Comments on: Why I’m Skittish Around Automatic Billing: Dreamhost’s Big Screwup

By: Watch Out For Auto Bill Payments | Money Infant

Watch Out For Auto Bill Payments | Money Infant — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:41:46 +0000

[...] Here are more words of wisdom regarding the subject of Auto billing: Why I Don’t Do Auto Billing Why I’m Skittish Around Automatic Billing [...]

By: Always Have a Backup Plan | beingfrugal.net

Always Have a Backup Plan | beingfrugal.net — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:56:24 +0000

[...] for when the kids get sick, for when you have to work late…or get called in early. What if a company pulls too much money out of your account one month? What if you lose your [...]

By: Quick Overview of Banking Interest | Mrs. Micah: Finance for a Freelance Life

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 02:30:31 +0000

[...] been following the Dreamhost saga mostly from curiosity. I would have been liable to an accidental site shut-down, but don’t [...]

By: Weekend Roundup: Long Weekend Edition | beingfrugal.net

Weekend Roundup: Long Weekend Edition | beingfrugal.net — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 12:15:18 +0000

[...] Why I’m Skittish Around Automatic Billing at Mrs. Micah [...]

By: Alison

Alison — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 05:06:51 +0000

Yikes!
I’m a bit afraid of automatic billing when it’s tied to my checking account, I just don’t keep a lot in there because it can earn more interest elsewhere. I only do automatic billing if I can use my credit card.

By: vh

vh — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:56:36 +0000

Wow! That’s a real charmer.

And it’s exactly the reason I decided not to let GoDaddy “automatically” recharge its fees to my credit card. In fact, the only automatic charge I have on a credit card is the New York Times subscription, and that only because they have a long history of not scr**ing up with me, and because it’s a very small amount.

I do have automatic bill paying for all my utilities. These come out of a checking account, though, and the payments are timed so that every time they’re due two paychecks have gone into that account. Also I keep a $500 “cushion” in that account AND have $500 of overdraft protection–together those create a $1,000 back-up, which should (I hope) forestall any bounced payments, should anything strange happen.

I’ve never encountered a credit-card issuer, no matter how eminent or how long in business, that I felt could be trusted. They’re all out to get the consumer, one way or another, and if you talk to folks you’ll find that just about everyone gets bitten sooner or later. That’s a good reason not to have any charges automatically going on the card–you really need to stay in control with those things.

By: Llama Money

Llama Money — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:07:18 +0000

I’ve always stuck to automatic credit card billing. Much, much safer – you have more time to figure out an error, and of course you’ll never miss paying your mortgage / car payment because of it.

Automatic debt to a checking acct is a bad decision 99.9% of the time

By: Katie

Katie — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:35:48 +0000

I signed up for automatic bill pay 4 years ago when I moved to Europe. It was definitely an easier route than waiting for the bills to come overseas, writing a check, and mailing it back. My banks bill pay system is still sent via check… its just the bank sends the check instead of me.

Luckily, I have never had any issues such as this occur. It is a scary thought.

By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:55:15 +0000

I have separate account for my necessary things(housing, food, bills) and another for everything else. If an error happens it minimizes the damage. I only had one mistake, but I learned from it and separated the two categories.

By: ms. m&p

ms. m&p — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:48:02 +0000

How awful. If that had happened to me, I would have been screwed–especially if it had happened a year or so ago. I feel for the paycheck to paycheck people that got hurt by this.