Do you pay your bills via snail mail, in person, or online?

For the longest time, I've just sent my bills in via snail mail, but recently, I've been paying them all online....I've actually gotten pretty frustrated with those companies that don't have online bill service....having to write out a check, lick the envelope, etc. is a hassle.

What about you guys? How do you pay your bills?

I actually pay some bills by snail mail and some in person. I did try at one time to pay online, but I was too used to paying things by snail mail that I just went back to it.

Heck, I am so far behind times, that I just started purchasing merchandise online about a year ago. Since then, my whole family has been buying lots of stuff online.

I read an article today that buying merchandise online adds years to your life. Less stress.

We pay everything online,what we don't, we call...they already have our information.

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Too old NOT to care

I will have to say that buying online was a good experience. I needed a new computer cord for my Kodak digital camera, and the only way I could purchase it was online. It arrived 3 days later.

I pay almost all of my bills online. The only thing I pay via snail mail is my ONG bill (they actually charge extra to pay online, and it's cheaper to buy the stamp). I love paying online...so much so that I had no idea about the postage increase not long ago. On the flip side, my mom just cannot pry herself away from her kitchen table and checkbook...she loves writing checks and stuffing them in envelopes and going to the post office.

I still prefer going to a store to make purchases, though. I'm a pretty visual person and like to be able to see what I'm getting, touch it, try it on if necessary, etc. The only purchases I make online are books and that's ONLY if I know exactly what I want. (I've ordered the wrong thing a couple times.)

Paytrust

Amazing service: you direct the companies that bill you to send your bills to Paytrust. Paytrust receives them, scans them, and sends an email notifying you of the arrival of a bill. You can then login to view a summary of current bills, view the bills themselves, review payment history, etc. Basically, you pay the bill by clicking a time or two.

It's revolutionized my finances.

There's never been a problem with my account (everything seems to operate flawlessly). Paytrust pays everything but my mortgage: I'm not ready to risk that one just yet, although I may one day.

Here's the plans:

Plan 1
$4.95/month
$0.50 per transaction

Plan 2
$12.95/month
30 FREE transactions
$0.50 for each additional transaction

We bank with BankOfAmerica and use their bill pay system, it's free..in fact, because my husband's check is automatically deposited in our account, the bank account is also free...you can't get any better than free, and one more thing...they have a written guarentee that if they fail, in any way to pay as directed, they will write the company and explain and will pay any late fees caused by their mistakes.

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Too old NOT to care

I'm with Grandmama on this...online banking with most large banks operates the same way and I don't think there is a charge.

I'm not understanding the benefit obtained by paying someone else (Paytrust) to open your bills, HFK. I don't think I completely comprehend how it works?

I actually go to each of the bill websites and pay there. All of them (except for the City of OKC - water bill) have my information already on file, so all I have to do is click and pay.

Every (significant) bill that I have is paid via one source: whenever a bill is due for DirecTV, ONG, Pioneer Telephone/DSL, Farmer's Insurance, OEC, ONG, etc the biller sends the bill to Paytrust. Paytrust emails me. I login and click pay. I'm done with the bill but, if I need to look at it, I can click on a link to see it. BTW, I can select a variety of sources as a source for payment, which I don't believe that we can do with BOA (see below).

It's not for everyone, of course, but it's perfect for me. $13 a month is a small price to pay for perfection.

I bank with BOA too, but I don't like the idea of managing bills at all. I don't want to deal with opening the bill, logging on, entering the amount. I'm sure that the two methods sound similar, and are virtually similar to some people, thus the $13 is a waste to them but, for me, the difference between the two is vast and crucial.

An example: I'm composing a reply to an OKCTalk forum at 11:00 PM, my email notifier tells me that I have a new Paytrust email with a "New Bill: OEC" subject header. I click on the notifier, which takes me to my webmail account and opens the email. The email contains the amount, and a direct link to login to my Paytrust account, which I click. The next page has a variety of links: "Pay Bill", "View Bill" etc. I click "Pay Bill" and it's done. I habitually pay the bill immediately upon notification but I regularly review my Paytrust account to see if any bills are pending, should I have overlooked one. I avoid the risk of getting sidetracked between pulling the bill from the mailbox and logging on to pay it (sadly, in my world, that is a risk)

Hmmm....sounds like a cool program. I still have some reservations about letting someone else do my billing for now though. Ultimately, I'm the one responsible if the billing service doesn't get the bill there on time. I'm sure PayTrust is a great company, but I guess I'm still not ready to move that direction yet.

I don't mind heading over to Cox.com, att.com, OGE.com, Cingular.com, MBNA, etc. and making my payments there. I only wish my church had an online giving system! LOL!

By the way, ONG and OGE need to get with the program and stop charging to pay online. That's ludicrous. And the city doesn't even have online billing for water service. It would save them a lot of money in postage if they encouraged more people to pay bills online.

By the way, my dad is a post man........not sure if I'm going to tell him I'm saving money now by paying my bills online! LOL!

