[westernrider75]

Originally Posted by ElDiabloJoe

I am looking to make a change. For the past several years, I have used BillPay via my Truist (and prior to that, Wells Fargo) accounts. Lately, Truist is screwing things up. I send payments on Aug 1, and they don't arrive at the creditor until Aug 18!! Not to mention that in the intervening 17 days, my account balance online shows falsely inflated since the money has not been delivered to the creditor yet, although my hand-kept register shows the money removed the day I send it.

In a world of instantaneous digital communication and secure transactions, I find this more and more frequent and lengthening delay unacceptable.

I am seeking options. I am considering either having the bank auto pay the eBills themselves, continuing to act as the aggregator, or actually setting up some type of auto-deduct with the vendors themselves (utilities, cell bills, mortgage, car payments, boat payments, etc.).

What do you suggest is the better method?

Caveat: I am hesitant to give various creditors my account info for auto-deducting because of a bad experience many years ago. My wife, before we were married, belonged to a women-only gym for a time. They reached into her account every month to take their monthly fee. However, this continued for a long time after they went out of business. Attempts to contact them to halt this were unsuccessful. According to the bank, at the time, we had to close out the account completely and open up an entirely different account to halt this. I am hesitant to trust creditors with my account information for this reason.

We autopay everything we can on a credit card, then manually pay the credit card monthly. It allows me to check the credit card before paying and because I use a cash back card, I get money back almost every month!

[M2inOR]

We have all bills on autopsy. Either a direct debit from a bank account or a charge to one of our credit cards.

The credit card bill is also automated from a bank account.

A suggestion! Have multiple bank accounts and credit cards. Only have enough funds in bank account to pay one or two months of bills and charges.

We have extra security in credit card accounts and bank accounts.

Why multiple bank and credit card accounts? To keep our funds safer. Also, if one account is compromised or locked, we can still live life and travel if something goes wrong.

Also, if traveling to Europe and Asia, set up Apple Pay or Google Pay on your phone so you can pay everywhere with a tap without pulling out your wallet or credit card.

We just completed a 5 week trip to Europe, and used phone or card for everything. Even some tour guides and restaurants had tap to pay for tips.

Yes, I brought US and Europe cash I had on handle from previous trips just in case cash was needed. I did not need cash at all.

This is my experience after 45 years of international travel. Longest trip away from home was 8 weeks.

Thanks to the internet, travel is stress free. Even helps watch the home while away. Friends help too.

[CoachKandSportsguy]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

I am trying to figure out why someone would prefer to pay a monthly fixed amount, based on the highest annual monthly bill, versus simply going auto pay for the exact amount due? It only takes a few minutes each month to reconcile the billing statement to the auto pay and record and file information for your records. What is the advantage of this method, I’m always looking for ways to simplify life?

My wife, before we were married, belonged to a women-only gym for a time. They reached into her account every month to take their monthly fee. However, this continued for a long time after they went out of business. Attempts to contact them to halt this were unsuccessful. According to the bank, at the time, we had to close out the account completely and open up an entirely different account to halt this.

Two reasons:

Hacking of vendors auto pay account . .
Sense of payment control . . see second quote above
Lack of trust in vendors billing. .

but then I again, I posted something from ZeroHedge which I read. .

[msilagy]

Interesting - something negative happens to someone only once and they are done with that service - except for child bearing labor! LOL. Think about it!

[JGibson]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

Some utility companies will not accept a credit card, or, if they do, they charge a percentage fee.

Yeah, I think the CC rewards frenzy initiated a spike in folks using their CC for just about everything.

I believe some companies pay a fee to CC companies so they are revolting.

[allsport]

Originally Posted by ElDiabloJoe

I am looking to make a change. For the past several years, I have used BillPay via my Truist (and prior to that, Wells Fargo) accounts. Lately, Truist is screwing things up. I send payments on Aug 1, and they don't arrive at the creditor until Aug 18!! Not to mention that in the intervening 17 days, my account balance online shows falsely inflated since the money has not been delivered to the creditor yet, although my hand-kept register shows the money removed the day I send it.

In a world of instantaneous digital communication and secure transactions, I find this more and more frequent and lengthening delay unacceptable.

