take a look see to find out why before I pay.

 

[Murph]

I only auto pay the ones that rarely change: phone, cable, water, certain insurance, etc. those that vary a lot I will pay electronically, but require me to take action (electric, gas, credit cards, etc) so I can keep my finger on the expenses.

 

[rk911]

Exactly my experience.

Ours as well. We have set up ACH debit with each of our utilities, credit cards and other usual and customary bills to pull those bills from checking and I enter them into Quicken. We monitor those payments via instant text alert marking each payment in Quicken as 'Cleared'. This also make reconciliation of the bank and credit card accounts in Quicken faster and easier.

 

[teej1985]

I auto pay for bills that are the same every month. For instance, the cable and cell phone bill.
For others that vary from month to month I like to take a look see to find out why before I pay.

How often do you find error charges?

 

[Dranoel]

Autopay almost everything. I track it all in Quicken and I've never had a problem.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

I've always used credit card auto-pay to pay for USAA. Free cashback!

Hum... external credit card to pay a monthly billing plan with autopay?


When I set up monthly billing with autopay I am certain only debit was allowed but it's been years (I never willingly pass up rewards -especially on one of my largest bills). I see I can add an external credit card to my USAA payment options online. I may have to change but am still skeptical they'd eat the merchant fees and will have to look for the fine print before I change my payment method.


ETA: I believe I would lose my Auto Payment Plan discount on my policy if I changed the method to credit card. Currently it's about 2% which is what I'd get in points using my catch-all cash back card. They don't have state specific "details and restrictions" online so I'd have to call to verify. Might be 6 or 1/2 dozen for me but I'll ask next time I have to call them.

 

[mystang52]

I previously replied on this thread and revisited it. I pay my credit cards, 2 primary plus another one I occasionally use, manually. I considered doing autopay for them, in full. But at least for me the work involved is the same in terms of recording and getting the rebate, so no time-saving benefit to me. As I previously mentioned, all of my credit cards close on the same date near end of each month; paying all of them likewise involves only one "visit" to the computer at beginning of each month.

 

[Retired Expat]

I have a new responsibility in retirement where I now am paying the utility bills.
Presently I am paying house bills monthly on-line. I am wondering if should I set up autopay for most of bills? Do you trust the bank and or credit card pay method on-line?

Yes, yes and yes. Have never had an issue and am never late paying a bill. Just need to make sure you fund your checking account as needed.

Remember writing checks and stamps for envelopes and the hours involved! Auto pay is great!

 

[big-papa]

I have a new responsibility in retirement where I now am paying the utility bills.
Presently I am paying house bills monthly on-line. I am wondering if should I set up autopay for most of bills? Do you trust the bank and or credit card pay method on-line?

I autopay most bills and have been since the late 90's when I had a 2 year overseas expat assignment. There are only a few exceptions.
They include:
- Insurance premiums of all types. Easy for me to miss that there was an increase otherwise.
- The credit card bill itself. I want to make sure there are no surprises.
- Annual property tax payment.
- IRS

Everything else from utilities to our mortgage is all auto-paid. Some are a "pull" from the entity to which we owe and some are a "push" from our bank. Generally, the bills that are variable in nature are a "pull" while those that never change are a "push" from our side.

Cheers
Big-Papa

 

[CaliKid]

I have a new responsibility in retirement where I now am paying the utility bills.
Presently I am paying house bills monthly on-line. I am wondering if should I set up autopay for most of bills? Do you trust the bank and or credit card pay method on-line?

Only been doing it for over 20 years now. No problems yet.

 

[KarenF]

I have everything on auto pay that I can. It works very well. I do make sure each bill is paid by having a scheduled transaction in YNAB.

 

[audreyh1]

Yes, yes and yes. Have never had an issue and am never late paying a bill. Just need to make sure you fund your checking account as needed.

Remember writing checks and stamps for envelopes and the hours involved! Auto pay is great!

I so rarely have to put a stamp on a letter and mail it. Maybe once or twice a year, sometimes none. I absolutely hate having to mail anything, so for me billpay mostly automated has been wonderful.

 

[Markola]

Count me as amazed that anyone in 2023 hasn’t automated all possible bill paying years ago.

 

[teej1985]

Hum... external credit card to pay a monthly billing plan with autopay?


When I set up monthly billing with autopay I am certain only debit was allowed but it's been years (I never willingly pass up rewards -especially on one of my largest bills). I see I can add an external credit card to my USAA payment options online. I may have to change but am still skeptical they'd eat the merchant fees and will have to look for the fine print before I change my payment method.


ETA: I believe I would lose my Auto Payment Plan discount on my policy if I changed the method to credit card. Currently it's about 2% which is what I'd get in points using my catch-all cash back card. They don't have state specific "details and restrictions" online so I'd have to call to verify. Might be 6 or 1/2 dozen for me but I'll ask next time I have to call them.

I don't see why you would lose the discount, though I suppose it's possible. As far as I can remember, the Auto Pay by bank or Credit Card is set up on the same exact billing page. They've been eating the fees ever since I first used them in 2010ish. I haven't lived in a state with an auto pay discount (or maybe I am just oblivious to there being one!)

 

[TB1960]

How often do you find error charges?

Not necessarily looking for errors. More out of curiosity and to see if need to adjust my spending habits

 

[mpeirce]

Most people here seem to be pulling money from their checking accounts. Why not an interest bearing account?

We pay our cc bills from our Cap One performance savings account and earn interest on the balance.

 

[audreyh1]

Wherever a utility or other regular service will accept a credit card for billpay I do that.

I get ebills where I can at the bank. These are autopaid. Some of these are credit cards.

Then I have regular billpay. These are also automated monthly. Most are fixed. Just one of them I go in and adjust the amount as needed.

I check everything, reconcile all statements, etc.

 

[Gumby]

My suggestion to everyone is that you keep a list of all places where you autopay with the same credit card. That way, when the card reaches the expiration date (as they all do) or gets compromised and you have to get a reissued card with a new number, you can go to the various creditor websites and edit the payment information to avoid problems with a missed payment.

 

[audreyh1]

Most people here seem to be pulling money from their checking accounts. Why not an interest bearing account?

We pay our cc bills from our Cap One performance savings account and earn interest on the balance.

I transfer what I need over to bank checking monthly (automated and tweaked as needed) from the interest bearing account, so it’s no big deal, good enough. Some of my bills are paid from brokerage CMA and those funds are otherwise in MM fund paying a high rate these days. I also use a high yield savings account for the federal tax payments, those are much larger amounts scheduled well in advance.