Paying bills electonically does NOT mean they're unaffected by USPS slowdowns.

[CincyDem]

I noticed another thread where the OP rightly griped about getting a late fee on his CC when his payment showed up late, in spite of mailing it 10 days in advance. Many of the responses were - you should consider paying electronically.

Last year, I had reason to dig into how those electronic payments are actually processed. After many long conversations with my bank, I was surprised to learn that many "electronic" payments are actually still mailed. They're not "end-to-end" electronic. I was also surprised to learn that the bank doesn't feel responsible for the timing on payments that aren't end-to-end electronic. They pretty much said - yeah...what can we do about mail service. And that was before all this chit with DeJoy.

Your bank probably has electronic transfer set up with the big payees...major CC companies and local utilities for example. But for smaller payees...doctors, maybe your mortgage, local vendors...those electronic payments usually get processed to a paper check that is then mailed. Every night, the bank sends an electronic file to a payment processor who prints a check, stuffs it, and drops it in the mail. And it moves along just as if you had dropped it in a box yourself.

Just something to keep in mind when you're paying bills. Don't get "DeJoy-ed".

[soothsayer]

1. I had no idea!

[SheltieLover]

2. K&R!

Ty!

[wryter2000]

3. That's weird

I pay the cc cards directly, not via my bank.

[Kaleva]

8. Smaller venues may not be set up to be paid electronically.

[dalton99a]

4. Yep.

[treestar]

5. Some you get an email saying the payment is received

So it's not on you if it gets to them "late."

I did get a bill that went out in the mail the same day I paid electronically. I called and they said I could disregard it as my account was up to date.

[Kaleva]

6. Many smaller payees give the option to pay electronically

Using Paypal is a common option.

Others don't however, as you said. Chase sends checks to pay for my LP gas, water and phone.

[yardwork]

7. Correct. Bill pay means that a check is literally mailed.

Just because we arrange for our bank to cut the check and mail it on the same day of each month, doesn't mean that the check will arrive on time.

[Klaralven]

19. And even worse, the check arrives at the biller without the bill stub to post the payment

When you mail a check directly to the biller, you usually also return a part of the bill that you received. This stub or remittance advice is the standard way that the biller posts the check payment to your account.

When the biller receives a paper check from a bank, it likely comes with a non-standard remittance advice that the biller may have to process manually to post the proper customer account.

Its even worse if the bank uses "check and list", where the bank sends one check for several customer payments along with a listing of the individual customer accounts being paid. Hopefully this is largely a thing of the past.

[True Blue American]

9. But the good news

Is that companies automatically pay your bill when Bill is delivered.. i still get paper bills that show automated payment.I have never had a late charge from DP. I had one from mail.

[Wounded Bear]

10. This doesn't surprise me...

A couple of my bills (and I pay everything on line now) take forever to process.

For mine, though, the electronic payment seems to register though, so maybe my creditors are willing to wait for the snail mail payment if I've logged it on line.

Does PayPal work this way? It sure seems to take forever for it to process my bank transfers.

[Yonnie3]

11. Entities that I use to pay bills clearly identify electronic and paper payments

On both my bank and credit union I reviewed all my payees and moved mail payments earlier by five days.

Edit to add:

In both instances they call payments "Online Bill Pay" or similar. They don't call these services "electronic."

[mopinko]

12. yup. my ex did electronic payments. his bank mailed me check.

same w a tenant i have.
my own bank was the asshole here. you cant transfer funds with another bank, in or out.
i switched to the same bank, so it's direct now. but...

[Klaralven]

13. Register on the biller's website and pay with a cashback credit card.

For bills that are the same each month, set up automatic charges to the credit card.

For the credit card, register on the credit card's web site and pay with a transfer from a checking account. Always pay the credit card statement balance each month.

Don't use a debit card. Don't use a bank's bill pay service to pay from a checking account.

[Kitchari]

14. Oh!

Interesting strategy!

[CabalPowered]

15. We had a life insurance policy nearly lapse

Because of "bill pay" feature that ended with mail being returned. The threat is real. Anything important should be an ach transaction initiated by the vendor.

[rickford66]

16. I do one time debit payments on the first of the month.

Paid directly and I get an immediate confirmation. I don't trust automatic payments.

[csziggy]

17. It's not just smaller payees that don't get electronic transfers

My Citi Bank credit card payment is mailed from my bank. I used to time my payment to go out from the bank about a week before the due date. Now as soon as I receive the bill, I set up the payment. That means that the bank marks the payment as "Pending" and the money is not available in my account as much as two weeks sooner, but my payment has not been late since I began doing this.

One of my cards does not send out their bills until two weeks before they are due - which meant that with the mail delays sometimes I have not gotten the bill until after the due date. So now I call them to find out what my balance is when I am making my payments for the other card and set up that payment, too.

I could go to electroni billing so I don't have to rely on the mail, but I prefer having a hard copy at the end of the year when I do my taxes and I'd rather that they pay for the printing than me. Plus when I did try paperless for my accounts before, I got screwed up with all the operations and health problems I was having. Getting back to hard copy was hard since I did not have my passwords or security questions. I ended up one year not getting either hard copy or electronic bills for about six months which messed up my accounting for that year.

[AmericanCanuck]

18. Actually, all credit card payments are end-to-end electronic

Only small mom-n-pop businesses who don't have the proper setup with the banking framework get mailed a check.

All utilities, insurance companies, banks, mortgage companies etc. don't get a check.

[ohtransplant]

21. Hate to be contrarian but...

the bank I have my mortgage with (a smaller bank) is not set up to accept electronic payments.

Since my main checking account is with a different (larger) bank, I have the scenario described in the OP. If I go into my billpay in the checking account, the payment will be converted to a paper check and mailed. I've made several call to each bank to verify this information as I was surprised at such a thing.

I can go into the mortgage bank's portal and pay directly but...they also have a maximum payment limit set up so I have to break it into 2 pieces. Obviously their systems need upgraded but on the other hand, it may be why I got such a ridiculously low rate on my refi!

[GeorgeGist]

20. I've known this for years ...

It pays to pay ⚠️attention, maybe because I use a Credit union.