So mad at HSBC/BigLots (min payment inc)

[Desert-Rat]

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@voidman wrote:

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@Watchmann wrote:
Do you manually pay your mortgage, auto loans, life insurance premiums as well?  Those are recurring autopays of sorts.  I've had payments of one sort or another automatically drafted from my checking accounts for about the last 35 years and never had one go awry.  I think you are making extra effort for yourself that is unnecessary.

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I pay each and every payment manually.

 I like to get go to the table, open my money-book. Strick off each creditor for whome the payment has been made. And total up all outgoing. And plan for next months creditors.

Writing down the criditor's name and amount I owe and the due date (and chk#) does not have the same feeling as typing the same thing on a excel sheet. 

It is like playing tennies with Wii and playing it for real. (not sure if it s a good analogy) 

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^5 void!   Me too!  Too many dates to keep track of, April and October for vehicle insurance, taxes, June for life insurance, December for property taxes..... September and November for homeowners, and the list goes on...  When the check goes in the mail, I know it's paid.  I don't want the bank messing with my finances.  They fooled me once, as did a title company that failed to pay my taxes from escrow.  Never again.

Like making sure you turned off the coffee pot when you leave the house......?

D-R

[Watchmann]

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@voidman wrote:

I pay each and every payment manually.

 I like to get go to the table, open my money-book. Strick off each creditor for whome the payment has been made. And total up all outgoing. And plan for next months creditors.

Writing down the criditor's name and amount I owe and the due date does not have the same feeling as typing the same thing on a excel sheet. 

It is like playing tennies with Wii and playing it for real. (not sure if it s a good analogy) 

Message Edited by voidman on 11-07-2009 08:07 AM

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Whatever works for you is the method you should use.  For me I just hate writing paper checks, sticking them in envelopes with some sort of payment coupon, putting a stamp on it and having to drop it in the mail.  And it is still not paid until our US Postal friends deliver it across the country to the right address (hopefully), then less than enthusiastic manual labor processes the payment so it can be manually coded to the right account.  Talk about things that can go wrong!  That is way too 1970's for me.  I did that every two weeks sitting at my desk for years until the internet age.  I still keep a manual checkbook register where I still put the payments in, but an Excel spreadsheet that has all my committments and budget allowances forecast out through the end of 2010 lets me keep an eye on the overall picture.  I've had one electronic payment go awry in the literally thousands of transactions I've done over the years.  I love it when my bills come in electronically and I can just go to my bill payer system, tap a few keys and pay the bill.  A few days later I'll check in to the account to make sure the payment was credited to the account.  No fuss, no muss.  It's the only way to fly, imo.

It would be interesting to know what method most people use to manage their finances (manual check writing and paper record keeping) or electronic management and internet payment.

Nothing wrong with the old system, but just too time consuming.  But whatever works. 

Desert Rat ...... dropping your check in the mail does not mean you can forget about it.  With the state of our mail system and staffing at CC processing centers today I would never assume it's automatically going to go from your front door to getting posted to your account with any more efficiency than an electronic payment.  There is probably a far greater chance that something will get messed up with a paper payment.  I do agree with you about escrow payments, I do not escrow my insurance and taxes and always pay them myself.  But your experience is a function of the very poor mortgage service we get from our lenders and not a fault with the electronic or paper payment systems.

Message Edited by Watchmann on 11-07-2009 02:10 PM

[haulingthescoreup]

I'm with you --it's all electronic, except for my old-fashioned check book register.

I look at it this way: I haven't had any lates since I switched to doing everything online.

But it all depends on what makes one's brain the happiest. To me, the thought of searching for stamps makes me want to crawl under the bed and stay there.

[QueenBean]

I also make each of my online payment manually.  Hubby uses auto-pay and had this exact thing happen to him when the account was sold to another bank & they changed the payment by only a few dollars - D'oh!

[voidman]

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@Watchmann wrote:

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@voidman wrote:

I pay each and every payment manually.

 I like to get go to the table, open my money-book. Strick off each creditor for whome the payment has been made. And total up all outgoing. And plan for next months creditors.

Writing down the criditor's name and amount I owe and the due date does not have the same feeling as typing the same thing on a excel sheet. 

It is like playing tennies with Wii and playing it for real. (not sure if it s a good analogy) 

Message Edited by voidman on 11-07-2009 08:07 AM

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Whatever works for you is the method you should use.  For me I just hate writing paper checks, sticking them in envelopes with some sort of payment coupon, putting a stamp on it and having to drop it in the mail.  And it is still not paid until our US Postal friends deliver it across the country to the right address (hopefully), then less than enthusiastic manual labor processes the payment so it can be manually coded to the right account.  Talk about things that can go wrong!  That is way too 1970's for me.  I did that every two weeks sitting at my desk for years until the internet age.  I still keep a manual checkbook register where I still put the payments in, but an Excel spreadsheet that has all my committments and budget allowances forecast out through the end of 2010 lets me keep an eye on the overall picture.  I've had one electronic payment go awry in the literally thousands of transactions I've done over the years.  I love it when my bills come in electronically and I can just go to my bill payer system, tap a few keys and pay the bill.  A few days later I'll check in to the account to make sure the payment was credited to the account.  No fuss, no muss.  It's the only way to fly, imo.

It would be interesting to know what method most people use to manage their finances (manual check writing and paper record keeping) or electronic management and internet payment.

Nothing wrong with the old system, but just too time consuming.  But whatever works. 

Desert Rat ...... dropping your check in the mail does not mean you can forget about it.  With the state of our mail system and staffing at CC processing centers today I would never assume it's automatically going to go from your front door to getting posted to your account with any more efficiency than an electronic payment.  There is probably a far greater chance that something will get messed up with a paper payment.  I do agree with you about escrow payments, I do not escrow my insurance and taxes and always pay them myself.  But your experience is a function of the very poor mortgage service we get from our lenders and not a fault with the electronic or paper payment systems.

Message Edited by Watchmann on 11-07-2009 02:10 PM

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I think i am mis-understood. When I said manually, I meant manually pay them online instead of autopay. I have never written checks except few times and one time scared me a bit. Since then everything is paid online but manually and I keep track of them by writing on the book. Each page on the book represents a month. So I have to make some payment say 4 months down the line. I just make a note of that creditor in that month/year page.