topic Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?... in Personal Finance

How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

cr101 — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 19:35:09 GMT

Using billpay via your bank portal?

In your CC portal using a linked bank account?

Also, if you're using billpay, please provide the bank/svc you're using and your likes/dislikes about it (ie: can make same-day payments for free)

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

chiefone4u — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 20:08:35 GMT

Most of my accounts are paid using the issuer's portal (linked bank account). *most offer same day crediting of the account as long as payment is scheduled before set cut off time*

There are a few issuer's I push a payment from my credit union for more control of payment date. (2-5 day's for payment to post -- can schedule up to a year in advance).

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 20:12:27 GMT

I use the issuer so I have a confirmation number to refer to if there's a problem. If push payment fails, they don't know it was attempted and don't care, all they care about is payment wasn't made.

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 20:14:16 GMT

Actually, this just happened a couple of days ago with Mission Lane. Unable to make a payment in app or online. Was able to send them screenshots of the error. They took care of it in less than a day. It was a system payment processing error. A push payment would have failed also. They had to create a ticket.

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

chiefone4u — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 20:21:00 GMT

@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
Actually, this just happened a couple of days ago with Mission Lane. Unable to make a payment in app or online. Was able to send them screenshots of the error. They took care of it in less than a day. It was a system payment processing error. A push payment would have failed also. They had to create a ticket.

This type of issue is why I never wait until last minute to pay. Even my accounts on auto pay are set to pay a week before due; some are set for 5 day's after statement generates... plenty of time to get error corrected if needed.

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 20:31:00 GMT

@chiefone4u wrote:
@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
Actually, this just happened a couple of days ago with Mission Lane. Unable to make a payment in app or online. Was able to send them screenshots of the error. They took care of it in less than a day. It was a system payment processing error. A push payment would have failed also. They had to create a ticket.
This type of issue is why I never wait until last minute to pay. Even my accounts on auto pay are set to pay a week before due; some are set for 5 day's after statement generates... plenty of time to get error corrected if needed.

Indeed. This payment was 2 weeks ahead of schedule so I wasn't worried about anything. All my due dates are set up in my calendar with alerts of no less than 5 days, usually 7, to give me a buffer if I forget to pay them and/or there's an issue. Typically, I pay at least 2 weeks ahead of due date.

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

cr101 — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 20:33:36 GMT

@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
I use the issuer so I have a confirmation number to refer to if there's a problem. If push payment fails, they don't know it was attempted and don't care, all they care about is payment wasn't made.

that's a good point. discover's billpay terms say that they'll cover fees if they don't pay on time, but it wouldn't be worth having a "late" payment on record w my cc company. i'll stick to paying via the issuer's portal. :\

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 20:43:13 GMT

@cr101 wrote:
@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
I use the issuer so I have a confirmation number to refer to if there's a problem. If push payment fails, they don't know it was attempted and don't care, all they care about is payment wasn't made.
that's a good point. discover's billpay terms say that they'll cover fees if they don't pay on time, but it wouldn't be worth having a "late" payment on record w my cc company. i'll stick to paying via the issuer's portal. :\

Right, and Discover is a good example. If you're late on your discover, they'll waive the fee for the first time and may waive the fee if you can show proof of a bank error. Regardless, once that late is in their internal records, you can kiss pre-approvals, CLIs, or graduation goodbye for at least a year. My secured took almost 2 years to graduate because I only made a partial payment onr month. They cited it as the reason. I'm sure having a discover checking would make it easier to fix, but would they remove the internal blemish? 🤷‍♂️

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 20:47:51 GMT

I use my CU's bill pay. That way I don't have my checking info floating around umpteen websites, and I can pay all my bills (CCs, utilities) from one place. Plus I can see my checking balance and decide how/when/how much I'm going to pay if I can't afford to PIF.

I usually PIF before statement cut, so I have close to 30 days to fix anything that goes awry before the payment really becomes "due".

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

Streetervillelady — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 18:27:40 GMT

@cr101 wrote:
Using billpay via your bank portal?
In your CC portal using a linked bank account?

Also, if you're using billpay, please provide the bank/svc you're using and your likes/dislikes about it (ie: can make same-day payments for free)

I use the issuers portal. I like to have their confirmation numbers in my records. I use a bank separate from my 2 primary banking relationships for all payments. I added push payment instructions for each payee. I have X amount direct deposited into this account bi-monthly.

This community bank was new to our market and offering $300 to new customers. I decided to keep it for payments to limit exposure. I use the debit card for odd {one off] purchases online. My Dad is retired and living in Arizona. I pay all of his household bills from this account.

