Bill Pay

[corymcd88]

What is better to use Bill Pay or go to each bank and pay the cards directly from each lenders web page?

[Anonymous]

Personally I don't use Web Bill pay on anything except installment loans (ie, car payments) that are the same every month.

I vary my spending on different cards, based mostly on rewards, so I never know how much I'll put on a card.  For example, this quarter my Sams club and Amazon spending is on Discover.  Next quarter, that spending will likely be on the CSP.

All credit cards I own I have the app downloaded on my phone and I just pay them off every payday (every other friday).  I PIF unless I have a card with 0% interest, then any balances or large purchases I make I put on that card and just pay it down before the 0% interest is over.

[Loquat]

I always use bill pay.  Developed that habit when I was rebuilding and a lot of "less than prime" lenders wanted to play the payment-hold game...especially when making lots of payments on low limit cards.  Granted, I understand their reasoning as at the time my credit report and score showed that I was a "less than desirable" customer.  So using bill pay rather than paying at the lenders website seemed to help reduce the amount of payment holds I was dealing with at the time as the payment was pushed to them rather than being pulled.  

[longtimelurker]

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@Loquat wrote:

I always use bill pay.  Developed that habit when I was rebuilding and a lot of "less than prime" lenders wanted to play the payment-hold game...especially when making lots of payments on low limit cards.  Granted, I understand their reasoning as at the time my credit report and score showed that I was a "less than desirable" customer.  So using bill pay rather than paying at the lenders website seemed to help reduce the amount of payment holds I was dealing with at the time as the payment was pushed to them rather than being pulled.  

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I prefer auto pay set up on the issuer website, simply because I feel (but have never tested!) that if the money is in the bank, it is their responsibility to take the payment, whereas if I use bill pay and something goes wrong, I have to work with more parties to try to sort stuff out

[Anonymous]

PUSH method works great with a regular Bank the pull method is better if you are pulling it from credit union checking account. My direct deposit is not with a credit union so deposits at cu dont clear with a weekend in the way. Even cash!

Is also important if you're setting up auto pay for the first time to get your account number right one of my accounts has a long trailing zeros at the beginning and I goofed before.

[UncleB]

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@Loquat wrote:

I always use bill pay.  Developed that habit when I was rebuilding and a lot of "less than prime" lenders wanted to play the payment-hold game...especially when making lots of payments on low limit cards.  Granted, I understand their reasoning as at the time my credit report and score showed that I was a "less than desirable" customer.  So using bill pay rather than paying at the lenders website seemed to help reduce the amount of payment holds I was dealing with at the time as the payment was pushed to them rather than being pulled.  

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+1

This is me as well. 

Perhaps strangly, I do use 'pull' ACH with Amex (i.e. I pay from the Amex site) since they always give instant credit, but with everybody else I keep it simple and push the payment using my bank's bill pay service.  I do have my account info established with many of my creditors, though, for those times where I might need to make a payment at the last minute.  You might say I like having options... LOL.

[Loquat]

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@UncleB wrote:

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@Loquat wrote:

I always use bill pay.  Developed that habit when I was rebuilding and a lot of "less than prime" lenders wanted to play the payment-hold game...especially when making lots of payments on low limit cards.  Granted, I understand their reasoning as at the time my credit report and score showed that I was a "less than desirable" customer.  So using bill pay rather than paying at the lenders website seemed to help reduce the amount of payment holds I was dealing with at the time as the payment was pushed to them rather than being pulled.  

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+1

This is me as well. 

Perhaps strangly, I do use 'pull' ACH with Amex (i.e. I pay from the Amex site) since they always give instant credit, but with everybody else I keep it simple and push the payment using my bank's bill pay service.  I do have my account info established with many of my creditors, though, for those times where I might need to make a payment at the last minute.  You might say I like having options... LOL.

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UncleB, same here.  I do have my accounts linked at the lenders website for the *just in case* as most lenders I'm with allow payments to be made up until usually 8pm ET with same day credit/posting whereas BOA bill payment cuts off at like 4pm CST for next day payment.  Thankfully I haven't found myself in a position to do such but I have it in place just in case I do.