I used to use bill pay. But they get the float from when they take out the funds from your account until it gets received by the other party. They only send out a physical check if the other party does not have an online account.

But during the period of low interest and I was switching away from paper records, I just set up auto payments directly to either a credit card (preferably) or my checking accounts.

Just about all my purchases are with a credit card. Every month, I still withdraw cash for pocket money but they're starting to stockpile.

quote:

Look, I get it. You don't understand online bill pay, and what you don't understand is naturally going to be scary/bad

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You are trying hard to start a fight. I have used online bill pay for two years. On one occasion the vendor was not paid and my account was debited. Six hours of my time to fix it. Since then online has been fine. I just do not trust online bill pay with the IRS. I guess you are fortunate and have not have problems with them. I was inquiring as to online bill pay reliability,nothing more. Your implication that I do not understand REALLY pisses me off. Adding the stupid line what you do not understand was unnecessary and pedantic.

I pay my landlord in PR via check. My Zelle got screwed up and mailing checks is the only method that works that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. As an added bonus he's not getting a tax form from Zelle or whoever because I send him more than $600/year or whatever the new limit is. There's pens designed for writing checks that use an ink that can't be lifted using chemicals. Moreover, I only keep a hundred or so over the checks I write in my checking account so if the scammers get greedy they'll get hit with a bounced check fee.

If I do write a check these days, I either hand it directly to the recipient (like a contractor) or mail it from inside the Post Office.

I try to pay everything with online bill pay, but there is a catch to that: if the recipient is not large enough, the bank will not pay them electronically but will mail them a check. This can cause delays or even a non-delivered payment (I had a water bill never received by my town and I had to pay it with a penalty).

With all the check washing occurring these days, I will never put a check in my mailbox or even a Post Office mailbox.

I do allow the IRS to be either take the tax payment or deposit the refund. I've been doing that for about ten years and have never had any problems.

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:

I try to pay everything with online bill pay, but there is a catch to that <snip I had a water bill never received by my town and I had to pay it with a penalty

I've been using Online Bill Pay since it first became available to me, mid to late 1990's.

Every bank or credit union that I've used, guaranteed on-time delivery for Bill Pay. The bank or credit union would cover any late fees, penalties, etc. if the check was not delivered by the specified date.

My bank has the same guarantee for their bill pay system. So if I pay a personal check and the recipient doesn't get it in the mail, that's on me, and I'm on the hook for the penalties. If I pay with a bill pay check and the recipient doesn't get it, that's on the bank, and they're on the hook. Another benefit, and another example of the greater protection offered by bill pay checks vs. personal checks.

But similar to V-Tail, I've been using online bill pay checks for the past couple decades, and have yet to have any missing payments.

Besides, a personal check mailed by an individual is just as likely to potentially get lost in the mail as a bank check mailed by the bank. That's not a specific risk of the bill pay system itself, but of the postal system in general, and is not a legitimate reason to avoid using or refuse to trust a bank's bill pay service.

The only checks I write go through a laser printer and have a bunch of security features like a hologram, watermark, micro printing, and some others.

I use checks for almost everything, never missed a payment.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

I used to use bill pay. But they get the float from when they take out the funds from your account until it gets received by the other party. They only send out a physical check if the other party does not have an online account.

For direct electronic payment, it's typically next business day, so the float is negligible.

For the payments where a paper check is mailed, the credit union that I use (Navy Federal) does not pull the money from my account until the check is cashed or deposited by the receiving party, so no float.

I quit writing checks many years before it became openly apparent how risky it was. My formula was the one that is obvious today - name, ssn (back in the day), name, address, account #, bank routing number. What's there not to love by any self-respecting criminal with half a brain, or one third of a brain ? I only write a few a year that I hand deliver to trusted independent contractors who run to my bank to cash it 30 minutes after I hand them the check. In those scenarious I don't have to worry about the check floating around in some office for 30 days for anyone to commit fraud using all the valuable and very private information printed the hell all over it.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
How do you pay the IRS?? I do not trust them to deal with online bill pay??

I pay my California and federal taxes via e-checks. I provide my checking account number (which the feds know anyway) and the bank routing number. I immediately get a confirmation number for each payment.

