The postal service reductions will force me to pay even more of my bills via online banking

[bluestateguy]

I already pay two of my monthly bills this way, and the postal service cuts will encourage me to pay most of the rest of my regular monthly bills through automatic deduction from my checking account.

I would be willing to pay a little more for stamps, but I am not willing to take the chance that my bill payments will arrive late due to postal service dawdling and austerity cuts.

[Suich]

1. I've been paying my bills on-line for a couple of years,

but not by automatic deduction. I get an e-mail when something is due and then I pay it.

I find it a lot easier because I don't have paid receipts to deal with, and writing 6-10 checks a month was a pain. I haven't had any problems except once when I copied my account number incorrectly...that cost me $25 and it will not happen again!

:)

[nobodyspecial]

3. If that happens, call them immediately

and ask them to waive the fee. They will be able to see an attempt was made before the deadline. If you have a good payment history, they will usually waive the fees. I've never had a problem with getting the charge reversed. But, they'll only do that as a courtesy once in a blue moon. I'm always very nice, explain the situation and ask if they could help me out.

[Suich]

5. Crap, that never even occurred to me!

Now I know!

Thanks for the heads up!

:hi:

[glinda]

2. I agree. I only pay half on line and the other half I mail because I want

to keep the PO running as well as it works out better on those particular ones. I am still going to try to mail as many as possible.

[msongs]

4. you will notice the unwanted trash USPS delivers is not being charged more nt

[lbrtbell]

8. That "trash" keeps the USPS going

It's a very important source of income. If we don't want it, that's what recycling bins are for. :)

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. And of course this comes too

The consolidation of mail processing centers is in addition to the planned closing of about 3,700 local post offices. In all, roughly 100,000 postal employees could be cut as a result of the various closures, resulting in savings of up to $6.5 billion a year.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/04/MNNQ1M87GU.DTL#ixzz1fdn6ydoh

We should applaud the breaking of. Union, mission accomplished.

[Scruffy1]

12. Thanks for call ing it what it is.

The postal board of governors has eight out of nine members appointed by George Bush. The 5.5 billion "charge" for future retirees health benefits was done by a lame duck republicon Congress on their way out the door. Their whole ideology is based on union busting in order to gain a greater share of the wealth. The US Postal Service had a positive 112 million from operations last month.

[freshwest]

20. Privatizing everything. The new feudalism. Just because it's shiny, that's still what it is.

[freshwest]

7. That's the intention of it, forcing everyone into that. Then if you can't afford internet...

[pipi_k]

9. If that happens, then...

you use a friend's computer or a computer at the library.

Safe enough if your bank requires you to log in with a user name and a password, like mine does, and you remember to log out after each session.

If your payments are set up to go out automatically, you don't even have to log in more than once or twice a month to check your accounts.

There are ways to get around many obstacles.... ;)

[freshwest]

11. Not always easy, nor safe. You're counting on the public system being accessible to all.

And a full population being able to count on a friend or get to the library to use computers. Amazingly, there are a lot of people who aren't online, more than the number who aren't hooked into cable. I don't know anyone who does any transactions online, except myself and I'm doing it less and less. Of those people, even less watch the news on television. And they aren't dummies, either.

I expected be contradicted on this, but I'm not going to take it seriously. We're evolving into a society of haves and have nots, based on health, education and income, with those who are linked into the system will be getting the benefits and the rest who will be left out. Those who are getting ahead will sing the praises forever, and ridicule those who don't as being Luddities. Not that you did.

The necessities of life should not be this dependent on such an expensive and complex technology, which like our financial system, can be easily manipulated or cut off from various causes. The postal system was manageable and deliberately destroyed.

As far as safety online, the internet is the modern version of the old rural telephone party line. At least my bank has stood between me and those who hacked into information and run up charges on 'secure' sites before. Other people I know have lost thousands of dollars from having their identity compromised. Nothing is perfect. It's a mixed bag.

[pipi_k]

16. Nothing is ever perfect...

but even if a person can't get to the library to use their computer, I can't imagine anyone not knowing at least one person with computer/internet access who could handle the finances via online banking.

And if someone can't get to a library, how would s/he get to a bank? Or the post office for stamps to mail out bills? If the person doesn't have a bank account, how does s/he pay via money order?

I can't believe that, in this day and age, anyone would be so isolated as to not have at least one trusted person able to conduct financial business for them via computer. Even 89 year olds have some living relative. Or a neighbor. A younger friend. A caretaker/advocate. Some trusted person who can be relied on to set up bill paying and provide a monthly print out of all the payees and what was sent to each.

As far as internet/banking security goes, the same sort of identity theft problems could happen without the computer. How many times have we heard horror stories of banks not shredding their records before disposal, etc. Like you said, it's a mixed bag, but I really don't see the situation as being as hopeless as some would like to think it is.

There is nearly always a way to detour around roadblocks if one just uses a bit of imagination.

:shrug:

[freshwest]

17. The post office was the alternative. n/t.

[pipi_k]

19. It was, but

what about people who can't/couldn't get to one?

What do those people do? I don't know if mail carriers in the city can, or would be willing to, provide the same services to their customers as the PO would.

I'm rural, so my carrier does. Which is a good thing, because my closest PO is 5+ miles away over dirt roads and through dense forest and steep hills.

Anyway, I think the point went a little off track. I was replying to someone who seemed to say that a whole bunch of people who couldn't send payments out via USPS would basically be screwed, but I don't think that's the case. A few, maybe. But then, no matter what we do, someone somewhere is going to be screwed, even unintentionally and without malice.

We can't make things perfect for everyone.

[RebelOne]

10. All my bills have been paid online ever since

online banking was available. I have saved plenty on stamps.

[bemildred]

13. Pigs will fly before I stop using USPS as much as possible.

The last thing we need is more job cuts.

[LynneSin]

14. Online bill payer for over a decade

But if you go totally online try to pay as many of your bills from your bank to the people you owe not the other way around.

Alot of credit card companies and utilities will setup automatic bill pay, but that makes me nervous incase there is some issue with my bank account.

I would rather take the 30 minutes each twice a month to sit down and pay my bills online. That way I know the money is in the account. The only auto billpay I have is my mortgage - it was the only way I could get my mortgage split to twice a month. However they did set it up so the bill was paid on the day after my payday - that way I know the money is there.

Oh my insurance is autopay too.

[pipi_k]

18. Same here...and the auto bill pay

I don't do except for one person my bank sends a check to each month which she then cashes like a regular check.

All others I spend the extra time to manually send out the money from my account, and I also transfer money from my main bank account to two other credit union savings accounts.

Been doing this for years, and it's fast and easy PLUS there's a record of what I did, and I don't have to worry about the USPS losing my payment.

That's something I've come to worry about more and more after our regular mail delivery lady retired and we got some half-baked twit who constantly mis-delivers mail...we get our neighbors' mail, they get ours. Not just once. Not just twice. I'm talking on a nearly weekly basis.

There's no way she's the only twit in the USPS. That's why I like online banking.

[sarcasmo]

15. I have paid everything via online banking for 6 years now, cheaper, and faster.

[louis-t]

21. The minute I began to pay my bills online..

BoA took an additional house payment from my checking account for no reason, which caused it to be $650 overdrawn. Now they say it will take 48 business hours to fix. Meanwhile, I have other bills that can't be paid now. If the only auto deduct bill I have (my website) comes in this week, I'm screwed.

[Obamanaut]

22. We've been paying nearly everything on line for years with no problems.