Juliet
Birmingham,#2Consumer Comment
Tue, May 08, 2007
I definitely agree with Ken, about NOT using credit card companies sites to pay your bills, unless you pay them well in advance of the due date, and make sure to read ALL the fine print about fees, just for USING their online service, as well as sneaky Terms And Conditions regarding FUTURE access to your bank account. I certainly am not speaking for all banks online bill payment services, but while there WAS a fee at one time for my bank's bill pay service, it was eliminated pretty early on, and now I have totally free checking, and bill payment is also completely free. Again, you do need to read the fine print of any service that offers bill pay, because there may be guidelines for how long it may take for a payment to be received by the business. I haven't found this to be a problem for bills I have scheduled, but if you overlook one, one month, and need to make a quick payment, the bill pay service you have may not allow for such quick payment. Generally, I just need to allow maybe three days, but again, if you need a quick payment, it's probably not the best method. As for the high fees credit card companies charge for 'same day posting' or whatever they call it, sometimes the online way will have a fee, but a check by phone doesn't, or vice versa. As always, it's best to pay the bill well in advance of its due date, regardless, but when it HAS to be paid quickly, there is to be considered the amount of the 'quick pay' fee versus a late fee. Another reason I 'fear' lololol giving any company a debit card number or credit card number is that I was unaware, until I was advised by another poster on this site, that when a customer gives Bellsouth their debit/credit card number for a payment, they are giving them carte' blanche for ALL future billing to that card number! No, this isn't readily apparent, from what I can tell! But on the plus side for Bellsouth, you can make a payment by phone, and it states more than once in the phone call that it is for a ONE TIME ONLY payment, and its free. So far, they haven't lied!
Ken
Randolph,#3Consumer Suggestion
Tue, May 08, 2007
If you use the online bill pay service offered by your own bank or credit union, you will have certain proof of when the payment was made, and if you need it, when it was received by Chase. Further, most services will guarentee that if a payment is late through no fault of your own, they will contact the payee and cover the fees. Note that this is NOT the online bill payment offered by the credit card company. You are never well advised to use that service, since you not only incur a hefty charge, but you have also given them open access to your bank account.