Monthly Bill Paying Changes Over Time

[akck]

Before I even knew what FIRE was, we paid our monthly bills by check or even cash. The internet didn’t exist and most bills and payments were sent via mail. Cash payments were made by going to an office or store and getting a receipt for it.

The next big evolution was a debit card (existed above too, but the main function was for getting cash from an ATM). This occurred when businesses started taking credit cards (beyond their store cards). You really didn’t really use your VISA/Mastercard bank cards because you occasionally carried a balance from that last vacation and who wanted to pay for a tee shirt over time. I clearly remember a time where a grocery store refused a check because we hadn’t used a check in the last 6 months (would have to get re-verified to write checks).

The next big change for us was with the internet. Over time, you could now check your balances on everything and make payments online. During this time, fraud became more of an issue and risking use of a debit card opened your checking account to theft that could cause other bill payments to be denied (written checks carry the same liability). This opened the use of credit cards for paying most all purchases. It’s easy to dispute a CC charge with the only hassle being changing any auto payments made to that card.

So, as it stands now, we make 2 auto ACH monthly payments, mortgage (soon to end), and water/sewer. 1 intermittent ACH payment for heating oil (used to be charged to a CC, but they added a fee for CC use). I make 2 manual payments via our bank’s bill pay feature (it’s free as long as I make 1 payment), for our electricity usage and garbage collection. Our other household bills (internet, cellphones, Netflix, Hulu), are auto charged to a CC. All other purchases (groceries, household, travel, etc.), are made on CC’s which are then manually paid off each month (I have auto pay set up on each card just in case I forget). I make any manual payments as soon as funds are available, to reduce any fraud risk (they can’t steal it if I drain it beforehand).

The main dangers are related to death. Some payments will go on after death and others will stop if bank accounts are frozen. I guess that’s where the death letter, that I’ve been working on for the past few years, comes in. My goal should be to “finish” it this year. Hopefully this post will get me started again.

 

[sakowitzm]

Eons ago... e.g. the 1990s, it seemed like my credit card got hacked once every year or two. And as you note, it was a pain to re-establish those auto-payments tied to the card. It got so I kept a list of all the payments, so I didn't have to pull up old bills. Anyhoo... I think it's been maybe 10 years since it happened, so they eventually got MUCH better at detecting fraud. I've gotten calls/emails from Capital One asking me if I made a certain charge. They see it before I do. Thanks, Matt. (Matt, my son-in-law, used to work in the credit card fraud department at Capital One!)

 

[HFWR]

I give to a couple of YouTube channels, because I always complained that cable wasn’t ala carte, so I had to shut-up and pay. Plus I have youtube premium. All other payments are on one of two credit cards. I have a list for my son of all accounts and associated phone numbers, ICOD.

Every CC transaction sends a text, so I can log on to the app and immediately freeze the card.

 

[pb4uski]

We wrote less than 20 checks last year. Most were to occasional vendors who don't take credit or debit cards like the person that does quilting for DW, the deposit on our house, purchase of the golf cart (could have done credit card but 3% fee) and others. All the rest are electronic... either auto pays or bill pays from our bank.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Only my chiropractor and groomer don’t take cards so those are the only checks I write now.

 

[Koolau]

Still pay most monthly bills via check. Some we can call and pay by CC over the phone.

 

[athena53]

I'm a bit of a control freak so I don't like AutoPay- I have only a few recurring payments including my mortgage (don't want to mess that up) and some where the vendor requires it. I'm getting a bit annoyed at service people that don't take credit cards anymore. It's not just the "two guys and a truck" types (who may or may not be evading taxes) but my local plumber and the business that just replace carpeting with hardwood floors in a good part of the house. I use the businesses I trust rather than the lowest bidder but I miss that 2% I get from Fidelity.

 

[VanWinkle]

All bills other than property taxes are auto pay with credit card or checking account. I write checks for birthday/Christmas gifts to my 4 kids and 7 grandkids. I am starting to use PayPal for the kids and grandkids gifts depending on which ones have PayPal accounts. I keep a close eye on our checking accounts and credit cards.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I autopay everything that allows it to a credit card. I write very few checks. Probably about 10 per year. I allow the water, gas, and internet bills to deduct directly from my checkin account since they won't take a credit card. About the only thing I pay cash for is a haircut and an occasional ice cream cone in the warm months. Just recently, I've set up my credit cards to automatically pull the monthly statement amount from my checking account instead of me manually pushing it to them every month.

I currently use 4 credit cards for various things and I was able to set it up so 1 payment pulls on the 16th and 3 pull on the 17th of every month. So I consider the "middle of the month" as my bill paying date when I need to make sure I have enough in the checking account to cover things.

