[Carolyn]

I used to NOT have anything on autopay. I wanted to feel the burn of paying for things, – so that I didn’t spend thoughtlessly & it sunk in how much I was spending, how many hours of work it would take to pay for things etc. Also to check that the bill is accurate-

 I’ve had some fraud on credit cards over the years. And also so companies (like cable & cell phone) don’t feel like they can increase costs, charge me whatever, & it’s just set on autopay & that the increases will be blindly paid with no question … make them feel like they have to earn my money….

But gradually over the years I’ve put individual things on auto pay as… my cell phone when I had roommates & one of them shoved my bill in a drawer – didn’t give me my mail – I missed payment, so that went on autopay… another bill (rent) – sent in the mail – they said they never got it – that went on autopay. More recently, a credit card bill – they said they mailed the bill, I never received it, so it didn’t get paid on time… since I’ve paid on time for years they did waive the late fee…  

This brings up another point: I get mailed PAPER bills, not ready to give that up. I get so much junk EMAIL that any emailed bill would get lost amongst all the junk email & including the company’s own advertisements trying to sell me things…  

All that said, it may be time to …

Think I’m finally waving the white flag of surrender and going to put everything on autopay. My cable bill just increased a few bucks – nickleing & diming me – so my plan of ‘make them feel like they have to earn my money’ doesn’t really seem to be working anyway! lol sigh

[Thomas]

I have things on autopay like affirm and fertility loans where I didn’t have a choice.

For everything else, manual pay. I’ve had auto pay fail before and not because of any issue on my end. I didn’t know, they didn’t fix it fast and I ended up having two late payments hit my credit. Still can’t get them removed.

I’m still working so the first thing I do when I get paid is pay whatever bills are due before I get paid again.

Takes me just a few minutes twice a month to get things paid and I’m good.

I’d rather take the few minutes and know my shits taken care of.

[Lee]

Autopay utilities and medical insurance and health club. from CC where possible (points). I get paper for all CC, and pay them from bank bill pay. Reconcile via Quicken. I am old and if I pass I want a good paper trail for my wife. No surprises because a bill is sitting in my Email.

[Nikki]

Idk, I guess it doesn’t bother me because I already check things routinely. I check my bank account multiple times a week just to make sure everythings looking right. I check my balance for rent when it’s due before the money comes out, etc etc. I just don’t like having to think about *remembering* to pay. It’s a lot of extra mental work that I just don’t want lol

[Melissa]

No I don’t have them on auto pay through each company, yes I have them on auto pay through the bill pay at my bank. I don’t like giving every company on the planet access to my checking account because I have had a cc company withdrawal twice what they should have. They won’t give it back so I control when, and how much. Except for the 1st time my bank sends a company money it is all electronic daybof delivery so it works.

[Helene]

Consider opening a dedicated email just for financial stuff — bills, bank and investment account statements, etc.

[email protected]

or some such. When you sit down to pay your bills, you won’t have to wade through nonsense to find what you need.

I have a dedicated email for stores that ask for an email for receipts and promos and whatnot. I clear it out by sorting by sender and deleting all from that sender, and unsubscribing as necessary.

[Rachel]

I Autopay for everything. Since I use YNAB I know what all my bills are each month and know if it gets increased I also reconcile my cc account in YNAB frequently, so I would catch fraudulent charges way before I would receive a statement.

[Elizabeth]

It’s part of the automation of my financial details. Bills are not sent via paper any more, and payments are autopay. It frees up so much mental bandwidth.

At the very least, autopay the minimum payments so you don’t get penalized for missing one.

[Frank]

No — what we do is set up at the bank an automatic monthly payment of a fixed amount to go to every monthly provider. Then we change it to the actual amount when we see the bill. This avoids missing payments but keeps us conscious about where the money is going.

One best practice is to never use the auto-pay functions at the site of the provider/receiver of the money. Use the ones at your bank instead so you can manage them all in one place and cut off an auto-pay if necessary over a dispute, cancellation, etc.

[Channing]

I use auto pay for a few things but my main reason for not is that it gives me leverage in case I need to dispute something.

I learned my lesson when Sprint overcharged me $300 and wanted to give a statement credit instead of a refund and I had to jump through hoops to get my money back.

[Author]

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