Question

What do you all prefer to do: 1) Use bill pay through your bank 2) Sign up for autopay on each bill's website/account 3) Transfer all of your bill  into a separate account, and just pay/have it deducted from there? Ugh. I use two different banks and it's getting annoying to transfer money from each paycheck around, not to mention inconvenient! Just looking for some ideas  

Answer 1

I’ve signed up for autopay for each bill. I literally have zero bills other than daycare that I have to remember to pay!  It’s great!  

Comments

@lewin same here! Set and forget it! I would forget something if I did it any other way.  

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@officiant57658 Yup- same here!  

Answer 2

I have 2 accounts (well 3) paycheck goes in one. I zelle that money to Discover savings an Transfer 1 time a week what Bill's I need to pay to my Discover checking. I keep my bank in town just in case I need to go into a bank. Also use my Debit card for as much as I can since I get 1% back on all purchases using that card.  

Answer 3

We have 2 checking accounts. 1 where dh paycheck is deposited and 2 is for bills only. I take the amount we need for bills that week and transfer to #2. I also take a portion of our house pymt each week to put in. I use bill pay but it probably helps it is at the same bank. Is there a reason you can't have 2 checking accounts at 1 bank? I am sure it would be immensely easier.  

Answer 4

I do online banking, not auto pay as my payday dates differ monthly being paid every 2 weeks

Answer 5

I use bill pay through my bank. A dear friend of mine who recently retired from a career as a banker gave me great advice. She said it's better to push your payments to your creditors than to have them pull the payments. It may not seem like a big deal but it helps keep your accounts safer and you are able to control the payments and who has access to your banking information. You also don't have to stress about a creditor pulling past due amounts because they won't have access to your account as well. I've never been late on anything but it's just something to think about.  

Comments

@roby68 I think this way also, there are only 3 bills that I have on autopay, insurance, our water (because I almost missed a payment once because it is every 2 months and when I realized it, we had a foot of snow and they didnt have online pay at the time. I think they now but just as easy for auto pay) and our cell bill since we get a discount with having autopay. Everything else I push.  

Answer 6

1 because of what @roby68 said ☝

Answer 7

Thank you for all of the ideas! I am getting tired of scrambling to transfer money after each payday before the bill is due. I think bill pay through my bank is a great option. Does anyone know if you use bill pay through your bank, are you able to cancel it later than if you would be signed up through auto pay? For example, you usually have to cancel an autopay 5-7 days before it clears, but maybe 3 days with autopay?  

Comments

I'd think it depends on the bank, but with mine, I can cancel it up until 8pm same day.  

Answer 8

1 because if I set autpay and don't have the money in the account by then I'm screwed. if I pay all of my bills the day that I get paid I know that they probably come out of my account on that Wednesday.  

Answer 9

I use bill pay through my bank. But, I also have two bills set up on Auto Pay b/c they offer a discount to pay that way. The bills that I have set up on Auto Pay come out of a different account than my everyday Checking Account. That way I don't have to worry about over draft issues.  

Answer 10

I use bill pay and only auto things that give me discounts to do so like Xfinity will discount your bill $10 to go paperless and auto payment

Answer 11

We have 3 accounts. One bill account and one for him and one for me. On Fridays, we send money to the bill account and then pay our bills from there. Our banks use Zelle so it transfers quickly with no fees. Hubby has a portion of his check already put into the bill account but I Zelle my portion to the bill account. Some bills are autopay through the company’s site and others we have to go in and manually pay.  

Answer 12

I use autopay with my credit card for the points and then pay the card off.  

Answer 13

I use autopay from each site. some offer discounts when you do this.  

Answer 14

I have autopay set up through the bill’s website. We also use 3 banks. Each account has its purpose. We have an account setup at one bank just for bills. We have an account at another for variable spending (gas, food, fun, misc, etc). The same amount is put into that account every paycheck. That’s the money we allocate for that spending. Some stays in that account and some gets taken out in cash.  