I am seeking options. I am considering either having the bank auto pay the eBills themselves, continuing to act as the aggregator, or actually setting up some type of auto-deduct with the vendors themselves (utilities, cell bills, mortgage, car payments, boat payments, etc.).

What do you suggest is the better method?

Caveat: I am hesitant to give various creditors my account info for auto-deducting because of a bad experience many years ago. My wife, before we were married, belonged to a women-only gym for a time. They reached into her account every month to take their monthly fee. However, this continued for a long time after they went out of business. Attempts to contact them to halt this were unsuccessful. According to the bank, at the time, we had to close out the account completely and open up an entirely different account to halt this. I am hesitant to trust creditors with my account information for this reason.

My utilities are on auto pay and the rest I pay on line directly to the company with never any issues. They are paid the same day and I get both a receipt at the time I pay and again at the time the payment posts. Very easy and safe and I have total control.

[JRcorvette]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

We use autopay putting as much on a credit card as we can and then autopay the credit card payment.

I understand you don't like this and why. Fortunately, we haven't had those problems yet.

Utility bills are deducted from my bank account in order to avoid a service charge. There might be some regulation that says the utility must collect the full amount and therefore must add the service charge if there is a fee to them (like with a credit card).

My credit card provides for virtual numbers. I create one of these for each vendor. If there is any problem I can cancel the virtual number without affecting the actual account number. So far this has been unnecessary but it feels like a good safety measure.

Curious what CC allows you to create virtual account numbers???

[cjky2k]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

We use autopay putting as much on a credit card as we can and then autopay the credit card payment.

I understand you don't like this and why. Fortunately, we haven't had those problems yet.

Utility bills are deducted from my bank account in order to avoid a service charge. There might be some regulation that says the utility must collect the full amount and therefore must add the service charge if there is a fee to them (like with a credit card).

My credit card provides for virtual numbers. I create one of these for each vendor. If there is any problem I can cancel the virtual number without affecting the actual account number. So far this has been unnecessary but it feels like a good safety measure.

I do the same. Autopay from checking account for utilities as they either require that or charge a fee for credit card.

Autopay via credit card for everything else that I can to get the rewards on the credit card. Then I pay off the credit card each month. Credit card gives you an added level of safety and assistance if a recurring charge doesn’t stop.

Do watch notices though. My cell phone provider just offered a statement credit every month to switch to direct debit to a bank account from credit card. They aren’t imposing a 3% credit card fee but doing this to encourage people to shift to direct debit.

[daniel200]

Originally Posted by ElDiabloJoe

I am looking to make a change. For the past several years, I have used BillPay via my Truist (and prior to that, Wells Fargo) accounts. Lately, Truist is screwing things up. I send payments on Aug 1, and they don't arrive at the creditor until Aug 18!! Not to mention that in the intervening 17 days, my account balance online shows falsely inflated since the money has not been delivered to the creditor yet, although my hand-kept register shows the money removed the day I send it.

In a world of instantaneous digital communication and secure transactions, I find this more and more frequent and lengthening delay unacceptable.

I am seeking options. I am considering either having the bank auto pay the eBills themselves, continuing to act as the aggregator, or actually setting up some type of auto-deduct with the vendors themselves (utilities, cell bills, mortgage, car payments, boat payments, etc.).

What do you suggest is the better method?

Caveat: I am hesitant to give various creditors my account info for auto-deducting because of a bad experience many years ago. My wife, before we were married, belonged to a women-only gym for a time. They reached into her account every month to take their monthly fee. However, this continued for a long time after they went out of business. Attempts to contact them to halt this were unsuccessful. According to the bank, at the time, we had to close out the account completely and open up an entirely different account to halt this. I am hesitant to trust creditors with my account information for this reason.

The problem that you are describing is unacceptable. Truist is a very large bank (i believe #10 in size). There is no excuse for their crappy IT department. Why would you expect their problems to stop here?

The first thing I would do is move to a better financial institution. There are several ideas put forth in this forum to help you. Non of them can guarantee success if you remain with Truist and it’s IT department fails to execute all of your tasks correctly and timely.

[biker59]

Originally Posted by ElDiabloJoe

I am looking to make a change. For the past several years, I have used BillPay via my Truist (and prior to that, Wells Fargo) accounts. Lately, Truist is screwing things up. I send payments on Aug 1, and they don't arrive at the creditor until Aug 18!! Not to mention that in the intervening 17 days, my account balance online shows falsely inflated since the money has not been delivered to the creditor yet, although my hand-kept register shows the money removed the day I send it.