 

[jazz4cash]

I was an early adopter for banking technology. I was using ATMs in the mid 70’s but did not have a credit card until ‘79 when I graduated college and moved to another city. I got an Amex (charge card had to be paid in full monthly) and a Sears Credit card that could only be used at Sears but “Sears Has Everything” was their motto in those days.
BIL reminded me recently that he was stunned watching me use telephone billpay in the mid 80’s which was super handy since I travelled for work. He worked at the bank and didn’t trust it until he watched me.
These days I autopay as much as possible but try to push everything from my BofA checking. I make exception for vendors that accept Fidelity Visa to get the 2% cashback. I’ll let them pull payments using their app or website. I probably write no more than 5 checks per year.

 

[akck]

We write maybe 4 paper checks per year, with most being for relatives (birthday, Christmas, etc.). Our checkbooks, which used to just as important as your wallet, were religiously carried all the time going out. Now, we have to go searching for a checkbook if we need to write a check.

I made the mistake of purchasing a double order of new checks, just before transitioning away from check writing, so now we have a lifetime supply of them. To maybe complicate things, our bank changed names recently. I’m wondering if they’ll stop accepting them after a few years.

Another change over the years is that we don’t stockpile cash in our home like we used to. We used to keep several thousands of dollars laying around. Now, we have at most, several hundred, and that’s kept mainly for travel (tips mainly). We used to pay cash for small purchases which we routinely use CCs now.

Since the internet, I check all of our financial accounts at minimum weekly, and for some, it can be daily (sometimes multiple times per day). Prior, I used to go over the paper bank and CC statements each month. I even manually put the numbers in Quicken each month, later downloading the data. This all went by the wayside once CCs became the main form of payment. Now, everything is paperless and it’s just a quick online scan of the transactions, looking for any anomalies. I still maintain a couple of spreadsheets just to make sure we have funds to cover bills and to keep track of CC balances and calculate taxes due.

 

[akck]

I was an early adopter for banking technology. I was using ATMs in the mid 70’s but did not have a credit card until ‘79 when I graduated college and moved to another city. I got an Amex (charge card had to be paid in full monthly) and a Sears Credit card that could only be used at Sears but “Sears Has Everything” was their motto in those days.
BIL reminded me recently that he was stunned watching me use telephone billpay in the mid 80’s which was super handy since I travelled for work. He worked at the bank and didn’t trust it until he watched me.
These days I autopay as much as possible but try to push everything from my BofA checking. I make exception for vendors that accept Fidelity Visa to get the 2% cashback. I’ll let them pull payments using their app or website. I probably write no more than 5 checks per year.

I remember the first ATM I used was mechanical. It had what must a drum roller which rotated to display a message.

 

[HFWR]

Way, way back, I could dial-up my credit union at 1200 baud, and it would slowly list, in ascii characters, the last ten checks that cleared.

 

[Healthy Lifestyle]

I'm a bit of a control freak so I don't like AutoPay-

Presently, I pay all bills using CC and or checking acct. that are allowed if no fee's. However, I am starting to soften up and will eventually use BillPay for convenience.
I do keep a close eye on our checking accounts and credit cards.

 

[Midpack]

We autopay everything possible (some from our bank, some to credit cards), pay most others online. All our Fed & state estimated taxes are done directly from bank checking. We also write about 3-4 checks a year, we consider it an inconvenience when required, and we'd rather write none. It's not as if a check in the mail is 100% safe either, getting lost or checkwashing. Though rare, problems with autopay or online have been non-existent for us so far. Discover caught someone trying to use our credit cards once a few years ago, they intervened and sent us new cards/numbers immediately.

OTOH, I have had to mail in QCD donations via (Vanguard) check to charities we support. I wish there was a way to do that online, but none that I know of.

 

[scrabbler1]

It was a gradual process going back to the early 1990s, but I have put all my monthly bills on autopay except for my CC which I easily pay on line using my bank's website (same bank for CC and main checking). So, no monthly checks for me to write any more.

For a few years, I used my bank's bill-pay to write and mail a check to my co-op's managing agent. They had other methods of electronic payment but they all had fees attached to them, so the bank's mail-a-check worked the best. The payment was the same every month for a given year. Then, the managing agent changed 2 years ago, so I use ACH to pay the bill like I do for all other monthly bills.

The non-monthly bills I pay through a variety of means. If there are no fees to use a CC, I use the CC. These include car/home insurance and some medical bills. Other medical bills, mostly dentist and many copays, I write a check in person. A few infrequent bills I pay with a paper check, mainly charities and entities which don't accept CC or if I feel uncomfortable using a CC. Others, such as income taxes, I use ACH.

In 2023 I wrote 12 checks. In 2024 I wrote 16 checks. In 2025, so far, I have written 2 checks. But April is a month I have a lot of medical stuff going on, and I'll be writing a few checks later this month.

Whichever tol works best for me, I use. It's nice to have all these choices.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Speaking of writing checks, for several years in the late ‘80s and/or early ‘90s, I had a dedicated dot-matrix printer hooked up to my computer to print out checks for bill payments from Quicken. Boy, I considered myself hi-tech in those days.

