[Gun142]

Only thing I’ve had on auto pay was a car loan and it was paying the bank where I had the checking account.

This spring my credit card number was stolen after someone hacked monoprice.com. They used it at iTunes, Microsoft services (probably to get iTunes to work), and some other charge.

Credit card company locked my account and took care of everything. New card got here in 5 days, very happy with them. Now I use Google Checkout for most purchases.

More than likely ACORN didn’t steal your card number but someone who supports them probably made a “donation” in your name.... sort of.

Dispute it and use a credit card instead of a debit card. More protections and some, like mine, give 1% cash back to you.

[John Galt's cousin]

Ditto. The debit cards leave you with much less protection than credit cards that you pay off every month

I also use automatic bill pay, but I have it set up that my bank pays amounts that I have previously set (monthly mortgage, budgeted gas and electric). For bills that vary from month to month I use “e-bill”. The bank gets the bill and per my set up instructions pays either the total amount due, minimum due or no more than an amount I set. The bank sends emails when the bill comes in and when it is paid

I am not comfortable with the other process where the company is authorized to debit your account. I feel that if they make a mistake they leave me in a position of possibly having to chase them to get back my own money

The only problems I have had were when countrywide and WAMU failed and were taken over I did not catch the fact that eventually the ebills from them stopped and as a result the new banks did not get paid. I was charged late fees, but the new banks, BoA and Chase graciously waived the fees when I discovered and explained the error

I cannot imagine going back to using snail mail. Too often the checks were late because they were forgotten in my jacket pocket or the visor of the car

[raybbr]

This spring my credit card number was stolen after someone hacked monoprice.com. They used it at iTunes, Microsoft services (probably to get iTunes to work), and some other charge.

Same here. I had used a debit card. Luckily the washing machine they tried to buy was over the limit. My bank credited me the five overdraft charges within days.

[mojitojoe]

Now I use Google Checkout for most purchases.
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Oh that’s Real smart. NOT