I pay bills online. I do this because, in theory, it's easier than writing and mailing a check. Plus the charge comes through right away so I don't have to worry about waiting for checks to get cashed. Lately though, I'm really wondering if it wouldn't be easier to deal with paper bills instead of doing it online. Here are some of the annoying things I've encountered recently:
On one site, you click the view/pay bill button which then opens another window. On that window you log in, but instead of taking you to your bill it takes you to a different logged-in version of the homepage. You then have to click again on view/pay bill before you can actually do that.
One site won't let you choose a log in name; you have to log in with your 11 digit account number every time. Let me just tell you, an 11 digit number that I need once a month is not top on my list of things to memorize, which means I have to look it up every time anyway.
And then, the thing that annoyed me the most: One of the sites made me go though "account verification" for "security" purposes. What do they think is going to happen? Someone is going to get into my account and pay my electric bill?? (I don't have credit card info on file if that's what you're thinking.)
The worst part about all this is that I have to go through all this crap so I can pay someone! You'd think companies would want to make it as easy as possible to get your bill paid. Apparently not.
LOL. I hear ya!!!! I have as many set up at automatic payment as possible because I can't stand the websites!
ReplyDeleteI think that you have it the nail on the head as to what happens when you have a boat load of business majors and lawyers telling software developers that can't do anything but code how to build software.
ReplyDeleteOne of my annoyances is that all of our bills are under Jonathan's name, so when I log in (after figuring out which of his usernames and passwords goes with each different site) then it asks me for his security questions! Like, "what was your grandpa's nickname?" It's impossible to pay bills when he's not home!
ReplyDeleteIf your bank has online bill pay, do it that way -- only one log on name and one password to remember. You can set up all your accounts on the bank's website and pay once a month when the bills are due. For bills that are the same amount each month, you can do an automatic recurring payment.
ReplyDeleteALSO lots of sites have online payment fees, so they're all excited about saving you $0.43 cents on a stamp but then charge you $5 for paying electronicly. 'Scuse me? I hate you.
ReplyDelete