 

[obsessed]

I looked at my checkbook the other day and noticed I only had three checks left. I searched to see if I had any more packets of checks but I couldn't find any. Probably threw the box they came in years ago. Guess it's time to order new ones as I might run out in a couple years but have no idea where to go these days.

 

[audreyh1]

I think I wrote only 1 check last year and that was to get a $50 lodging discount on a cabin.

In 2005 we became full-time RVers. I worked very very hard to go fully online accounting and billpay and eliminate all mail especially magazines. Pretty much succeeded expect for things like jury duty and licenses in mail, annual insurance renewals.

Never looked back.

 

[audreyh1]

Speaking of writing checks, for several years in the late ‘80s and/or early ‘90s, I had a dedicated dot-matrix printer hooked up to my computer to print out checks for bill payments from Quicken. Boy, I considered myself hi-tech in those days.

We did the same in the 90s, ha ha!

 

[AudiDudi]

I stopped writing checks at the grocery store in the 80's. A neighbor askd me to buy her some dog food as long as I was headed there. Within a week or two, I was getting mail about pet stuff (and I didn't have any pets). After that it was all cash for groceries.

 

[ksr]

I only write a few checks a year, usually to contractors that either don’t take credit cards or who charge extra for cc, and don’t accept Zelle.

It would be a nuisance to mail a check for payment now because I no longer feel comfortable putting a check payment in my mailbox for pickup. Too much theft and check fraud these days; a neighbor on the next street over had an envelope with check stolen from the mailbox and the check was whitewashed. So it would mean a trip to the post office to mail a check now.

 

[audreyh1]

I only write a few checks a year, usually to contractors that either don’t take credit cards or who charge extra for cc, and don’t accept Zelle.

It would be a nuisance to mail a check for payment now because I no longer feel comfortable putting a check payment in my mailbox for pickup. Too much theft and check fraud these days; a neighbor on the next street over had an envelope with check stolen from the mailbox and the check was whitewashed. So it would mean a trip to the post office to mail a check now.

I have never felt comfortable with checks in the mail in either direction. Fortunately since 1986 we have had neighborhood locked mailboxes which definitely helps. If I absolutely have to mail even just a form, I drive to the post office. Fortunately it’s a rare occurrence and not that far.

 

[MichaelH13]

Before I even knew what FIRE was, we paid our monthly bills by check or even cash. The internet didn’t exist and most bills and payments were sent via mail. Cash payments were made by going to an office or store and getting a receipt for it.

The next big evolution was a debit card (existed above too, but the main function was for getting cash from an ATM). This occurred when businesses started taking credit cards (beyond their store cards). You really didn’t really use your VISA/Mastercard bank cards because you occasionally carried a balance from that last vacation and who wanted to pay for a tee shirt over time. I clearly remember a time where a grocery store refused a check because we hadn’t used a check in the last 6 months (would have to get re-verified to write checks).

The next big change for us was with the internet. Over time, you could now check your balances on everything and make payments online. During this time, fraud became more of an issue and risking use of a debit card opened your checking account to theft that could cause other bill payments to be denied (written checks carry the same liability). This opened the use of credit cards for paying most all purchases. It’s easy to dispute a CC charge with the only hassle being changing any auto payments made to that card.

So, as it stands now, we make 2 auto ACH monthly payments, mortgage (soon to end), and water/sewer. 1 intermittent ACH payment for heating oil (used to be charged to a CC, but they added a fee for CC use). I make 2 manual payments via our bank’s bill pay feature (it’s free as long as I make 1 payment), for our electricity usage and garbage collection. Our other household bills (internet, cellphones, Netflix, Hulu), are auto charged to a CC. All other purchases (groceries, household, travel, etc.), are made on CC’s which are then manually paid off each month (I have auto pay set up on each card just in case I forget). I make any manual payments as soon as funds are available, to reduce any fraud risk (they can’t steal it if I drain it beforehand).

The main dangers are related to death. Some payments will go on after death and others will stop if bank accounts are frozen. I guess that’s where the death letter, that I’ve been working on for the past few years, comes in. My goal should be to “finish” it this year. Hopefully this post will get me started again.

This brought back a lot of memories—writing checks at the kitchen table and mailing them off with a stamp. Amazing how far things have come, and your evolution in managing payments mirrors mine almost exactly. I’ve also moved most bills to credit cards for the fraud protection and rewards, and it’s definitely simplified things overall.

Your point about death planning is important. I’ve been putting together a “when I’m gone” document too—account logins, auto-pays, what stops and what doesn’t. It’s not the most fun task, but it really is a gift to the people we leave behind. Thanks for the reminder to get back to mine as well.

 

[Walt34]

Guess it's time to order new ones as I might run out in a couple years but have no idea where to go these days.

Well, there's always the bank where the account is, but of course they gouge on the price. The last time I ordered checks (maybe five years ago?) I ordered them from WalMart, which was the cheapest reputable company I could find. I think Amazon also sells checks but I haven't looked lately.