It is great to pay bills with a few key strokes and know that the money will be taken out of my account when the bill is due. Not a week earlier or even a day late. I just followed the easy directions and pay all my regular (utilities, credit cards, taxes, etc.) bills online.

I save time, checks and at least 12-15 stamps per month. As you all know stamps are expensive now. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to make their life easier.

While I don't use it, I do think there is one 'Con'.
One must still remember and take the time to do it.

Instead of, and better in my opinion, is completely automatic bill payment being deducted from my checking.

I have for years been able to afford the luxury of having and keeping a fairly large checking balance.

Some payments are the same each exact amount each month
Health Ins premium
Homeowners premium
Auto insurance
Dial up internet
Long Distance
Minimum payment on the credit card I always use. I then write a check for the balance-but this is my guanantee that the payment will 'never' be late.

Then these others are a little different each month. I receive what looks like a bill as usual, but instead of saying what is owed and when, it tells me the amount that will be withdrawn and on what day.
Set up on that is
Telephone
Electric

The local rural water company isn't set up to do anything like that. My bill is <$10 a month, so I just send them $100, and watch the 'credit' portion of the statement each month. I started doing this after getting disconnected years ago for owing and not paying $2.36 one month. When they send disconnect notices, they really mean it!

I get paid once a month (retirement) so about once a month or so, I go through all the bills, and just log and deduct them from checking. I've been doing it for years, and no one has ever made a mistake on any amount withdrawn, or the date.

For me, it is just foolproof.

Sue

You can set up auto pay when the bill auto comes to them electronically, or more or less do it yourself when the bill comes in you write the check on their window and specify the date delivered.

I'm a diy'er. Bills come in the mail, First one, I tuck it in my bill pile, next bill comes, I go online and pay both & schedule the dates I want that check to arrive in the billers mailbox.

They like five working days mostly to process the check and get it to the debtors mail box. Some bills just can do a money transfer the next day if the company is also registered and set up to do so... which most monthly utilities are and some online merchants too.

Down side for me is they absolutely require the phone number to send checks - the number for the company you're sending money to. Which I don't always have on some one time purchases. I realistically fake it : (correct area code) 555-1212

It's nice & extremely easy, once you do a few. Like having free stamps and envelopes for me and I don't have to worry about bad handwriting. Just have to remember to use the decimal otherwise $39.95 turns into $3995.00 -you do get a preview before OK'ing it.

I've a specific login and password for online banking that's not used anywhere else except for that bank and its a long complicated one so doubtful anybody could bust it without investing lots of attempts/fails and the bank security should not allow that to happen.
I have to type the dang long login/passwd each time I do banking which is quite a bit of an inconvenience because I've become accustomed to windows ways of the fast and simple saved autologin's.

Barbara

I'm paranoid abt having anything abt my checks online, credit card numbers either. i know the bank has it on line and i gripe abt it.but i'm not going to have that info running around anymore than necesary.
identity theft is getting worse every day. When i order anything on line i call. if i can't call i don't buy from them.
vickie