Automatic Payments

I know that a lot of people like to sign up for automatic payments for bills they pay regularly.  I do not like to do this, for several reasons. One is because automatic payments should occur at certain dates, but due to holidays, weekends and what ever vagaries of electronic fund transfer, sometimes automatic payments happen when they are not expected. If someone keeps a small amount in their checking account, this can result in insufficient funds, and either overdraft fees, or overdraft protection being used, but even overdraft protection can be subject to fees. And, if someone has unexpectedly had other expenses, they could not be planning correctly to cover the automatic payment.

Another reason that automatic payments are not good, is that people can overlook what the payment is, when it is made. So people are less likely to notice if the payment changes, and believe me, these payment changes can catch us unawares, and again, without sufficient funds in our account. More importantly, the automatic payment change might be a mistake, or at very least, as happened to me, can be reapplied to a different service plan to decrease the amount of the regular payment. 

Another scenario is automatic payments that occur for items that happen once a year. If  someone forgets that that automatic payment is due, again, they may not budget for it before it occurs.  Last year, I had an "automatic" payment taken out of my account, when I did not expect it.  I was able to cover the funds, but I had not given permission for this automatic payment, and was pretty much indignant that it occurred.  So much so, that I did not renew the service this year. 

My Sprint Bill

I receive my Sprint bill online.  Just recently, my bill came in $16 more than it had been.  I had no notice of this.  So, I called Sprint.  After waiting about 10 minutes to talk to a representative, I was thanked for being a loyal Sprint customer since 1994!  I was told that had been on a discount plan that was no longer available, so I now had this higher rate.  Then, I was offered a lower rate plan, with unlimited service as I had been receiving, at slightly more than I was paying,  but not $16 per month. And, I could get even a lower rate, if I did automatic payment.  I was incensed. This should have been offered to me automatically, and I should have been able to make that choice before I was just charged the higher rate. 

Well, of course I accepted the lower rate plan, and was offered and accepted a discount for the bill I had just received.  I declined the automatic payment option, knowing full well that companies like Sprint count on customers not to pay attention when their bills change. I think this is a fraud. 

Paying Bills

I do most of my bill paying on line, and am grateful for the option from my bank.  For years, I had a system of writing a check, filling out an envelope, and putting a due date in the corner, then keeping the envelope in a place I checked regularly, putting the payment out to mail a few days before the bill was due.   I was rarely late with a payment, but once every few years, goofed up.

Now, with bill pay on line, I can set up a payment from my bank for a bill that might not be due for a month or two after I receive it (insurance mostly.)  But today, I realized I did not make a payment in a timely way.  I had received the bill, and deducted it from my checking account, but forgot to enter it into bill pay.  I do this rarely, but I also try to check bill pay a couple of times a month to make sure I am on top of paying my bills. I know what bill is due based on the date of payment the prior month, so that is helpful. I will be a day late with this payment.  I do not think the recipient will dock me, but if they do, it is my fault.

Electric Bill

When I received the electric bill this month, I was a little confused.  My electric usage was as high as it was for June and July this year, when my air-conditioner ran mercilessly, and in triple digit weather, could not keep up.  In August, I had the air-conditioning and heating unit of 26 years replaced, and my electric usage in August was markedly lower.  In September, I expected it to be low, because we had a lot of cool, wet weather, and although sometimes the air-conditioner ran, not so much.

October was a warm month, but not warmer than August. And cool, sometimes.  Cool enough I sometimes run a space heater near my desk.  My past experience with the space heater is that it does not increase the electric bill nearly as much as the air-conditioner does. I had learned years ago, when I got a really unbelievably high electric bill ($500 in one month) that Lubbock Power and Light has a meter re-read service when bills are questionable.  When I got this bill, I went out to look at the meter, but it was high on the wall of my house, and the meter housing was difficult to see through.  So, I just called, expressed my concern and why it was a concern, and the agent agreed the best option was to have the meter re-read.   I received a letter from LP&L today, with an adjusted reading that saved me about $110.  That sounded more like it.  

Now, if I had used that much electricity, of course I would have paid for it. But I could not believe that I had.  I was right this time!  Yeah!

