Pitfalls of Automated Bill Payment

theodp writes "A few months ago, the NY Times' Ron Lieber extolled the virtues of allowing utilities, phone, and credit card companies to pull whatever you owe from your bank account. Big mistake. Lieber's readers fired back, telling him he was out of his mind for suggesting that they give billers unfettered access to their credit cards and bank accounts. Now Lieber goes through five of the glitches that can occur with any of the various methods of setting up automatic payments: 'You can give each biller permission to pull the full amount from your bank account. You can use the online bill system at your bank to push payments out automatically each month. Or you can charge every bill to your credit card and give only that card company permission to pull money from your bank account when the credit card bill is due. Each of these methods has its potential shortcomings ...'" What kind of payment automation do you use, and why?

Comments

Re:I use Paytrust

[PopeRatzo]

I set the payment rules via their website: pay full amount, pay full amount up to [limit], pay specified amount. Or I can just wait for the notification in my email and pay it myself with a few bill clicks.

Geez, do you guys really find it that difficult to pay your own bills? Are you too busy fighting evil or something? Didn't you learn anything at all in that home economics class you took in order to meet girls? Not that it worked, of course.

Re:I use Paytrust

[PopeRatzo]

If someone wants to alert Al Gore because I used too much electricity last month

Ah, he reveals everything we need to know about him. He's too busy listening to Rush Limbaugh to pay his own bills.