My issue with autopay is that I purposely keep the checking account balance low because I am actively working on paying off massive revolving debt. My average daily balance is sizable, but that can dip down to very low numbers for a day or two each month. Because of the sheer number of accounts (not just the credit cards that you see in my signature) there's just no way I could do auto-pay on everything and not make a potentially disastrous screw-up. If I set up auto-pay to just pay the minimum payments, I'd need to effectively double-up on my checking ledger entries which would be far too time-consuming since I'm not going to just pay minimum payments.
I've made thousands upon thousands of payments in my life and have never been late once; no reason to change that now. My method is to schedule payments for the payday prior to the due date as soon as the statements have closed. May not work for everyone, but for me it's nice to be able to see my cash flow 3-4 weeks out.
I can't do autopay because I'm self employed. 2 of the companies I work for have "regular" payment dates but one pays by check so I don't know when I'll get it and the other is not so regular. In fact this month they posted on the portal that 12/1 payments will be processed 12/4. I used to be able to rely on them to pay for all projects completed prior to the payment date but that's not true anymore.
With rebuilding and living check to check, it's a mental adjustment to pay before the due date - not a bad thing at all ! Fortunately I picked up a new project that pays more and still gives me time to work all my other projects. It only pays once a month by check bur I anticipate in a couple of months I won't be living paycheck to paycheck.
I'm doing much better than last year when my husband left (he was the sole provider and I worked a little part time) and gave notice to the landlord without telling me. I managed to work that out, got all the bills in my name and not once have I had to ask for an extension. Living with him, we were always a month behind on everything. I brought my scores up 100 points having learned so much from the generous people on this forum ! This has been a great year for me so far and I plan to keep learning from you all !
With rebuilding and living check to check, it's a mental adjustment to pay before the due date - not a bad thing at all ! Fortunately I picked up a new project that pays more and still gives me time to work all my other projects. It only pays once a month by check bur I anticipate in a couple of months I won't be living paycheck to paycheck.
I'm doing much better than last year when my husband left (he was the sole provider and I worked a little part time) and gave notice to the landlord without telling me. I managed to work that out, got all the bills in my name and not once have I had to ask for an extension. Living with him, we were always a month behind on everything. I brought my scores up 100 points having learned so much from the generous people on this forum ! This has been a great year for me so far and I plan to keep learning from you all !
Youve done amazing and hope the best for you. I was gonna mention the paycheck to paycheck angle, as thats how i have to do, so autopay wont work for me, but im glad to see you making great progress
@Dalmus wrote:I'm one of those that aren't really a fan of autopay, so I schedule it all manually. I think I lived too long paycheck to paycheck where sometimes I just didn't have the money to make a payment that was due on Wednesday because I didn't get paid until Friday. Now that I have money to make all my payments, its a hard habit to break and learn to trust autopay!
I am right there with you. Its paranoia. I have three small bills (under $12) bills on autopay, but anything larger or that the amt varries I manually schedule the payment. I usually make a CC payment every week to keep the card at a zero balance.
@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
Youve done amazing and hope the best for you. I was gonna mention the paycheck to paycheck angle, as thats how i have to do, so autopay wont work for me, but im glad to see you making great progress
Me, too ! A year ago I didn't know how I was going to make it ! It took a few months to work things out but I'm doing fine and will continue to do better. I'm reading your thread on paring down cards. Someone posted that with cards like Cap 1, one can get stuck on a sub prime track. I think that's where I'm at with them. It won't get any better. So I'm paying them off and cutting the cord.