Answer 15

#3. I don't use auto pay because each month, I pay different bills from different paychecks. Its too difficult to keep things on auto pay. Its MUCH easier for me to transfer all bill money to a separate account and know we can't touch that money

Answer 16

I have a separate checking account for bills.  

Answer 17

I have to use autopay for some bills due to discounts/no other option. One company the only way to avoid any type of fee for paying them is to set up auto pay with a bank account  but I’ve had the least problems with them so far  I only set up auto pay if it’s necessary or gives me a discount. I also wish I could pay certain bills ahead of time vs when they charge me (I have to pay afterschool care every week because I can’t pay before I’m charged) but I am thinking about opening a different checking account for just bills to try to keep my accounting more clear. I hate not having things cleared at the end of the pay period or even the end of the month. There are too many moving pieces in my accounts  

Answer 18

I use bill pay through my bank and every bill that’s the same every month gets auto paid.  

Answer 19

Use bill pay through bank

Answer 20

Use bill pay through the bank I absolutely hate auto pay

Answer 21

I direct deposit into my Bills cash back debit account for each pay period

Answer 22

I do a little of both

Answer 23

I use one bank. I have a main account which is for bills which my husband and I both have acceess to. We have a cushion account which if there is a surprise overdraft fee or payment we forgot, my husband and I each have our own accounts, one does not have access to the other for things like bday gifts etc, 1 savings account which is our EF account. Bills are billpay, unless I was given a discount for autopay. I hate autopay. We also have sinking funds envelopes. Both my husband and I prefer to pull out our personal money in cash unless we are trying to save for something. We have no credit cards and prefer to keep it that way. I keep track of all accounts.  

Answer 24

#3 with bill pay

Answer 25

As soon as I get paid, I pay for all bills due from then until next paycheck just to go ahead and get the money out of my account.  

Answer 26

2- I do auto pay for most of our bills, some I just log on and pay online or through the app.  

Answer 27

Use a separate account for bills and use your banks bill pay. That way you are in control of the money. If something happens and you need to change the amount or cancel, you don’t have to contact each payee that is debiting your account.  

Answer 28

I try to do it all through bill pay so I don’t have surprises if I forget about a biller drafting the payment through autopay. I can control the dates and amounts easier from one place. If you are having to move money around have you considered having your direct deposit split to two accounts?  

Answer 29

I dont do auto pay because I like knowing that I'm physically paying a certain amount and when. Also for some bills I pay half of it in the first half of the month and the rest in the later. However I wish I could be comfortable with autopay. It would make my life easier lol Also we used to do #3 but stopped because we got tired of transferring

Answer 30

For the house bills we put the full amount on the 1st before all the bills come out. For my personal bills (student loans, car insurance) I have some that I pay each month when I know the money is there and one big one and two smaller ones on auto and make sure the money is there before they get deducted. Since I’m a cash spender I know how much I need to take out in cash each check and I know how much needs to stay in there for everything else  

Comments

Oh I should mention the house bills are a separate bank and there’s an ATM for it inside the building I work in so SUPER convenient. Before I worked here it was a pain in the butt to go to another place to do it

Answer 31

My fixed regular payments are all direct debit out one account. I have about 4 bills (childminder, gas, electric etc) which vary and I like to double check they are right before I pay them, so I pay them through my internet banking. I don’t like my gas and electric to be based on estimates as they are always over what we use.  

Answer 32

I have two accounts through one bank and they are connected so I can easily just transfer through my banks app. And I set up automatic payments through there.  

Answer 33

Bill pay through the bank.  

Answer 34

I use Prism for bill tracking and payment. They connect with many of my billers and those that don't it serves as a reminder and helps me keep up with everything.  

Answer 35

I have our direct deposit split between two accounts so bill money goes into one and everything else goes to the other. well I still end up doing transfers but if both accounts have atleast one direct deposit of 250 a month then there isn’t a fee so that’s really why I do it . so I do 250 to one account and remainder to the bill account

Answer 36

#2 is what we do.  

Answer 37

We do #3

Answer 38

#1 I pay it when I want to