What You Need to Know About Online Bill Pay

[AARPLynne]

Most banks and credit unions offer free online bill pay features with your account. Find out what those are and why you might want to use them. Have you tried online bill pay?

[bette52]

I usually pay my bill online using the online site of the company that I want to pay.  Example would be Mastercard ( use their website or app) phone ( use Verizon, AT&T or Sprint)  Macy's , Nordstrom, Neiman etc use their website for bill pay.   I like it because I can schedule a payment before the due date or use the due date to make the payment and it is direct to that company.   At the end of each transaction, I can get an email notification of the payment which I put into an online folder for each payer.  I keep all billing and payment update for 6 months to a year online.  This eliminates paper storage and my files are safe.   I do use an automatic backup to the Cloud weekly.  

[Mike7SoCal]

When paying the phone bill on line, do you have the payments withdrawn directly from your bank account or are they charged to a credit card?  The advantage of using a credit card (for those who pay the balance in full each month) is that you could potentially rack up a few more reward points/cash bonuses for paying bills that way.

[ProfQuill]

Need to mention that Verizon accepts bill payments via bank withdrawal or credit card. The problem is that if you agree to go paperless AND pay via bank [not CC], you get a $10 monthly discount.  No rewards program can touch that.  

I use a credit card where possible for autopay as long as there is no fee or loss of incentive.  Geico for one accepts CC without any fee.

Any government payment via CC generally will charge 2-3%, so unless there's a special rewards promotion, that won't work.

[cindyh129]

I use my banks' bill pay service and would never want to go back to the old-fashioned way. This service is so easy to use and makes keeping track of due dates and payments a cinch. 

You must first sign up with your bank to use the service, then follow the easy set up steps and pay your bills. 

You simply input your billing information, such as: company name, address, account number, etc.. It can be set to automatically pay all or specific bills, or you can do all the bill payment yourself. You can also set up reminders of due dates so you never miss a payment. 

I love it as I no longer have to write checks or buy stamps for bills.