You would think people who WANT to pay their bills on time should be allowed to do so! Is that too much to ask? To get a bill in a timely manner, slip a check into a return envelope, send it back the next day, and assume it will arrive before the due date two weeks in the future?
Apparently, that IS too much to ask!
We usually get the bill for SilverRedO on the 1st or 2nd day of the month. I understand that this was a holiday weekend for January. But still, I ASSumed it would arrive on the 4th or 5th. Nope. We got that bill on January 12th! And the due date is the 15th! No way is that payment going to make it on time.
So... once again, I'm at the mercy of the innernets! The bill said I could pay by phone, or pay online. I looked up the website, and discovered that I would have to make an account. No thank you! I don't need another internet account with a password to remember or write down next to my computer!
The phone number said it was available 24/7/365. So I called around 1:00 a.m. I got an automated line. That figures. I expected as much. It gave me options to answer by using my words, or by poking in a number. I figured that eventually, I would have a chance to press a number to speak to a real live person. After all, the very beginning of the call said my conversation might be monitored.
Well! I never got a human! AND I was not offered the option to pay with my credit card, which Farmer H and I agreed upon, not wanting our bank account info out there. But no. My only choice was to use our checking account. Lucky for me, I have all that account information at my elbow, in the printouts of our past tax returns, since we take our refund by direct deposit.
One thing that comforts my frayed nerves is that the automated voice assured me that I was authorizing a ONE-TIME payment of [exact amount of the monthly bill]. So it was not switching me to paperless billing, and it was not charging me a processing fee.
Oh, and the automated voice told me that my payment would be withdrawn from my bank on Jan 13th, and that it might take TWO DAYS to show up as payment on my loan account. Which would be Jan 15th. The due date!
Heh, heh! That darn old USPS is even making it hard for me to pay on time by phone!
I'm so glad I pay my bills online. NOT by direct debit either, by Bpay, which uses money from my account only when authorised by me. Each Biller has their own "Biller Code" which I type in and their reference number which I also type in, then Save which keeps them in the list. Then when I get a bill I just open the payments and transfers link, enter the biller from the drop down list, enter the amount to be paid, click on "pay now', click on "confirm" and it's done, then a confirmation page pops up with a receipt number which I copy into my budget notebook.
ReplyDeleteCheck on the back of your paper bill and see if there is a Bpay symbol with codes in the "how to pay" section. have The Pony help you check it over. It's a dead easy way to have payments always on time.
River,
ReplyDeleteI have not heard of Bpay. Every statement I get tries to strong-arm me into signing up for automatic payments, which they will take from my checking account AUTOMATICALLY every month. Go paperless, they say! Save a stamp! Do it for the earth! No more paper statements! Each entity wants to do this on their own. I would have DISH, house phone, cell phones, electric, and SilverRedO, all with their fingers in my bank account! No thank you!
We had some bill taken out like this in the past, and when we wanted to end the service to switch providers, I had a devil of a time stopping that payment. The bank said they couldn't do it without the company's authorization, and the company kept giving us the runaround, saying it was stopped, when it wasn't.
I'm glad your method works for you, but I don't want to deal with it.
Auto payments like direct debits are hard to get rid of when you don't want them anymore. Have you checked the back of your paper bill for the "how to pay" section? it's usually quite small. Your USA system might be different from ours with internet banking.
ReplyDeleteOur postal system is stumbling. Perhaps we need to bring Newman out of retirement. HE knew what to do with mail (stuff it in his closet). HE knew how make use of postal vehicles (use them to take a truckload of empty soda bottles in order to get the pennies-per-bottle refund). HE knew how to use extra personnel effectively (get Jerry to deliver on Sundays).
ReplyDeleteNewman for Postmaster General!
River,
ReplyDeleteI can give it a look. Maybe it's something I'd have to do with my bank account, not the individual money-expecting entities. I had it set up for Genius and The Pony's college bills. When I got the monthly online statement, I'd go in and pay it through the college account.
***
Sioux,
THE MAIL NEVER STOPS! If I find something broken, maybe I'll mail it to myself in a crushed box, and file for damages from the post office. Surely they don't have inspectors to investigate...
Yes! That's a similar thing, set it up through your bank account.
ReplyDeleteRiver,
ReplyDeleteThat must be what I do with DISH when I know it will not get there on time. At least they've upgraded their website, and it doesn't take me 30 minutes to log in now. I'm not going to do that with all my payments, since I would still have to go to each individual site and log in to pay.
Maybe your missing packages have labels with your name and address on them... and the labels came from a crappy label-maker...
ReplyDeleteSioux,
ReplyDeleteI believe you mean a Label Baby Jr., the re-gifter's friend!