If time and money are your biggest concerns, you may want
to pass on the electronic bill paying option until sometime
in the future.
Online bill paying can be an expensive component to online
banking (See Online Banking Fees).
You can't include a payment coupon with your bill when
authorizing payments online, which may cause a delay or
discredit your account. However, better bill payment services
include a "memo" section in which you put your identifying
account information.
Despite today's technological security precautions, in
most cases manual checks are still being mailed from your
bank to the payee, which opens up the door to the usual
delays and risks of snail mail.
If your computer crashes and you don't have the time or
money to get it fixed, you may end up missing payments by
some of your bill due dates.
Still unresolved are the legal ramifications of whether
or not an electronic bill constitutes a lawful commitment
between you and the vendor.
Certain privacy issues may be at stake concerning shared
client database information.
Online bill paying service vendors typically
charge a flat rate fee per month for a specific numbers
of bill payments, then an individual charge for each
bill payment beyond that limit. Some banks may not charge
at all for payments up to a certain number of bills
per month.
