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Cellar Scribblings
CellarDweller:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on May 20, 2017, 09:39:14 pm ---Not Katherine. To her checks are so twentieth century. ;D
--- End quote ---
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Penthesilea:
Checks? Are standing orders not common in the US?
For everything people have to pay regularly and always the same amount, like rent, mortgage, etc we use standing orders. And costs that differ in amount but come regularly, like phone bill, we have direct debit authorization. That way I don't even have to think of it. I'd get crazy if I had to handle all those payments every month, and in time! :o
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Penthesilea on May 22, 2017, 01:05:18 am ---Checks? Are standing orders not common in the US?
For everything people have to pay regularly and always the same amount, like rent, mortgage, etc we use standing orders. And costs that differ in amount but come regularly, like phone bill, we have direct debit authorization. That way I don't even have to think of it. I'd get crazy if I had to handle all those payments every month, and in time! :o
--- End quote ---
What's the difference between a standing order and a direct debit? They sound the same to me. ???
"Over here," you can have regularly occurring amounts directly debited from your account. For example, people in my condominium community can have their monthly condo fees directly debited from their accounts. I don't do it; I refuse to give up control of money being taken out of my bank account in that way. If I remember correctly, I had that option, too, like Katherine does, when I had a mortgage. But I'm not aware that these arrangements have an actual name, like "standing order."
I also don't pay any bills on line, so I don't know how that works; my assumption always has been that you have to use a credit card, like shopping, but then you get the credit card bill anyway.
I believe I understood Katherine to say she pays everything on line, so I'm sure she can explain that.
serious crayons:
Here are the options:
-- You can pay all your bills by writing a check, putting it in an envelope, addressing the envelope, sealing it which may involve licking the glue (yuck), putting a stamp on the envelope (if you have a stamp) and dropping it in a mailbox.
-- You can set up a list of debtors (regular or occasional) on your bank's "bill pay" page, and when a bill comes due you can go on there, enter the amount you want to pay and the bank sends it to the debtor.
-- You can set up a regular debtor on the bill-pay page to send you e-bills, which you pay when they arrive.
-- You can arrange with a debtor to automatically deduct your bill from a credit card (this doesn't work with a credit-card company, but utilities, cable TV, gym memberships and things like that will do it). Then you pay the credit-card bill. Or you can use your bank's debit card as your credit card, so when the bill comes due it comes right out of your account.
-- You can set up your bank's bill pay to automatically pay a bill. It's not called "standing order," but it does have a name -- "direct debit" or "automatic payment" or something like that. If it's a credit card bill where you'd have a total balance and a minimum payment, you could set it up for either or for some amount in between.
-- You can arrange with the debtor to have your bill payments automatically deducted from your account (giving that debtor the account numbers) -- again, either the whole balance, the minimum payment, or something in between like "minimum due plus $50."
The last two work about the same. I have most of my bills -- utilities, credit cards, etc., deducted automatically from my bank account, by arrangement either with the bank or the debtor. I don't do this with my son's rent because his landlord is so 20th century, and I don't do this with my mortgage, because it's a higher amount and I have until the 15th to pay it without a late fee so I time it to when I'll have enough money in my account to pay it. It's the only one (besides Jack's rent) that I actually have to take action on, but it's easy because it's a simple transfer from my checking account to the mortgage, all on my bank account's website.
And of course you can, at any time, pay them yourself and circumvent the system -- either pay extra in addition to your automatic payment, or make a payment and have your automatic payment canceled.
As usual, I'm with you, Chrissi! I'd go crazy if I had to keep track of all of those things and write out dozens of checks each month. Worse, I'd forget to pay them on time even if I had the money to do so, and I'd rack up late fees and tarnish my credit rating.
brianr:
I write about 2 or 3 cheques per year, mainly to the lawn mower man if I do not see him and the amount builds up.They are talking about phasing cheques out in Australia. It is mainly elderly (older than me ;D) who still use them, I pay all my bills online using my credit card (and get points) or by direct debit. I have been thinking of asking the lawnmower man if I can have his bank account number but I think he prefers cash to avoid taxes.
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