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

Roarmeister — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 20:06:07 GMT

I set up monthly and bi-weekly payments for all my bills through my bank to push payments to the debtee. My power and gas are on equalized payments so the amounts due don't vary from month to month. I set up my cc payments bi-weekly and just keep paying them down. Car payments are a monthly withdrawal by Ford. I have very little maintenance to do on my payments except for the occasional one-offs. I use two cards predominately and the other four cards sparingly. The two main cards have the best benefits/rewards. I have another cc that gives me very low interest 0-0.99% so if I can't pay off a card in full that month, I simply transfer it over to the low-interest card and that one gets the majority of the bi-weekly payment. Once the vehicle is paid off in 6 months, I can make larger payments to the low-interest card and decimate the remaining balance quickly.

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

pinkandgrey — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 01:57:23 GMT

I primarily use the issuer's app and link a checking account.

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 02:39:00 GMT

With other CCs?

I have totally gotten on board with just paying them online, I used to be stuanch advocate of mailing in a check. Only because I have so many that i might as well use them since I paid for them. But it got to be too much juggling to know when to send the check and not be late and also correspond with my paychecks. And after a couple instances of said creditor not getting the "payment" only for me to resort to maing it online. Then to have two payments post to said accounts because they were dragging their feet depsoting it etc...

So it's just easier to pay 1/2 of them the first week after I get paid, and the second 1/2 after I get paid on the 15th. No autopays for me because a few wait for the very last day @ 11:59 PM, and that bothers me.

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 11:59:34 GMT

I pay most of my cards through their portals. Synchrony cards I push payments from my bank's bill pay service (regional bank called FirstBank here in CO).

I would push all of my payments but FirstBank doesn't denote whether a transaction will be electronic or not and I found out the hard way that they have to send a check to Navy Federal. I wasn't late because I generally pay my statements as soon as they are issued but it did result in a few calls to Navy Federal and my bank to figure out why it was taking over a week.

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

frugal47374 — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 05:49:48 GMT

I have autopay set up for all credit cards, in full, on the due date. (Except a few 0% deals where I pay the minimum.)

I'm currently paying from several (so I have less than 6 transactions/month) savings accounts so I can earn maximum interest until the funds are actually withdrawn.

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

iced — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 14:03:20 GMT

@cr101 wrote:
Using billpay via your bank portal?
In your CC portal using a linked bank account?

Also, if you're using billpay, please provide the bank/svc you're using and your likes/dislikes about it (ie: can make same-day payments for free)

CC app, using linked account. My checking bank (DCU) has a barely-adequate mobile app compared to the major banks, so it's just easier to do it via the CC portals. It's also typically faster IME - Citi credits payments instantly, and Chase/American Express update within 24 hours.

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

OmarGB9 — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 15:26:00 GMT

When I had/get some CCs again, I like to use the issuer's online bill pay to get payment credited instantly and also a confirmation in case of any shenanigans.

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

MB2714 — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 04:03:18 GMT

I use my banks bill payment service I bank with Huntington. That way I don't have to worry about companies "Accidentally" double dipping two or three times or "accidentally" drawing on the wrong day. NEVER do auto pay. Huntington pays most major companies within 2 days electronically. Only a small credit union loan they send a check and that is 5 day guarantee.

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 04:11:26 GMT

Always PUSH a payment from my banks bill pay service well before the due date. I have auto pay set up for each card as a failsafe too.

I know there are some diehard fans of PULLING payments via the lenders website/app, but in my opinion, that’s playing with fire. There are way too many variables that can make this go wrong: enter incorrect acct number upon set up, bank blocks the pull for some reason, lender cancels the payment for some reason, etc. We’ve all read these horror stories on here. We all also know that some lenders are prone to drastic AA from a “returned payment”. No thanks, I’ll push the payments to them!

Re: How do you prefer to pay your CC bills?...

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Dec 2019 21:11:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Always PUSH a payment from my banks bill pay service well before the due date. I have auto pay set up for each card as a failsafe too.

I know there are some diehard fans of PULLING payments via the lenders website/app, but in my opinion, that’s playing with fire. There are way too many variables that can make this go wrong: enter incorrect acct number upon set up, bank blocks the pull for some reason, lender cancels the payment for some reason, etc. We’ve all read these horror stories on here. We all also know that some lenders are prone to drastic AA from a “returned payment”. No thanks, I’ll push the payments to them!

I hear this a lot but really don't understand. There are "moving parts" in a push as well, you could enter the wrong recipient account, your pushing bank could block the push for some reason, the credit card could fail to credit etc. At least with auto-pay from the issuers site, it's their responsibility. So long as you have entered the account correctly, and there are enough funds at pull time, it's up to them. But yes, make sure that you enter the checking account number correctly at set up.