What Is Online Bill Pay?

Advantages

There are many advantages of using online bill pay over other bill payment methods. The payments are never lost in the mail. You don't have to take time out of your day to go pay the bill in person. You don't have to worry about running out of checks. Often the payments are credited to your account instantaneously or within a day or two. You don't need to worry about purchasing stamps for the purpose of mailing the check.

With online bill pay, you sometimes have to pay a convenience fee. There is the possibility that there will be a technical glitch at the moment you send your payment which causes the payment to disappear without crediting your account. You have to have an Internet connection and working computer. Some companies require that you no longer get paper bills if you choose to use online bill pay, which means you cannot rely on a paper bill to remind you of when it is due and have to instead remember to check your online account.

Some companies allow you to set up recurring payments through your online bill pay account. This means that you can schedule as many future payments as you would like and never have to worry about logging in and sending the payment electronically because it will be done for you automatically. You also have a complete online record of when payments were sent and how much you paid; you can check the record anytime.

While there is always the possibility that your financial information could be compromised in some way while using online bill pay, the banking systems have implemented extensive security measures that make this highly unlikely. Paying with a paper check through the mail also poses many security concerns and can leave your finances in a vulnerable state. The security implemented in online bill pay systems is an advantage over the mail.