At my income level I would suffer a surcharge (2% I believe) for my California taxes if I didn’t use that method. But I would continue using that method even without the surcharge.

I use my banks online bill pay or some billers direct debit for actual bills, and only pay income or property taxes and my car tag with checks. That means I only write 5-10 checks per year.
Even back in the good old days when I wrote well over a hundred a year plus business checks, I never had any thefts or other issues.
At one time my credit cards would occasionally get compromised somehow but since the chip cards started a few years ago I haven’t had a single problem.
Another nice benefit is not buying stamps or needing to address envelopes.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Whereas my bank charges $15 apiece for cashier's checks from a teller.

But again, zero fee for a bill pay bank check.

No idea why getting a bank check in person would cost such a hefty fee, while getting a practically identical bank check through their online portal would be free. Even if they tacked on a "teller fee" or whatever for privilege of in-person processing, it shouldn't be anywhere near $15 each. Not to mention that they're also having to foot the additional cost of postage and envelopes for the online bill pay bank checks.

*shrug* Banks... who knows.

Had never used bill pay. Got sick of the bank that bought the bank that had bought our bank. Went to a new bank where a friend was the business development guy. He said, (perhaps joking) that he didn’t know if we could be their customers if we didn’t use bill pay. As he explained it, they use ACH wherever they can, and write and mail a physical check where they can’t use ACH. According to him, they save enough not handling our checks where they can use ACH to cover the cost of writing and sending the checks. I don’t do a lot of checks (credit card and pay the credit card off each month with an ACH), so I haven’t bothered with bill pay, but the lovely bride (who handles our bills) uses the heck out of it. After using it for a few years, no issues, and she wouldn’t dream of going back to writing checks.

Have you actually seen this work?

A lot of them eventually do get caught and locked up. Once in jail, they teach other inmates scam, and they do it when they get out. Since this isn't considered that important a crime, they're not going to get that much time. When they get out, they go back and do it again.

I'm sorry but incarceration as a deterrent has be a miserable failure.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
Maybe we could put the fraud mf’ers in prison where they belong.

Yes, perhaps it’s dated. But ‘modern systems’ seem to have issues as well. And the problem isn’t the system but the criminals and the lack of accountability.

What if any are the ramifications of embossing checks with hand tools like this? It seems like it would make an asking and reusing checks difficult. There are embossing machines, but they are a little pricey.

I have had 2 different CC hacked and my ID stolen once. By stolen I was getting stuff like magazines (paper type), ect sent to my address. I have no idea who paid for that stuff as I was never billed.
My wife has also had a couple of CC
hacked.
But the only check problems we have ever had is they got lost in the mail. Never had any washed or forged.

Yay! Let's get rid of cash & checks! It will be so much better when our government has all of that additional control over the electronic version of our monies. Even better if/when China decides to go after that system or our electric grid.

At the ripe old age of 47, not only do I continue to write checks for many things, but my company uses checks exclusively. I don't even print them out.....all written by hand.

Never had a problem.

As opposed to being milked by the criminal element? Pick your poison.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
Yay! Let's get rid of cash & checks! It will be so much better when our government has all of that additional control over the electronic version of our monies. Even better if/when China decides to go after that system or our electric grid.

At the ripe old age of 47, not only do I continue to write checks for many things, but my company uses checks exclusively. I don't even print them out.....all written by hand.

Never had a problem.

Kind of a weird and semi-non-relevant article. It seems to be suggesting that a check's risk is on par with a card or online payment like Venmo or Paypal? That's the way I read it. It's not risk free but a check has a much smaller attack surface.

quote:

At the ripe old age of 47, not only do I continue to write checks for many things, but my company uses checks exclusively. I don't even print them out.....all written by hand.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I write four checks a year. The Lawn Guys check was pilfered out of my home mailbox. Took me eight hours to straighten that out. Got my 65 bucks back in 5 months. Filled out endless forms at the bank. Turns out a crimnal employed groups of homeless people to pilfer mailboxes and bring them to him. He would then wash the check. No matter how much money you have in the bank or how long you have banked there it is a problem. One of the idiots suggested I just open a new account. I brought the branch manager over to discuss that. Since there are numerous ACHs per month it would be a nightmare. She agreed with me.