I’ve read two interesting articles on Bill Pay lately. One from MSN Money and the other from The Money Mythos. (both via My Money Blog) And in each of them, they bash Bill Pay and EFTs.
In Jon of Money Mythos’ story, he tells us about a horrible experience he had with an EFT and the resulting damage that happened. After reading the whole post, two things stick out to me. One is the fact that the contract in question was a two year contract. Without proper notice that the contract had been canceled, I don’t think I would have wanted to settle for a “suspended indefinitely”. All that means is that at some point in the future it can be restarted. Not the proper solution.
Second, he says that his bank was powerless to stop it. Wrong. Whomever he talked to about the situation didn’t know what they were talking about. Any EFT or ACH transaction can be returned as unauthorized. All you have to do is sign an affidavit and get them returned. It has to be done within a certain amount of time, but he should have been well within that time frame.
In the MSN Money article, the author (byline says bankrate.com) talks about the ability of a bill pay system to cause overdrawing of an account and forgetting of bills.
And having hands other than yours reaching into your bank account or adding charges to your credit card can quickly get complicated if you don’t keep a close eye on your finances.
The key bit there is the “don’t keep a close eye on your finances.” Unfortunately, Bill Pay systems have been touted as a “set it and forget it” solution for bill payment. The truth is, when you sign up for Bill Pay, you are signing a contract allowing for the company that administers the Bill Pay to take the money that you tell it to out of your account and pay your bills with it. Again, the key here is that you tell it to take the money. You can’t blame the Bill Pay system if you go overdrawn or if you don’t pay attention to your finances.
The bottom line is this: Bill Pay can be a wonderful tool and a great convenience to you if used properly. If you have delusions of setting up a bill and never looking at it again, you are setting yourself up for a fall. And it could cost you. And frankly, if you have no intention of paying close attention to your finances, you’re headed for disaster anyways.
[tags]bill pay,eft,automatic transfer[/tags]
