Personally, we'd rather control when the money goes out of the account. If the autopay accepts credit cards then that's fine. I can contest it when they inevitably screw up the charge.
You can't run a business like this. You MUST use quick books.
I use Mint.com and its app
That's the other thing about my current setup. I have most of my paycheck going into my savings account and I then transfer whatever I need for bills into my checking account. Really has helped me out with saving up my money
Do they fix it on the spot and your balance due is then lowered or do they fix it and credit you in the next billing cycle? I'll bet it's the latter because I have never seen it happen the other way. The point I'm making is that you should really be honest with yourself in determining why you're opposed to autopay. What you are doing in the thread is asking for advice and then declaring the reasons why you can't take advantage of the suggestions given. The end result will be a continuation of the status quo for you. If you're happy with that outcome I guess it's all good.That's one of the other reasons I've avoided auto pay. I just don't trust most companies to charge me correctly. I've lost count how many times I've had to call Verizon to have them fix my fios bill
Do they fix it on the spot and your balance due is then lowered or do they fix it and credit you in the next billing cycle? I'll bet it's the latter because I have never seen it happen the other way. The point I'm making is that you should really be honest with yourself in determining why you're opposed to autopay. What you are doing in the thread is asking for advice and then declaring the reasons why you can't take advantage of the suggestions given. The end result will be a continuation of the status quo for you. If you're happy with that outcome I guess it's all good.
I brought this up in a thread I created and got lambasted by the usual suspects. We've purchased a second residence and the autopays associated with it have now made it impossible to have everything debited from my savings account without exceeding the federal limits. I must now have some debited from my checking account. The transfer from my savings to checking counts against the six debit limit so it was a bit of a juggling act to try and do it the way I desire. I "solved" it by keeping a higher balance in the checking account and setting up autopays from it. But I didn't want to keep a large balance in the checking account.Weird. I thought there was an annual limit of half a dozen transfers from savings to checking. I see it's half a dozen per month (Regulation D). Hmmm; may have to switch back to this. I like having the money in savings rather than checking, with it NOT set up to pull from my savings if I overdraft. I hate having a lot in checking, and having to worry, "what if someone manages to get into my account."
I hear ya but my two CC companies, my utilities including electric, gas, Comcast and Dish, car lease and various insurance policies (I do pay yearly though) all send me an email telling me my bill is available for viewing. The only thing I have to pay manually as I said before is for garbage pickup. We purchased a second residence and all the bills associated with it also send me an email. Even the podunk water company sends me an email with the bill as an attachment and debits my checking account automatically.It's almost always the latter (You'll see the correct in the next billing cycle nonsense). I like the idea of autopay to a degree but I wish they could "enhance" it. I liked what one of the previous posters said his credit union does in which he can specify an upper limit on bills that are on autopay. Now that would work so I can set a max limit on what gets taken out.
But I really don't mind the manual work of paying the bills (setting up the payments via billpay). I just need a system that can send me reminders when certain bills should be due so that if I don't get the bill via mail, I'll know to login to the companies site to get my bill.
I hear ya but my two CC companies, my utilities including electric, gas, Comcast and Dish, car lease and various insurance policies (I do pay yearly though) all send me an email telling me my bill is available for viewing. The only thing I have to pay manually as I said before is for garbage pickup. We purchased a second residence and all the bills associated with it also send me an email. Even the podunk water company sends me an email with the bill as an attachment and debits my checking account automatically.
Do you get a utility bill for $118 and decide you only want to pay $85 and carry the balance to next month or what? Do they allow that? Or, do you want a limit because you're concerned they'll mistakenly debit $218 on a $118 bill? If that's the case I can tell you that in my case I have never had that happen in decades of autopay. I have never had an account compromised in any way.
So all but one of the entities that bill me regularly send me an email notification that my bill is available. The only one that doesn't is a small local garbage pickup company. Seems like you should have the same opportunities available to you. I'm repeating myself when I say that there is no way no how I am going to rely on the Post Office to get anything to me or deliver anything I may send. It's a crap shoot. It's a form of gambling. The answer is email.
That's one of the other reasons I've avoided auto pay. I just don't trust most companies to charge me correctly. I've lost count how many times I've had to call Verizon to have them fix my fios bill
I'm just amazed by how much work people are apparently willing to put in every month in paying routine bills.
If Verizon does screw up your bill, do you think you're powerless to contest it if it's autopayed? What kind of banks do you people do business with? Or maybe you live hand to mouth, so that an extra $50 charge is going to put you in the red? If so, you have bigger problems than just keeping track of your bills.
In my head. I don't coexist well with rigid organization. It ends up being more work, for little benefit.