3. Surprise boxes
I understand that receiving surprise boxes at the front door each month is fun and exciting, but do you really use everything in them? You probably know that beauty brands are very happy when people subscribe to their monthly boxes because they have the chance to promote their business and make some money at the same time.
It’s purely marketing, which is exactly why you shouldn’t put that bill on autopay. If you’re passionate about the beauty industry and absolutely like and use the items they send you each month, then good for you.
But if you rarely use them and only pay to see whether there’ll be something you like, you’re more likely wasting your money. I know that these surprise boxes are quite affordable, but if this expense amounts to a year’s worth, you’ll actually realize that you spent a good amount of money for almost nothing.
19 thoughts on “7 Bills You Should NEVER Put on Autopay”
Actually, I find it more advantageous to keep all of my accounts off autopsy. It makes my life more carefree.
I have nothing on auto pay after someone used my account for nearly $1000, after speaking to my bank as to how to assure this would never happen again, first thing they said was did I have anything set up for auto pay (we had 2) they said cancel it, even if I knew who I set the account up with did I realize how other eyes see my information, cancelled them both that day.
Too bad punctuation isn’t on automatic.
I’m with you on this one. It is vitally important for me to keep my check book balanced. If I have bills which I haven’t seen being charged to my account, I have no idea how much they are charging and absolutely don’t know if I’m OK with the amount they are charging me. Every bill I get is a paper one I get in the mail to pay. No free rides on my checking account.
I guess you could go back to paper statements and write a check to pay your bills and mail in your payment. I’m not sure that will work for streaming services and other bills.
I have a few bill on autopay such as my cell, electric, water & sewer, and I check these invoices thoroughly each month to make sure their correct. The only bill I refuse to put on autopay is ATT for my direct TV and internet as every 12 months they jack up the price and you would have to pay to get your money back. If your conscientious about your finances, you should have no problem with autopay on certain bills.
Due to a stroke a few years ago, my memory has been compromised. Since I am now forgetful, I need to have autopay. Otherwise, there’s a huge possibility of bills not being paid on time. This is the only way I am able to avoid late fees.
Some auto pays are good but I don’t use most of them. One reason is that they are sometimes a pain to close.
Yep.. Hartford auto… wouldn’t let me cancel. They blocked my calls when they seen I had auto pay when them and wanted to cancel a policy. Had to wait over a year for my cards expiration date to expire..
I agree that it may not be wise to have bills on auto pay. The current trend is for businesses to want you to go paperless and pay balances on credit cards automatically. However, when you have fraudulent charges on the credit card, example, I just had a charge attempt at .01 cents. The card is then cancelled as that was determined to be a test for the next big one to prevent that from happening. Then starts your effort to adjust the pre-payments.
That is a pain in the rear and time consuming and if you fail to do that for one vendor, the bill becomes past due and that creates additional issues. Can also affect your credit rating. Therefore, I recommend not placing bills on automatic payment. As it has happened to me several times.
My electric company is THE BEST! They send a notice midway the pay period which gives me an exact amount of power ued to the date indicated. They also compare it with last year’s useage at the same time a year ago. I can then adjust my consumption from midpoint to the end of billing. They provide a yearly chart and complete graph online so that customers can see exactly what has been and is being billed. I have used bank draft payment with them since I first accessed electricity. All power companies should provide this service for their customers.
This article will be better titled “bills you should never put on autopay IF YOU DON’T PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR BILLS EVERY MONTH”
For those of us who do check our monthly bills, NONE of these items would be issues. Maybe people are lazy, but everyone should check their bills every month. The autopay option is so convenient since you don’t have to take the time to pay each bill one by one, probably saving hours of your time every month just from the actions of making the payments (a few minutes per bill multiplied by every single bill you get, and that’s over and above just checking your bills, which normally takes less than a minute except for credit card bills).
Also, if you aren’t living paycheck to paycheck and are responsible with your purchases relative to your income, these autopay “issues” matter even less.
Bottom line: I can see why this advice MAY be helpful to some, but the best advice is to just check your bills!!!
It’s a bit different over here in Europe where I am at the moment, but it might be good advice for some Americans planning on coming over here: if you have recurring payments to make (telephone, newspapers, perhaps even monthly rent), it will be a good idea to authorize the prospective creditor’s bank to debit such amounts to your bank account so you cannot miss out on any payment. It’s absolutely safe because you can cancel any unauthorized or incorrect debiting within at least six weeks by simply telling your bank. It will just be re-debited to the bank account(s) of such unauthorized users.
There are numerous problems with the advice provided here.
Don’t put your streaming subscriptions on autopay? How is that even possible? Most (if not all) require that you provide a credit card or other payment method for billing in order to have service (and that includes the free trial).
Cell phone bills? I get a discount by having my cell phone bill on autopay with paperless billing, and an additional 5% back from the credit card that I use to pay the bill (which, in turn is also on autopay). Plus, I get to keep the funds for an extra month. Autopay saves me over $200/year on cell phone expense, and eliminates the potential for being assessed late fees if a bill gets misplaced. And since the I pay for an unlimited plan, the monthly amount is known and since I seldom use the card in question for anything BUT my cell phone bill, all it takes is a glance at my payment confirmation email (or my checking account statement) to identify if there is something that needs investigating.
You can log into your utility accounts to review for errors regardless of if you are on autobill or not. But which is more likely: an error on a utility bill (I’ve never seen one in more than 30 years of home ownership), or a late payment charge for missing the bill due date if you don’t have autopay? I woul guess that for most people, it is the latter.
Should you review every credit card bill and checking account statement for unexpected charges? Absolutely! I suppose that if you need to turn off autopay to make that happen, then maybe you should. However, for me, autopay saves me time AND money. And for anyone who thinks that autopay somehow increases their chances of identity theft– every time you make a credit card or check payment, you are giving someone the opprtunity to steal your account number.
Autopay will save you a lot of money if you are not paying your bills on time. Some companies have large service fees applied immediately if paid late. But you do need to be diligent on what you’re paying ahead of it being withdrawn from your account. I have a friend who doesn’t have a clue how much her real estate taxes are, as they are on auto pay.
I received $55.00 in incentive fees to change to auto pay. I still receive a bill on the electric bill, but not the cable as that is paperless.
Thank you for the article.
Excellent advise! OTHER EYES !!!!! NOTING IS PRIVATE ON THE INTERNET
SCAMERS ARE EVERYEHERE!
autopay on cc is safe because you are not liable thru the cc
Unfortunately the choice to NOT put your streaming services on autopay is not how many give you that choice.
No autopay for me. I’m not giving anyone access to my account for any reason! It ain’t rocket science!!