How do I pay bills?
Let me count the ways
1 Check in the mail: mortgage, pickup payment, electricity, phone, newspaper delivery, 2 credit cards, one student loan
2 Online billpay (through the company's website, not through bank): satellite, car insurance
3 In person by check at bank driveup: one credit card
4 Automatic withdrawal from checking: fed student loan
I had billpay service through my bank (WAMU), but only one of my bills could be paid by EFT (my former auto insurer)...everything else was just sent as a check in the mail by them. Problem with this: I was never given the cancelled check by the bank as proof of payment, the bank took the money out of my account at the time of the billpay, not when the check was cashed (well, what would happen if the check got lost in the mail??), and some of the creditors said that it could be hard to process such a payment (or might pitch it because it looked like junk mail). Oh, and furthermore, no matter where it went, it took like a week or more to get there. Not worth five bucks a month.