Fortunately, not that far. I’ll set up recurring payments through my bank website, where I’m the one in charge. I won’t give, say, the power company permission to make withdrawals from my account.
I still think about that person a few years ago that was charged millions of dollars in an “accounting error”, and the electric utility initially tried to withdraw it from her account and then tried to convince her to pay it
For every newsworthy story like that, I bet there are a huge number of “mistakes” that are, coincidentally, always in the company’s favor. That, and the nightmare of getting it sorted out, are the two biggest reasons I won’t use automatic payments.
Not who you’re replying to but l use a credit card for all automatic bill payments. If they don’t accept credit cards or charge an outrageous fee I pay them through my online banking bill pay. Whether it gets to them via check or electronic funds transfer is their problem, not mine.
The reason why I will do not do SEPA and instead give them my PayPal instead.
That way I get a full on notification in case someone withdraws anything from my account.
I hate PayPal. when my paycheck arrived late from company mishandling things, PayPal decides to throw a bunch of payment requests at my bank and cause 2 overdraft fees a day. I racked up $35 fees in 4 days, totaling 280 dollars. PayPal just told me that is how their system works and to ask my bank for them to forgive the fees. I was forgiven one fee. I hate banks and paypal.
I do not trust automatic payments. I stubbornly refuse to give a company my bank account info.
How far does that stubborness go? Like do you not write checks? Do you not use a credit/debit card? Cash only?
Fortunately, not that far. I’ll set up recurring payments through my bank website, where I’m the one in charge. I won’t give, say, the power company permission to make withdrawals from my account.
I still think about that person a few years ago that was charged millions of dollars in an “accounting error”, and the electric utility initially tried to withdraw it from her account and then tried to convince her to pay it
For every newsworthy story like that, I bet there are a huge number of “mistakes” that are, coincidentally, always in the company’s favor. That, and the nightmare of getting it sorted out, are the two biggest reasons I won’t use automatic payments.
Not who you’re replying to but l use a credit card for all automatic bill payments. If they don’t accept credit cards or charge an outrageous fee I pay them through my online banking bill pay. Whether it gets to them via check or electronic funds transfer is their problem, not mine.
There are a lot of discounts that require auto withdrawal. $5 per bill, per month adds up quickly.
The reason why I will do not do SEPA and instead give them my PayPal instead.
That way I get a full on notification in case someone withdraws anything from my account.
I hate PayPal. when my paycheck arrived late from company mishandling things, PayPal decides to throw a bunch of payment requests at my bank and cause 2 overdraft fees a day. I racked up $35 fees in 4 days, totaling 280 dollars. PayPal just told me that is how their system works and to ask my bank for them to forgive the fees. I was forgiven one fee. I hate banks and paypal.