@Anonymous wrote:Just general curiosity among what you feel, along with some reasoning (however basic/complex it may be) for your preferences on payment method?
Primarily referring to payments that are more-of-less fixed amounts, such as rent/mtg, utilities, loans, insurance, etc.
I currently prefer manual payments, as I am still somewhat wary about relying upon the system to automatically pull payments each and every month. As I have acquired more services, I've started debating autopay but haven't been able to fully convince myself to switch.
Mortgate = Autopay, we get I think a 1/4% reduction in APR.
Utilities = Autopay, they go onto cards where I get cash back
Insurance = Autopay, again on a card where I get cash back
Car loan = manual, no APR reduction and can't pay with a CC
Credit Cards = both, set up Autopay for minimum due just in case, make manual payment prior to statement cut for full balance so that card will report 0 or a small balance if I have outstanding authoriztions.
Edit: Acutally Electric bill is a manual pay because they want to charge me a fee GREATER than my cash back to use a CC.
I do both but watch everything to make sure it goes through or cards dont expire.
@Blackswizz750 wrote:I do both but watch everything to make sure it goes through or cards dont expire.
Agreed. I would also add that I did NOT use autopay when my finances were out of control. I know that for me when I was in financial difficulty I needed to control the day something processed or I might have been subject to overdraft or nsf fees.
So now I use Autopay because I KNOW I have the funds available to let it process to my cards and then make the payment to the CC on time.
@Anonymous wrote:I use autopay for fixed loan payments, like mortgages and car loans. It ensures they get paid on time and the amount is always the same so there are no surprises. I do direct draft from checking, no CCs for autopay. For my HELOC payments, I chose a monthly amount and have an auto transfer from a checking account at the same bank.
For everything else, I do them manually. That way I can examine the bill, check for errors, figure out how much and when it needs to be paid, and I schedule it through bill pay. Depending on my financial state at the time, I may pay it ASAP or I may wait until my next paycheck hits, if it's before the due date. For credit cards, I can decide if I can PIF, PTZ, before or after statement cut, or if I have to carry a balance.
Even though almost all my bills are on autopay, I still examine the bill and check for errors, that is the prudent thing to do.