Too Many Cards With Balances- Ding

[trusty]

There are plenty of people on the web that have relayed their own accounts of autopay taking out too much money, or not ending when it is supposed to. It does not come without risk. As it goes, if the user is too lazy to check every month, than there is a bonafide risk that there will be an over-billing at some point along the way.

I will only ever do autopay with unique credit card numbers, or on a prepaid debit card. That way, I can unilaterally cancel it, at any time; either by cancelling the number, (unique cc) or just by not funding the card. (prepaid debit)

Naturally, you can always ask for a new credit card number, from a card issuer... when you are ready to cancel a certain autopay. But, this causes a lot more upheaval than just taking control from the outset.

[Anonymous]

I run autopay and azeo, but my 1 balance is at 57%, and the aggregate is at 19%. I have seen a boost in my score from crossing utility thresholds, I can't speak for the long haul yet. However autopay is like insurance, as such it should be required for people with riskier profiles. It does save a lot of 7 year head aches.

[Gmood1]

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@trusty wrote:

There are plenty of people on the web that have relayed their own accounts of autopay taking out too much money, or not ending when it is supposed to. It does not come without risk. As it goes, if the user is too lazy to check every month, than there is a bonafide risk that there will be an over-billing at some point along the way.

I will only ever do autopay with unique credit card numbers, or on a prepaid debit card. That way, I can unilaterally cancel it, at any time; either by cancelling the number, (unique cc) or just by not funding the card. (prepaid debit)

Naturally, you can always ask for a new credit card number, from a card issuer... when you are ready to cancel a certain autopay. But, this causes a lot more upheaval than just taking control from the outset.

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There's that cool thing called account alerts. It lets you know when your bill is due, how much it is. It will also send you notifications of every charge, if you so choose. Some of mine will also notify me several days before, that a auto-payment is scheduled. Why on earth would I want autopay to end? If you're using the CC's. Then expect a bill to come, followed by an auto draft in 25 days.

Normally there's a cut off time for autopay to be canceled. If you wait until after that cut off date. It will still process.

With as many accounts as I've had set to autopay. The only time I had payments to pull more than what was scheduled was an auto loan. And that's because I waited too long to cancel the draft from the bank. It wasn't because of a system glitch or anything like that.

I think you guys look for reasons to worry about nothing. lol

[JoeLuvsHisCredit]

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO Sorry OP HUGS hugs Hugs HUGS

[trusty]

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@Gmood1 wrote:

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There's that cool thing called account alerts. It lets you know when your bill is due, how much it is. It will also send you notifications of every charge, if you so choose. Some of mine will also notify me several days before, that a auto-payment is scheduled. Why on earth would I want autopay to end? If you're using the CC's. Then expect a bill to come, followed by an auto draft in 55 days.

Normally there's a cut off time for autopay to be canceled. If you wait until after that cut off date. It will still process.

With as many accounts as I've had set to autopay. The only time I had payments to pull more than what was scheduled was an auto loan. And that's because I waited too long to cancel the draft from the bank. It wasn't because of a system glitch or anything like that.

I think you guys look for reasons to worry about nothing. lol

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The point is that autopay is the other party in control of your funds.

So, the only way to do autopay is if you're actually in control, by proxy; either by limiting the card number, the card type, cordoning off the bank to a secondary bank where you only do business with them for autopays, using a third party, or whatever have you... to minimize potential exposure to over-billing, double-billing, difficulty canceling, etc; and so that you can unilaterally shut the autopay down, anytime you decide to cancel, without having to wait on hold and hope that a representative has canceled it correctly, not stuck wondering if it will charge again anyway.

It's only paranoia if there's no chance for an issue to arise. I can tell you from experience, and from listening to others... that systems oftentimes fail, when you least expect it. Emails don't get delivered, or end up in junk; banks, and bill pays encounter unexpected down periods; autopays glitch up and take out massive amounts of money - or just double-bill. Oh, and then there's that thing that neither you nor I can envision happening. That's what we set things up proactively for... for the worst case scenario.

I will never trust my primary account access with the debit power of someone else not in my immediate family; and even that will come with pre-planned restrictions. But, it's not even really about trust... it's about making sure that stuff doesn't hit the fan, if and when things do go awry.

I liken it to the data breach scenario. If you've ever been a victim of a data breach, for thousands of dollars... you have now come to the realization - that any card can get completely tied up, anytime. So, you always need backups. Well, setting up autopay should be done with the mindset that autopay itself is a backup procedure... not a primary reliance. If you are relying on someone else to balance your checkbook and pay your bills timely, than you're potentially setting yourself up for a learning experience. Which is at the core of all of this. If you've lived the downsides of autopay, than you already know what to do, and how to best set it up, to protect yourself. Otherwise, failing to heed the advice from the learned... you will just continue to go along thinking that you know what your're doing... until you don't.

[Pikaboo-icu]

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@JoeLuvsHisCredit wrote:

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO Sorry OP HUGS hugs Hugs HUGS

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It's all good. It's only a couple points and will rebound next month. 