In a world of instantaneous digital communication and secure transactions, I find this more and more frequent and lengthening delay unacceptable.

I am seeking options. I am considering either having the bank auto pay the eBills themselves, continuing to act as the aggregator, or actually setting up some type of auto-deduct with the vendors themselves (utilities, cell bills, mortgage, car payments, boat payments, etc.).

What do you suggest is the better method?

Caveat: I am hesitant to give various creditors my account info for auto-deducting because of a bad experience many years ago. My wife, before we were married, belonged to a women-only gym for a time. They reached into her account every month to take their monthly fee. However, this continued for a long time after they went out of business. Attempts to contact them to halt this were unsuccessful. According to the bank, at the time, we had to close out the account completely and open up an entirely different account to halt this. I am hesitant to trust creditors with my account information for this reason.

Where I can I charge my bill to my credit card, mainly to get points. For utilities etc and those companies who won't accept credit card payments without a fee, I use a checking account and give the company the ach info. As a safeguard, though, I use a dedicated checking account for these purposes. I have a separate main checking account to which pension, etc, gets deposited. I push a budgeted amount from this account to my utilities checking account each month. This minimizes how much I have to change should I need to close the utilities account.

[Laurel Maryland]

Originally Posted by westernrider75

We autopay everything we can on a credit card, then manually pay the credit card monthly. It allows me to check the credit card before paying and because I use a cash back card, I get money back almost every month!

A good thing about autopay is that you'll never have to worry about one of your payments arriving late and messing up your credit score. Not to mention the late fees.

[Salty Dog]

Originally Posted by JRcorvette

Curious what CC allows you to create virtual account numbers???

I don't use it, but my Capitol One CC accounts offer it.

[Maker]

Originally Posted by JRcorvette

Curious what CC allows you to create virtual account numbers???

Citi has them. Not super easy to manage, but I use them often for some online things.
Plus they have 2 cards with rewards. One is 2% on everything. One is 5% in one category (choice of several categories; gas, restaurants, grocery, etc) monthly.

US Bank does not have them (I think) but has 6% at Walmart and Amazon.

With several credit cards, each covering a different type of purchase, it should be easy to earn $500 to $1000 yearly paying for non-discretionary things.

[nn0wheremann]

Originally Posted by ElDiabloJoe

I am looking to make a change. For the past several years, I have used BillPay via my Truist (and prior to that, Wells Fargo) accounts. Lately, Truist is screwing things up. I send payments on Aug 1, and they don't arrive at the creditor until Aug 18!! Not to mention that in the intervening 17 days, my account balance online shows falsely inflated since the money has not been delivered to the creditor yet, although my hand-kept register shows the money removed the day I send it.

In a world of instantaneous digital communication and secure transactions, I find this more and more frequent and lengthening delay unacceptable.

I am seeking options. I am considering either having the bank auto pay the eBills themselves, continuing to act as the aggregator, or actually setting up some type of auto-deduct with the vendors themselves (utilities, cell bills, mortgage, car payments, boat payments, etc.).

What do you suggest is the better method?

Caveat: I am hesitant to give various creditors my account info for auto-deducting because of a bad experience many years ago. My wife, before we were married, belonged to a women-only gym for a time. They reached into her account every month to take their monthly fee. However, this continued for a long time after they went out of business. Attempts to contact them to halt this were unsuccessful. According to the bank, at the time, we had to close out the account completely and open up an entirely different account to halt this. I am hesitant to trust creditors with my account information for this reason.

Keep using bill pay, never let creditors write their own checks (debits) off your account. But, change banks. Chase works well for me.

[Toymeister]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

I am trying to figure out why someone would prefer to pay a monthly fixed amount, based on the highest annual monthly bill, versus simply going auto pay for the exact amount due? It only takes a few minutes each month to reconcile the billing statement to the auto pay and record and file information for your records. What is the advantage of this method, I’m always looking for ways to simplify life?

Two advantages:

1. I spend zero minutes reconciling bills. I'll do this in five years

2. Level billing. Here posters endlessly complain about increasing bills. My payments don't increase and won't for several years.