Is online bill payment worth the hassle?

[COElizabeth]

Aargh! I am so frustrated! I thought it would save time, postage, etc. if I started paying all our regular bills online, so I switched our accounts to a bank which offers free online bill payment. That in itself was a hassle, but okay. Now I have spent countless hours trying to set online bill pay up, and I have yet to get one payment scheduled! It's not just the bank's website, either. I gave up on it for my telephone bill when it kept telling me my account number wasn't in the right format (even when I copied it exactly from my bill). So I decided to go to the phone company's website to do it from there, and I got an incredibly slow site which never did complete the process. Maybe paper checks aren't so bad after all...

Oh, and while I am at it... I noticed that a restaurant charge never showed up on my credit card bill from last month, so I called the restaurant, which said the charge did post. Then I called the credit card company, which said the restaurant never completed the transaction. I called the restaurant back, and they said they didn't complete the transaction the first time, but it did go through later (still way before my credit card bill cutoff date). At this point I told the restaurant staff I had made a good effort and if neither they nor the credit card company was concerned, I was just going to drop it. Ah well. That night it was rainy and I got soaked walking to the restaurant, so at least I got a free meal.

Elizabeth, Mom to James, 9-20-02
EDD #2, 10-30-04

[Melanie]

I think it is. It cuts my bill-paying time by 75%...no envelopes, no stamps. I've not ever had any problems with formats not being accepted, but there are several bill-pay vendors out there. Did you try calling their help line?

[mamahill]

I pay mine through the individual vendors, and the sites are pretty quick, so I haven't had a problem. I'm sorry yours has been such a hassle - but I'm sure that once it gets worked out it will be better.

And yay on the free meal. I applaud your diligence. I hope it was good eatin.

[ellies mom]

My DH uses PayTrust. We keep the same bank. He loves it. Most of the bills get sent to Paytrust instead of the house, Paytrust e-mails us, he clicks a button, bills are paid. I don't know how much it costs, but I know he'll never go back.

[houseof3boys]

I'm sorry that you're having so much trouble with it. It is a huge convenience to me and saves tons of stress for last minute stuff. The initial set up is a PITA. I just took my time with it and when a bill would come in, I would enter it instead of trying to do them all at once. Have you called the bank help line or sent an email telling them what a PITA it's been? Good luck with it Elizabeth. It really will simplify things once it is set up, I promise.

The free meal was nice at least. :) Hope it was a lobster dinner.

[jal]

Don't count on that free meal just yet.

I've had charges that didn't show up on my Visa bill for what ever reason only for they to suddenly appear three months later.

[ett]

We usually pay from the vendor's website. It takes a bit of time to set everything up but once it's set up, it's very quick.

[starrynight]

I do all of my bill paying online and don't have any problems so far. I think one site was confusing to set up but the rest of them are fine. I don't do it through my bank website though, I go to each individual bill site and pay it that way. It was easier to do that.

Don't worry about the charge but don't count it as free just yet either. We had that happen, one site said they billed the item we bought, credit card never showed it up and about 2 months later it finally came through. My guess is they found it going through audits or something.

[TahliasMom]

No matter how organized I would get with my bill piles, few would always slip through the cracks! I was paying late fees every month on half my bills. I love online bill pay. I do it through my bank. It's a pain to set up but once it's done, it's so quick and easy. I enter bills as I get them so I don't forget. Plus I can see at a glance when the last time I paid something so it's easy to spot a problem by just looking at the last paid date!
good luck
Katherine

[stillplayswithbarbies]

We have most of ours set up to automatically come out of our checking account. Some places can't do that but they can do a recurring bill to a credit card, so we use the Visa check card on the same bank account.

There are only two that I have to do anything about paying. Our water bill is through the town and they don't have any way of doing it automatically, so I had to set them up as vendor in our bank's online bill pay. When the paper bill comes in, I just go online and type it in. And I still write checks to the babysitter weekly, although I've been thinking about asking her if we can pay her electronically as well. If she banks at our bank, it would be an electronic transfer and if she doesn't it would be like the water bill where the bank prints the check and mails it for us.

I love online bill paying and it was all easy to set up. But like Sarah, I did most of it through the vendors so I don't have to actually do anything to cause the bill to be paid each month. Many of them set it up over the phone. A few had to send me a paper to fill out.

...Karen
DS Jake Feb 91, DD Logan Mar 03
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[deborah_r]

I pay most of my bills through my bank's online bill-pay and have no problems. I hope you can get it to work for you, it is so much easier than writing checks, sealing envelopes, putting on stamps, etc.!