I just think the the scoring algorithm is silly. 

But you're very sweet. Thank you. **kiss on the cheek**

Autopay- those that swear by it and those that don't use it both are right I suppose.

It's a personal preference thing. I usually PIF but perhaps sometimes I don't so it would complicate life for me.

I've never had a late pmt and certainly in this case with the "too many cards having balances thing", it wouldn't have helped me at all. 

If it works for you- I say go for it. Those of us still manually paying, can't cry if we ever miss a payment as 'twil be our own fault.

 

[Gmood1]

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@trusty wrote:

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@Gmood1 wrote:

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There's that cool thing called account alerts. It lets you know when your bill is due, how much it is. It will also send you notifications of every charge, if you so choose. Some of mine will also notify me several days before, that a auto-payment is scheduled. Why on earth would I want autopay to end? If you're using the CC's. Then expect a bill to come, followed by an auto draft in 55 days.

Normally there's a cut off time for autopay to be canceled. If you wait until after that cut off date. It will still process.

With as many accounts as I've had set to autopay. The only time I had payments to pull more than what was scheduled was an auto loan. And that's because I waited too long to cancel the draft from the bank. It wasn't because of a system glitch or anything like that.

I think you guys look for reasons to worry about nothing. lol

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The point is that autopay is the other party in control of your funds.

So, the only way to do autopay is if you're actually in control, by proxy; either by limiting the card number, the card type, cordoning off the bank to a secondary bank where you only do business with them for autopays, using a third party, or whatever have you... to minimize potential exposure to over-billing, double-billing, difficulty canceling, etc; and so that you can unilaterally shut the autopay down, anytime you decide to cancel, without having to wait on hold and hope that a representative has canceled it correctly, not stuck wondering if it will charge again anyway.

It's only paranoia if there's no chance for an issue to arise. I can tell you from experience, and from listening to others... that systems oftentimes fail, when you least expect it. Emails don't get delivered, or end up in junk; banks, and bill pays encounter unexpected down periods. Oh, and then there's that thing that neither you nor I can envision happening. That's what we set things up proactively for... for the worst case scenario.

I will never trust my primary account access with the debit power of someone else not in my immediate family; and even that will come with pre-planned restrictions. But, it's not even really about trust... it's about making sure that stuff doesn't hit the fan, if and when things do go awry.

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I hear ya Trusty. lol

Let's remember the other party is governed by laws like everyone else. If they screw up the draft. Then the missed payment is on them, not me.

The only ones that can take your money and keep it with no real explanation and make it difficult to get back, is the US government. lol

As Pickaboo says rock on! 

If you slip up and come here to whine about it. You can rest assure I'll be waiting on you, to give you a hard time. 

[trusty]

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@Gmood1 wrote:

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I hear ya Trusty. lol

Let's remember the other party is governed by laws like everyone else. If they screw up the draft. Then the missed payment is on them, not me.

The only ones that can take your money and keep it with no real explanation and make it difficult to get back, is the US government.

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You probably already have autopay setup in a way that could not potentially even ruffle your feathers. Inconvenience is only inconvenient if it will affect your lifestyle. So, seasoned vets will have already setup autopay on accounts that they will not miss while the situation is getting resolved. You probably fall into this category. You have plenty of backup accounts - that you're not troubled by what might happen.

It's people that cannot afford to have their autopay account tied up that most need to strategize when setting up autopay. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen it, with other people. They end up between a rock and a hard place. Yes, they should probably have more money than for anything to suddenly derail them all at once, and they should probably have more accounts.

But, the principle still remains, nonetheless. We have to control access to our funds, at all times. Some handle these things as second nature, others have to do it in more roundabout ways.

[Anonymous]

trusty, I enjoyed reading your different outlook on autopay from your posts above.  Definitely another way to think about things.  I personally don't use autopay.  The couple of times I've tried it for whatever reason I ended up cancelling it.  I guess it's a personal thing.

[Revelate]

I autopay literally everything I can, literally the only problem I have had with my credit is a card that wasn't setup for autopay.  That is why I'm at a 750ish on FICO 8 rather than seeing how quickly I can hit 850 for S+G.

Ultimately even if a lender screws me on this I have recourse, whereas if I screw the pooch I don't.  I know myself, and I need autopay when I go under a rock: build a system that works for you and your individual quirks.

Account alerts though, bleh.  I recently picked up a second job where I'm a slave to the god damned smart phone again and I forgot how much I hated constant notifications on things I'm supposed to pay attention to.  I turn them utterly off.  When Chase or Amex detects possible fraud they call me, everything else don't care.

Instead I just check CK or Experian every so often for balances hanging out, and then go look at the account page in question.  

Anyway fully agree with the others: life is too short to micromanage one's credit all the time... get pretty for a mortgage or other big ticket credit item, don't do anything stupid (like my 30D late), and go live the rest of your life.