Nowadays eveything is about making life easier and paying bills is no exception. Between snail mail, fraud and paper and postage costs, paying your bills online can save you time and money. Click through the slide show to the right for tips and benefits of "e-billing".
Paying online at individual billers' Web sites is a hassle-you have to remember a slew of URLs, user names and passwords. But if you use your bank's bill-pay service, you can pay all your bills at one site with one user name and one password. Go directly to the biller's site only to pay last-minute bills you might have overlooked.
Blue Cross of California is charging hundreds of thousands of its individual policyholders $2 a month to put their bills in the mail. Another California insurer, Health Net, bills policyholders who choose paper $5 a month. Phone company MCI charges 99 cents a month for paper bills, and Internet service provider EarthLink charges $1. To avoid the fee, customers must sign up for "e-bills" at the company's Web site or pay automatically through their bank.
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IF THE SERVICE ISN'T FREE, YOU COULD BE PAYING TOO MUCH.
With most third-party bill payers, you spend about as much as you would if you mailed checks. For example, Yahoo Bill Pay is free for three months, after which you pay $4.95 a month for 12 payments and 40 cents for each additional payment. Many banks, however, have lowered or done away with fees because they want to wean customers off paper checks.
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USE QUICKEN OR MONEY? YOU'LL PAY TO UPGRADE.
The big software companies discontinue technical support and online services for their products after about three years. For example, as of last April, Quicken 2004 users could no longer download account information from their financial-services firms. To keep abreast of your financial details, you need to buy the latest version-at a cost of at least $29.99.
Plus, some banks charge customers to download account information through money-management software. For example, Wachovia instituted a $5.95 monthly fee for some accounts earlier this year. You can avoid the fee if you go to the site, download your statement, then import it into your program.
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YOUR MONEY KEEPS EARNING INTEREST.
In the early days of online bill-paying, your account was often debited days before the money reached the biller. Now, for bills paid electronically your account is debited the same day your payment is credited. When an online bill-pay service has to send a paper check, your account is usually debited after the biller deposits the check.
ING's Electric Orange account takes online bill-paying to the next level: Enter the recipient's information and the details of the payment, and an e-mail is sent. The recipient clicks on the link within the e-mail to enter the account information and the money is transferred. Meanwhile, you earn 4% interest until the money is gone.
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IT'S SAFER THAN SNAIL MAIL.
Most financial fraud occurs when checks, credit cards and account statements are stolen from mailboxes. Online financial transactions are encrypted to help reduce the possibility of identity theft. Plus, if you use your bank as your go-to bill-payer, you avoid sharing your account information with multiple billers, which helps to secure your data against hackers.
Security: Online bill pay is more secure than paying bills with paper checks. Your financial information is encrypted when you send payments online, which makes it difficult for scammers to steal it.
Security: Online bill pay is more secure than paying bills with paper checks. Your financial information is encrypted when you send payments online, which makes it difficult for scammers to steal it.
Online bill paying can be an expensive component to online banking as some companies will charge fees (See Online Banking Fees). If you've set up automatic bill payment and need to stop those payments, the process can take a while. With the ease of automatic bill payment, it's easy to forget which bill is due when.
To do this, you'll need some basic information about the payee, including a name and account number for your service account. Many billers may already be set up in the bill pay system. If a biller is not in the system, you'll need to provide a few more details such as a mailing address and phone number for the biller.
It's generally safer to use your bank's online bill pay because you have more control over the payment process. You set the amount and date of payment rather than allowing the service provider to take the money from your bank account on their terms.
Is online bill pay safe. Online bill pay is included with an online bank account, and online bank accounts are generally very safe. Banking sites protect your accounts in a number of ways, including multifactor authentication, alerts for suspicious activity and website encryption.
Debit cards are a step above cash in terms of security, but are still a relatively risky payment method. Debit cards could leave you liable for funds lost to fraud, provide criminals direct access to your bank accounts, expose you to overdraft fees and risk tying up your money in hold charges.
Avoid paying bills online with a debit card; use a credit card if possible. Your liability for unauthorized use and your rights for dealing with errors are generally different for a debit card and a credit card.
Enter each biller's information into your bank's online bill pay platform, or choose them from a list provided by your bank. Choose when to send the payment. Select a recurring or one-time payment.
Online bill pay enables you to schedule and pay your bills right from your computer, tablet or mobile phone. An online bill pay service works by deducting a payment from your account balance and transferring it to a service provider.
Most financial fraud occurs when checks, credit cards and account statements are stolen from mailboxes. Online financial transactions are encrypted to help reduce the possibility of identity theft.
Introduction: My name is Barbera Armstrong, I am a lovely, delightful, cooperative, funny, enchanting, vivacious, tender person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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