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In light of all the recent financial problems that many have encountered, do you use your banks online bill pay service? Is it risky to have all your debts linked to your checking account so someone could look and make a judgement call about your financial health? Until now, I had looked on this as a convenience (no stamps, easy to pay from and reconcile your account) but now I am having my doubts that I should put all that information willing into the hands of my bank... Your thoughts??
I tried it once, but my bank has such a 'wait' before it is mailed. I expect it to be sent the next day, it in reality it is like 5 business days later.
That is too insane.
A lot of banks use free checking accounts. I set up one just for bills. I transfer or deposit only what is needed for that month, usually in two or three deposits. That way if the account is compromised, I can only lose a little bit and know about it right away.
Yes, it does mean once in a while I over extend that account, my fault. But it does give me peace of mind about my account number.
Not sure what point you are trying to make. Online banking is safer than sticking a hand full of checks in the mail where they and your checking account are vulnerable to fraud.
I still pay by mail the two bills that don't accept credit cards or have web sites where I can pay by ACH.
Like that cash back.
I am still leery of allowing auto payments.
I'd rather take the extra few minutes and control the when and how and how much.
Agreed, billing errors do occur, and that could be a real problem with automatic payments.
I have several utilities on EPP (equal payment plans) and I setup automatic payments that I control, as Bill Pay allows repeat payments. Bills that change from month to month, I'll pay after I look at the bill.
ive used online bill pay on my banks website to pay pretty much all my bills for the last like 3 years at least. works great for me, bills get paid within 2-3 days, dont have to buy stamps or envelopes or go to the post office or mailbox, and easy to see when and how much was paid for all the different accounts.
In light of all the recent financial problems that many have encountered, do you use your banks online bill pay service? Is it risky to have all your debts linked to your checking account so someone could look and make a judgement call about your financial health? Until now, I had looked on this as a convenience (no stamps, easy to pay from and reconcile your account) but now I am having my doubts that I should put all that information willing into the hands of my bank... Your thoughts??
I do virtually all my banking online. I'd have my check direct deposited if my employer was set up to do that.
Mostly, I like the convenience of setting everything up to automatically pay on the same month every day. With rental property, it makes things so much simpler.
Basically, banks have all your personal information anyway.
We don't do online banking/billpay and don't intend ever to do so. Just too paranoid about security at that level.
I agree. I trust the computer as far as I can throw it. I don't understand what is secure or not secure and I'm probably not the only one. Writing checks is no real hardship. A book of checks lasts me about a year and a book of stamps lasts me about 3 months.
Sometimes when I'm at the library, I always see this older gentleman who does online banking and checks his stock portfolio at a mutual fund site. I wonder how secure the computers at the library are and whether he should be putting account and pin numbers on the internet.
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and whether he should be putting account and pin numbers on the internet.
