On Thu, Jul 28, 2022 at 05:31 PM, T. Civitello wrote:
Now the bills will go directly to your bank and they will send
payment to the payee and you are cut out of the loop till the end of
the month when you get a list on your monthly statement. Are all
banks now using this system?
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No, and even those that do (one of mine does) give you the option to use automatic payment (where they just pay whatever comes in) or to follow the usual protocol where they notify you a bill has arrived, and you must log in to pay it.
This is being driven as much by many billers as the banks.  They've found that payments often "slip through the cracks" when customers have to log in to multiple sites to even see their bills then either pay them from there or log out and then log in to their bank to pay them.
It's really quite convenient to centralize all bill paying in one place and to have all of your electronic bills show up in your bank's bill payer.  You still choose whether payment is automatic or you must authorize.  It actually peeves me that one, and only one, of my utility bills refuses to set up such that the bill goes to my bill payer and I get notified that it's there for me to pay. I don't know of a single bank that does "enforced automatic" or they'd lose customers, as people could easily be bouncing the equivalent of checks left and right if making payments is contingent on actual cash flow (and it very often is).  Many don't have tons of cash lying about in their bank accounts that serves as a cushion and where no bill would be larger than that cushion.
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Brian -Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044
*Here is a test to find out whether your mission in life is complete. If you’re alive, it isn’t.
*     ~ Lauren Bacall