HFK, thanks for the explanation...it makes sense now. You pay for the additional comfort of having someone else do this stuff for you, and I can totally understand that!

BTW Patrick, you CAN pay your bill online if you're with the City of OKC. In addition, OG&E doesn't charge you to pay online. It takes about a week or so to get your checking account "verified", but once you're in, you're golden.

ONG charging irritates the daylights out of me, though. As if we're not already dishing out our arms & legs to pay the gas bills...UGH! Patrick, at least your dad is safe in his job as long as ONG keeps up the "processing fee" for online payments.

Thanks sweetdaisy for the information. I actually wasn't for sure about ONG or the city....our apartment is all electric and the complex pays the water. My father-in-law has told me the city wouldn't let you pay online.....he's probably mistaken.

I'll check back into OG&E again. I've been sending that one in via snail mail because I thought they charge a buck or so to pay online. I hope you're right. That would simplify things even more.

Yeah, that's stupid that ONG charges. Seems like it would save them postage and hassle if they just allowed users to do things online.

Heck, my dad is safe in his job anyways. Anymore the US Postal Service is nothing but a delivery service for spam. Seems like all they deliver are ads and credit card offers. LOL! I will say though, my wife likes those ads.

I will say they are a pretty decent parcel organization too. Much cheaper than UPS and FedEx. And the last 3 times I've had something sent to me FedEx it's been broken. But, I guess all of the parcel services break things occasionally. My brother used to work for UPS and he said in the warehouse, they have so many boxes coming along conveyer belts ot load into trucks, they have to throw them from conveyer belt to conveyer belt.

Still, if it's going ot get broken anyways, I'd rather pay half the cost! LOL!

I checked the OG&E website. It's their "Choice Pay" system that you have to pay $1 for. I'm not sure why they have that, but yet you can go on there and pay online on their site for free. I guess the Choice Pay allows you to pay via credit card, whereas, their online system only allows money to be debited from your savings or checking acounts.

Thanks sweetdaisy for bringing this up. Otherwise, I'd still be using snail mail for that too! Hooray. All bills online now!

I've been doing Yahoo billpay for years. YahooFinance is pretty cool = unlimited checks but I'm ready to switch to Midfirst for free.. You enter addresses, account numbers, amount to pay and frequency. I love the ease of it... I can't believe the time I wasted before on writing checks, stamps, remembering due dates, mailing etc.

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" You've Been Thunder Struck ! "

Since around 2001, I've pretty-much paid everything online via my bank's online bill-pay feature. No charges involved and the bank guarantees every transaction. Secure, easy, fast and simple. What more do you need?

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My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind
Albert Einstein

Whoa, are you sure that it's cheaper then FedEx Ground? FedEx ground is dirt cheap, and very fast. I switched to FedEx Ground several years ago, and there was a vast cost advantage to FedEx G, even when comparing Media rate, and FedEx G was much speedier.

Trivia: have you ever noticed the arrow on the FedEx truck?

Yes...cool, huh?

All prices are from OKC (73112). Prices from FexEx.com and USPS.com.

Fed Ex Ground: 1 lb to New York City: $4.38
1 lb to Atlanta: $4.16

USPS Parcel Post: 1 lb to New York City: $3.95
1 lb to Atlanta: $3.95

USPS Media Mail: 1 lb to NYC: $1.59
1 lb to Atlanta: $1.59

Just for fun, here's UPS rates:
Cheapest rates I could find using varaious combinations...

From OKC to NYC: UPS Ground: $6.04 for 1 lb

From OKC to Atlanta: UPS Ground: $6.13 for 1 lb.


I will say UPS had the most confusing website.

USPS is the easiest.....1 price for 1 lb anywhere in the US.

10 pounds 73010 to 93277 (California)

USPS Media: $5.49 (No Tracking, limited contents)

FedEx Ground: $7.09 (Tracking Included)

UPS Ground: $9.92

USPS Parcel Post: $13.18

My mistake; as I recall, FedEx Ground was cheaper, but no more. Technically, Media Mail is just as it's name implies, so there are limitations on what can be shipped at that rate (of course). To upgrade to Parcel Post would almost double the cost of FedEx Ground, and that for six day delivery versus 4.

I think the heavier the parcel, the cheaper Fed Ex is vs. the post office.

Using your zip codes above for 1lb:

Fed Ex Ground: 5.04
USPS Priority Mail (2 days): $4.05
USPS Parcel Post: $3.95
USPS Media Mail: $1.59
UPS Ground: $8.18

I don't know why anyone would use UPS. Outrageous. I guess for heavier packages they're more competitive, but still, I'd probably go with FedEx.

All bills paid online. I usually have the payment taken out of my checking account through their website. i trashed all my checks since my bank changed its routing number. I didn't even know it was changed until they sent me a warning. gheesh they could have at least sent me some checks with the new routing number. I believe my bank has free or reduced charge bill pay now.