Understanding Online Banking Part (5)
If you want to use only online bill payment, you can use any bank. You will, however, need to sign up with an online bill payment service such as Intuit’s. (When you sign up with an online bill payment service, you give the service permission to write checks and make electronic disbursements from your existing bank account.)
Caveats about Online Bill Payment
Although the businesses charging you fees for online financial services and the software companies selling you online financial software don’t mention it, practical problems with online banking do exist. Online bill payment services require you to be more organized in your bill paying. You need to transmit electronic payment information to the online bill payment service a few days early so that the service has time to process your payment.
If you’re always juggling those last few bills or closely watching your cash flow, this might not work. In the case of an individual using online banking, for example, you lose the option of paying the mortgage with a handwritten check on the last day and personally running the check down to the bank.
NOTE:
If your Internet connection isn’t dependable—and sometimes ours aren’t—you also need to factor this into your bill-paying and banking schedule.
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