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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??
Yes, I have used a BoA on-line bill paying account for years and love it. I don't ever want to go back. But there is nothing shady about my finances or my accounts. No one but BoA can access that information, and they already can check my credit records anytime they want so I don't see that its a big deal.
But I don't wear a tinfoil hat either.
I recently took out a credit card with them also, that I pay off every month, but it and all its transactions show up just like a checking account on-line, so I can immediatly review charges made to the card and take action if needed, without having to wait for the end of the month to get a paper statement.
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.
One definitly should not be using passwords and pin numbers via public wifi locations, that is asking for trouble.
i don't use bill pay because I don't trust anyone else to pay my bills on time. If they are late on a bill for some "glitches" the best they will do is probably apologize and credit me any late fees but what happens if my credit gets ruined because of it? That cannot be reversed.
Fortunately for me I pay all my bills online and it takes me all of about 10 minutes to pay my entire months bills so any service to do that is pointless anyway.
i don't use bill pay because I don't trust anyone else to pay my bills on time. If they are late on a bill for some "glitches" the best they will do is probably apologize and credit me any late fees but what happens if my credit gets ruined because of it? That cannot be reversed.
Fortunately for me I pay all my bills online and it takes me all of about 10 minutes to pay my entire months bills so any service to do that is pointless anyway.
I have had more problems with bills being posted late when I mailed in a check then I have with on-line banking. You have no record of when a company received a check but the bank can provide you with proof of the date an electronic payment was made to a business.
I do as much as I can online. I only write 3-4 checks per year.
That is about my check count every year, things like the annual property tax. My problem is that I have to be sure and put the checkbooks in a specific place or I can never find it months later when I might need it.
And gee if you don't trust computers, you can't write check, as you can't keep your money in a bank, which also accounts for every penny they deal with on computers.
Cash under the mattress and spending hours driving around paying bills (payments which are recorded and tracked on computers by the way ) going to wherever one buys money orders today to pay bill owed out of town (which will again be recorded and credited to your account on those untrustworthy computer )
I've been doing online banking with bill payer for 11 yrs now, no problems. BOA has the best system.
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and whether he should be putting account and pin numbers on the internet.
) going to wherever one buys money orders today to pay bill owed out of town (which will again be recorded and credited to your account on those untrustworthy computer 
