I never auto pay anything. Utilities can make mistakes and grab a lot of money - look at Texas electric customers last year - drained many bank accounts.
Neither do I. Don't confuse eBills with auto-pay.
eBills are simply electronic versions of your (once) paper bills that show up in your online banking and wait for YOU to actively do something with. You are notified when a new bill shows up (text, email, and/or when you login). You then log into your bank web site, review the eBill, and schedule a date and amount that the bank will send your money TO them, either via EFT (electronic funds transfer or a paper check if they don't accept EFT.
Sure, you CAN set up a bill to be automatically scheduled to be paid (e.g., send the balance due on the due date of the eBill or perhaps set up your car payment or mortgage payment to go out on a specific day each month), but you're still in control of it going out (you can cancel or modify a payment). NOBODY can "drain" your account (or even take a nickel) unless you actively send it to them.
In short, you are in complete control, as you haven't authorized anyone to
withdraw money from your account. eBills are nice because they don't get lost in the USPS mail. And, at least with BoA, it costs me nothing to pay a bill with their online banking, regardless of whether they send the payment via EFT or mail out a paper check.
I've been using online banking and eBill with BoA for the better part of 15+ years. I've never had any issues. The few times they didn't send a payment out, they notified the other party that THEY (BoA) screwed up and that resolved it with zero fees and zero reported missing or late payments. And that's only happened 2 or 3 times.
I don't use credit cards, have 2 that I buy something with each year for $2-$3 bucks to keep my credit score strong.
The problem with credit cards isn't using the card. It's failing to pay the balance off every month.
I can't remember the last time I carried a balance on a credit card, yet we use a variety of cards to make thousand of dollars of purchases each month, earning some decent cash rewards. I actually pay cards off sometimes 2 or 3 times in single month.
I haven't paid a nickel of interest using a credit card in several decade, yet we earn hundreds (sometimes thousands) of dollars in rewards every year. We earn in excess of $500 per year on gasoline purchases alone, just for using a card that gives us 4% of all gasoline purchases (and that's ALL we use THAT card for). The vast majority of everything we purchase with a card earns us 2% back (minimum), with quite a few purchases earning twice as much back or more. Why hand over a debit card when you can hand over a different piece of plastic and earn 2-3-4-5% or more back?
I respect those who choose to not use a credit card for whatever reason they want. But if you're responsible enough, you can save hundreds to thousands of dollars per year just for presenting a different card @ the checkout register and paying your balance off each month.
I know I am giving away money by not getting the 1% or so cash back - but just me.
Whatever you feel most comfortable with is what matters most. But if you use the right cards, it's easily 2 to 5 percent, not 1.
