Paying Bills Online

[Camp]

As I expect is the case with many LCVG'ers, I pay all my bills online. That means 8 to 15 different websites, logins, and passwords. Keeping track of it all is a potential nightmare in and of itself. I use a browser plug-in called Roboform to manage site passwords securely.

 

I kept this data backed up on 2 computers, a secure flash memory stick, and on my cell phone. Over the course of a couple of months I experienced freak outages which returned my ability to pay my bills to the stone age. My laptop totally died, my keychain flash memory stick died, I had to format the memory on my cell phone, and my desktop PC died (after 5 years). Suddenly, I was faced with the end of the month and no idea how to pay my bills.

 

Luckily, I managed. Using my work-supplied Laptop I synced my Firefox bookmarks with the handy Foxmarks plugin. Then, using trial and error, I eventually managed to figure out all my usernames and passwords for each online bill pay site. I even had to pay my car payment via US mail...oh, the horror!

 

I don't want to experience this panic again. I'm curious what sort of tools the LCVG group uses to organize, backup and secure your online bill paying data. Is there a service which will securely store all this data online?

 

I use a service called MyCheckFree to pay 3 of my bills (phone, DirecTV, & a school loan). It's a handy service which forwards payments to each company with no fee to the user. Unfortunately, their database of bills is fairly small. I'm curious if there are other such services in use by the LCVG group.

[Josh]

In most cases, your bank will offer a service that does this. At least, every single one of my accounts offers the ability to pay bills that way. It's consolidated, secure, and all in one place.

[Whooter]

Yeah, I pay everything online via my local bank. One login and password.

[ChrisBardon]

I pay everything through my bank account, which I can remember my ID/password for. I also have a google spreadsheet set up with a bunch of misc IDs/passwords that I can never seem to remember, since keeping it on their servers means it's slightly more likely to be not only secure but backed up.

 

Actually, at least a couple of my bills go straight to my credit card, which is even better than paying through the bank. I also have it integrated that all but one holdout can actually present bills right in the online baking interface, which is even better.

 

Now I only bother checking snail mail once a week or so, unless I'm expecting something from amazon or the like

[rustyjaw]

I'm another online bill-payer via my bank.

[Orpheus]

I pay everything except my rent online. So far I have managed to keep most of my various logins and passwords straight. I recently purchased a small leather bound notepad to keep them in, as I hate searching through my email registrations to find the more obscure ones I don't use as often. I may do the google spreadsheet thing as well for those.

[GunnerX]

Online bank payments are the best! Plus you can download your transactions in any format you want.

[PHiL]

Everything gets taken care of online.. Only 3 sites and passwords.. No problems at all.

[Camp]

You know, I didn't even think of checking with my bank. I will look into that ASAP.

 

Actually, at least a couple of my bills go straight to my credit card, which is even better than paying through the bank.

 

I just can't bring myself to allow for automatic deductions. It's silly but I feel like I'm more in control if I press the 'submit' button myself.

[weremichael]

I love autopay through my Discover card cause we get free money (2% on standard bills i.e. electric, cable etc.) for using that card. Obviously I check for irregularities in the bills every month. The only trick to getting the free $$$ is that you have to pay off the old credit card completely every month.

[Dave C]

You know, I didn't even think of checking with my bank. I will look into that ASAP.

 

 

 

I just can't bring myself to allow for automatic deductions. It's silly but I feel like I'm more in control if I press the 'submit' button myself.

 

You don't have to set it up to do automatic deductions via your bank. You create a "merchant list" and select how you want to pay each merchant. If it's the same amount each month, you have the option to set it up for "automatic payments" or manually trigger/schedule payments ("hit the submit button") yourself.

[General Zot]

Yes, I also do this via my credit union online and have done so for years. The service is incredible and easy as pie. If your bank doesn't offer it, shop around for 2 mins and you'll find one that offers the service for free. You don't even pay for the stamps.