Just out of curiosity, does anyone NOT pay their rent via check (or money order or cashier’s check)? I’ve had both big and small time landlords and they all took checks. I suppose you could paypal your landlord your rent if they were really on the ball, but wouldn’t they charge a fee for receiving thousands that way?
I withdraw cash from BOA and walk across the street and deposit directly into Landlord’s account.
Instant credit for her, receipt in hand for me.
So you have to know her account #, or does she have a rare enough name that they just take her name for you?
Then you’d have to be sure to do it during BOA business hours. Interesting, though, thanks for sharing!
I find that if I pay through the individual biller, I know when the payment will be credited to my account there. If I send via my bank (credit union), I never know when it’ll get there because I don’t always know whether it’s electronic (2 business days) or a paper check (subject to mail delays). I also don’t have to worry about whether I’ve typed in the address/ZIP/phone right; for some banks that have zillions of payment lockboxes, this can be tricky. That’s less of a problem than it used to be in the early days of online billpay, but still…
I also know that the payee has credited my account. Some checks from the CU’s billpay service have simply disappeared into the ether. They’ve always been re-credited to me ultimately, but I’m leery of relying on it.
When I pay my credit card, they credit it as of that business day even if they don’t yank the money until the next day.
Things that are less time-sensitive, I pay via the bank. Usually the doctor’s office, for example, isn’t too fussed about whether they get their payment on the 15th (even if the due date is the 12th), so a mail delay is less worrisome.
The concern with the payee debiting my account is more if they’re doing it automatically. Bank of America’s website does “auto pay minimum due” (if you can find it; for some reason Typo Knig’s login has no such choice) and I’ve had them take that amount out even when I’ve already prepaid the minimum (hell, the whole amount).
Our main credit card has the auto-pay minimum due but they don’t do that same crap. I have it setup mainly in case somehow I forget to pay one month. I think they’ve actually done so precisely ONCE - I’d scheduled the payment, but didn’t actually log on to do so until the due date.
We pay 90% of our bills online. The ones we don’t are our garbage pickup and our rent.
I never like auto-withdrawal on anything, though. Like others have said, then they can go on forever and it’s up to YOU to make them stop. And if you quit the place (like a gym) then I have no faith they will stop taking money right away, not even if I submit it in writing. I don’t trust them that far!
Yeah, I know many think it’s a terrible idea, but I’ve never had a problem having auto-deducts done. Granted, I’m inconsistent. Some things, like my utilities and my phone? Those I auto-deduct. My car payment, no. Credit card payments? No.
All on-line payments go into the check register and later into Quicken. From that standpoint the only difference is the lack of a check number.
The only automatic payment we do is for DishNetwork. I think they gave us something to make it automatic - I’m not giving up the flexibility of scheduling payments for free.
We have a basket where all the bills go. Every week or so we look through it and pay stuff, mostly on-line. It is also a good place to put subscription renewal requests, which typically start coming a month after I renew for the year, and also long term bills like property tax.
Makes me think of the good old days back in Albuquerque. Pre-Internet days. A friend there once lamented how he could never open his mailbox without finding a passel of bills. He was floored when I told him I never got bills, not a one, ever.
I paid rent in person. Lived in an all-utilities-paid apartment, so no power bills. Didn’t own a car. Didn’t have a credit card. Had no loans out. Didn’t have a phone, so no phone bill. No TV, so no cable. It was nice.
I have the same set of checks that I got when I opened my account in 2000.
Everything’s paid electronically. Rent is electronic to me, but my bank sends a bank check via snail mail to the management company. It’s set to auto-pay for the 5th of each month, and since the bank likes to send paper checks a week early to account for mail, it gets to the management company exactly on time since they’re in the same city and it really only takes a day.
All but two bills (I have 10 total per month) are auto-pay. The two that aren’t are electricity and credit card, as I don’t pay either of them the same amount every month and if I’m skinny on funds the electricity bill can be scheduled a few days late to use the next paycheck if needed.
To track the auto-pay bills, I just note the dates and general amounts on the calendar on the 1st of each month when I flip the page. I them all from one page to the next and count them. As long as I count all 10 on the calendar, I know I’m covered for the month and can plan budget accordingly, as pay days are noted on the calendar as well.
“Paying” bills and tracking them takes me about 10 minutes a month. It would take something really catastrophic to make me change that.
Most of my bills I pay online.
But there are a few that I still pay with checks. Mostly personal services who expect payment right at the time of service, but don’t take credit cards:
– The babysitter
– The house cleaner
– The plumber
And sometimes for rare payments that I don’t feel worth setting up an online payment account for:
– Charities
– One time bills