Online bill pay via my bank or pay @ the site?
What is the benefit to paying bills thru my bank’s Online Bill Pay option besides taking care of everything in one place? I bank with Chase and they offer it, but I really don’t see the benefit since they can take up to 5 days with some payees…Am I missing something?
It depends on your personal preference and how you handle your finances. If I have a bill that I need to pay right away then I use that company’s website. With my other regular bills I have them all entered in bill pay so then it’s easy to just go in and click on the bills I want to pay – keeping in mind the 5 day lag time of course. It saves me the time of having to go to each companies website and take the time of going through their process. I personally find it very handy.
As long as your bank doesn’t charge you for the service, go with the bank system. That way, you can just look at one screen to see which bills are coming due and easily be certain that you have sufficient funds to cover the payments. My bank even shows how much money I’ll have in the account at the end of the week or two weeks, assuming no additional deposits. It’s fast and easy to track. The only payments that take up to five days are the ones where physical checks are actually issued. Most utility bills are paid electronically so they only take one or two days. As soon as I get a bill, I enter it into the system. If there’s a crisis and I can’t afford to actually pay the bill, I can just go in and delete it or postpone the payment date until later. Everything is in one place and easy to see and manipulate. I’m all for making my life easier.