E-Bill Warning
July 14th, 2003
I was just paying an e-bill, when I noticed the due date was for 10/01/03. I thought, this must be a mistake. Do I get a free month on my mortgage every year? Or two for that matter? It's only 07/14/03, how can I be getting bills that aren't due for months?
I decided to do a little poking around, and realized that my bank was sending e-bills for the next billing cycle, as soon as they received payment for the previous cycle. Being the excellent account-holder that I am, paying bills as soon as they come, I ended up paying double on my mortgage for the last several payments.
Here are the details:
| Statement Date: | Due Date: | Paid On: | |
| 03/31/03 | 5/1/03 | 04/29/03 | |
| 04/29/03 | 6/1/03 | 05/29/03 | |
| 05/29/03 | 7/1/03 | 06/27/03 | |
| $ | 06/27/03 | 8/1/03 | 07/02/03 |
| $ | 07/02/03 | 9/1/03 | 07/09/03 |
| $ | 07/09/03 | 10/1/03 | scheduled... |
| © 2003 lal | |||
As you can see, the bill due on 8/1/03 was paid on 07/02/03 (way too early).
The bank shot back an e-bill on 07/02/03 (the same day I paid the last bill) that wasn't due till 9/1/03, but I paid the damn thing on 07/09/03.
Then the bank shot over a new bill on 07/09/03 (again the same day I paid the last bill) that wasn't due until 10/1/03.
I almost paid this one, but when I saw the due date I cancelled the payment and left it to be paid later.
I've been wondering why I didn't have as much in my account as I thought I should. I admit, I do not watch my finances very close at all. I just sort of play it by ear. When I feel I spent too much, I just don't buy anything for a while. If I haven't bought anything for a while, I think "Hey, let's get something cool!". I just thought that the iPod purchase, new TiVo, and other electronic gear may have been catching up with me. Little did I know that I've paid off my mortgage for the next couple of months without even knowing about it.
Moral of the story:
Watch out for those e-bills. It's real easy just to hit the pay button and not pay attention to the details, or better yet, set up that automatic payment whatchamacallit, if the bank screws up you might be able to fight to get your money back.
Me | Comments (4) | words in this post
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- thought this was cool
9:47 PM Feb 20, 2003
That's both frightening and amazing. I was thinking about paying the few bills I have on line, but not any more.
you should call your mortgage company and make sure that your overpayments went to pay your upcoming monthly bills and did not get deposited into your escrow account as just extra payments -- which would not count toward your next bills or toward reducing your principle.
the other option you might consider is to set up recurring payments. this way, you bank automatically pays $x on a particular day of the month (e.g., your monthly mortgage payment on the 25th of the month -- to allow for months like february and to give a couple of days for processing before they're due on the 1st of the month). make sense?
lastly, tara and i are on a plan with our mortgage company (ABN-AMRO) where we pay half the monthly amount on the 1st and half on the 15th of the month. that way, your principle gets reduced quicker -- they calculate it to reduce a 30 yr note to 23 years or something like that.