My Struggle with Norton Anti-Virus

I have Norton Anti-Virus http://us.norton.com/ on my computer. It came pre-loaded, and I decided to pay for it, rather than use the free McAfee https://promos.mcafee.com/offer.aspx?id=1102781 that Suddenlink  http://home.suddenlink.net/ offers, because of all of the trouble I have had with McAfee in the past.  When I had my computer worked on in July at Office Depot http://www.officedepot.com/, they tried to push McAfee, but I held fast for Norton.  My Norton protection was due to expire early August 2016.  I had some trouble with Norton in July, and had to uninstall and re-install twice. When I contacted them, they had my account linked to an email address I do not use. I did not click to that, and ask them to discontinue it, although I should have. Duh on me. 

Well, about 15 days before my coverage was supposed to expire, I received a notice that my coverage had expired.  Well, I understand that they try to get your to renew before expiration so I renewed my account.

Today, when I got my Discover discovercard.com/ bill, I found two charges from Norton:  one on July 12 for a higher amount than I thought I had renewed for, and one on July 15, for the amount I had actually renewed for.  I contacted Norton. They said I had Norton set for automatic renewal. I doubt I had set that, because I do not set that.  On any of my accounts. And last year, I had to renew my Norton account manually. I complained because the second renewal was due to a notice saying my coverage had expired after the automatic renewal had occurred, and was supposedly sent to the email account that I do not use.   Norton made it right:  They refunded half of the automatic renewal, and extended my coverage for a second year. They disassociated the email account I do not use. And I discontinued the automatic renewal. After multiple attempts to do so, because the toggle switch did not want to change.  Hmm, what does that tell you.

Discover suggested I pay the full amounts Norton charged, and the refund will show up next month. I can handle that. 

The person I dealt with at Norton was great.  But Norton gets black marks for deceptive practices.  Sorry, Norton.  Bad on you.

My ISP and SPAM

A couple of months ago, I noticed that I was not getting my online ebill for my AT&T credit card.  I have had this card for years, but do not use it much.  But occasionally, I do.  And, I know when I do.  I check my bills paid online a few times each month, and noticed that I did not pay AT&T one month. So I checked the website, and sure enough I had an amount due.  I checked back through my email, and could not find the ebill.  Well, I made the payment in time not to owe a finance charge, and thought nothing of it.  Then. Until, next month the same thing happened.  What the heck was going on?

Well, this past Saturday night, I sent myself a picture from my IPhone http://www.apple.com/iphone/.  I have done this before, and have noticed a delay in the email showing up on my computer.  But by Sunday morning, there was no picture.  I tried sending the picture again.  Multiple times. But it did not show up. 

I checked the phone user's guide, and learned that it might be my Internet Service Provider (ISP) blocking the photos.  Grrrr.  I went to the Suddenlink http://home.suddenlink.net/ email online website, and checked the settings.  I changed a few, including the one that said to dispose of SPAM and not show it to me.

The photos showed up shortly after I made those changes.

Well, lo and behold, I had no idea how much SPAM Suddenlink was filtering out from my email inbox.  And, I am glad that is happening.  But today, as I was browsing through the SPAM, there was my AT&T bill!  What the heck was going on?  I am not sure, but I sent the email to my inbox, and had my bill.

I have since added that email address to my contact list, in hopes that the future ebills will once again show up in my inbox, and not my SPAM box!

Throwing Bills Away

I am compulsively conscientious about paying bills. I really like the option of bill pay on line from my bank, because the day I receive a bill, I can schedule a payment. And, I can check back every month to make sure the payments have been scheduled or made as required. 

So, this week, I received a bill.  And after I looked through the other mail, I threw out the bill with the "junk mail."  I did not mean to do that. It was the bill for my membership to the Lifestyle Center.  So, when I drove up to the Lifestyle Center parking lot Wednesday night, it occurred to me that I had seen the bill, and did not act on it (I usually just bring the payment with me when I go in to the center.) So, after I went home, I went looking for the bill. And it was nowhere. I could not believe that I had thrown it out with the junk mail, but went to the bag in the garage that holds the junk mail until I take it to the dumpster, and there was the bill.

I have become a little careless about other minor things recently.  I am not sure if it is due to being preoccupied, or maybe because I am struggling with ongoing pain that I am always trying to mitigate, or it is due to aging. Or what.  But this is a trend I have noticed.  It is not too serious yet, but I need to monitor myself better.