OT: Autopay for credit cards
- Thread starter wcfan10
- Start date
Autopay is the way to go, assuming you have enough money in your checking account to cover your credit card balances. Just because you are using autopay, that doesn't mean you don't have an opportunity to review your bill and verify the charges are correct. If there is a fraudulent charge on your credit card, you can still challenge it (although if you don't challenge it before your autopay date, you will end up paying the charge and then get it credited back later).
I have autopay enabled (to auto pay the minimum payment required) as a safeguard against an accidental late payment.
Then each month I review the statement and manually set up a payment for the entire balance. I don't carry a balance.
Since my manual payment always exceeds the minimum amount the auto payment never actually happens. Just insurance.
Then each month I review the statement and manually set up a payment for the entire balance. I don't carry a balance.
Since my manual payment always exceeds the minimum amount the auto payment never actually happens. Just insurance.
You guys just persuaded me to start using autopay. Until now, I've been authorizing on the internet a payment each month for the statement balance, but going autopay will save me that hassle. My credit card provider, Capitol One, has been reliable in the past, so I'm not fearful about authorizing autopay. Thanks!
Good point. If you enable autopay, where they automatically debit your checking account, the company has to be someone you trust to be accurate in their billing and correct errors or fraudulent charges.
So you might do this with American Express, Capitol One, Chase, etc. I certainly wouldn't authorize Verizon to automatically debit my checking account. But I would authorize Verizon to charge my American Express bill, which then gets autopaid. At least that way, if Verizon makes a billing error, I can turn around and challenge the charge with American Express before it ever hits my checking account.
That’s what we do with Chase and Capital One.
They pay Verizon, Verizon (and my other bills) doesn’t reach in my pocket.
I have several authorizations to pay from my credit card account, and some to pay from my checking account. I have had no problems so far. It's a lot easier than having to remember to mail checks or call to authorize payments.
No, if I use autopay, I probably will get lazy and not look at my bills. I catch a few changes in billing from vendors or fake charges by reviewing the bill. I never reconcile my checking account and this is my only check and balance.
They have eliminated the $25 charge in the past. Once in 40 years mistake. I told them I didn’t receive the bill in the mail.
They have eliminated the $25 charge in the past. Once in 40 years mistake. I told them I didn’t receive the bill in the mail.
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Use it from credit card to capture rewards. Credit card payments I do manually in the event I cannot pay in full.
I use auto pay for my bills to get charged to my Chase (earns miles) card...and I manually pay my Chase card. I get roughly 30-50,000 miles per year to boot
Call your credit card company. If you have a clean history of payments tell them life happened and you were late. Most will wave the fee.
I like another person has mine set to auto pay the minimum amount due. Then just log in monthly and pay the full amount. That way I never miss a payment.
I like another person has mine set to auto pay the minimum amount due. Then just log in monthly and pay the full amount. That way I never miss a payment.
You should ask your CC Company to waive the $25 fee if you have a good record of payment they should honor that.
This is what we do. If you forget to pay your bill, it is likely that with autopay that you will forget to verify all the charges on your statement are valid. We've experienced that the longer a bogus charge is on your account, the less cooperative the bank is when disputing it. We've been late paying an account in the past and the bank waived the fee because we have a good payment history.
You should absolutely put as many of your bills as possible bill directly to a rewards based credit card that you pay off every month. I do this with absolutely everything including auto insurance, home insurance, etc. I have over $1,300 in cash back coming to me in February from consolidating all of our bills to credit cards. And then, yes, you can use the credit card companies to your advantage to dispute charges if you have a problem.
I set it up years ago after a similar situation that you are going through.
Set up a payment that i know would be above the min required (ie. $100) and then each month I would adjust it to the amount I desired to pay. If i missed at least the min got paid.
Set up a payment that i know would be above the min required (ie. $100) and then each month I would adjust it to the amount I desired to pay. If i missed at least the min got paid.
Capitol One sends me by e-mail a statement each month just after the closing date for the period, and I check it. In addition, I have Capitol One send me a notice of each charge on the card. It's a good way to follow my wife around town (that's a joke,but there's some truth to it) as well as verify charges.
