[net.consumers] Bill paying service

lem@solar.UUCP (06/29/84)

Several banks in NJ do the same thing for free.
My bank cost $.15 per transaction.  (It used to be free.)

The only major problem I've had was when a payment got "lost".
The bank claimed that they sent it and blamed the creditor.
The creditor claimed the bank didn't send it or sent it to the
wrong account number.  In all the discussion, I was forced to be
the middleman since the other two parties were not motivated
to talk to each other.  An old fashioned canceled check would
have helped a lot.  This occured at different times on two different
bills.

Also, when you use this service, you lose the "float" in your
interest-bearing checking account.  On large checks, this maybe
larger than the cost savings.

All in all we still use the service for some bills (like mortgage)
but not as much as wee used to.