So now I’m confused Clark. Years ago the “safer” way to pay bills was to pay from your banking institution, NOT paper checks and NOT providing your banking info to the vendor. NOW, the safer way is to provide my banking information directly to each vendor? What am I missing in this scenario?
Thanks!
Not all payment portals are secure. Plus you might not be able to access the portal a year ir two later because your no longer an active customer, plus plus then you have to download and save every receipt which creates another “clean up” to do for sometime later.
I guess there are only 3 options. 1)You mail a check 2)You go to your bank and have them mail a check or EFT to whomever you want to pay or 3) You go to the companies you want to pay and give them your account and routing info. I do the third choice and it’s worked for me. I schedule payment on the due date, so I’m earning interest in my bank, as long as possible.
I have a Hispanic gardener and all he takes is checks sent by the bank. Hi nor I haven’t had a problem with mailing nor his receiving. I do check with him if he hasn’t cashed it the first 10 days of the month.
Way to go! I already pay my electric and water this way…going to check to see if I can pay my mortgage this way too. If so, my reward points will skyrocket 
I have found that even if you pay the vendor directly, they usually use ACH to draw from your account, which Clark doesn’t like. Also, even if you go to their website, they may not withdraw the money in a timely manner.
I use Bill Pay from several of the credit unions and banks with whom I have accounts. However, henceforth I will only pay USAA bills from my USAA account.
Exactly, what was a good idea from Clark now becomes a bad idea. Not Clark’s fault at all, it’s just that technology keeps evolving and so do everyone’s Terms and Conditions. I’m going through Bill Pay Hell right now over setting up a new Payee in my account ( Huntington Bank). Their “security” thinks I’m not the Account owner- ok, but I have been the owner for 45 years, on the phone with them for four hours in two days, geez. Today they tell me I must come in to a branch with my Social Security ID. Just to add a new Payee. Even after I go through all the protocols with their system and on the phone giving ID, PASSWORDS, Debit Card Code, address, text codes, etc. How much more crazy can all of this become? Every day is consumed by technology, TERMS & Conditions, you name it.
I pay all my bills by credit card except my water bill. They only recently started accepting electronic payments, and they want to charge $3 for “convenience”. No other county around us does that, and I am stubborn so I refused. So now my credit union prints and mails them a paper check. Costs me nothing, and I hope it annoys them a little. 
I do check my water account online about 2 weeks later to ensure my account balance is zero.
I DO NOT allow creditors to withdraw whatever they want from my account at their convenience. I highly encourage no one to do this. I’ve seen enough “billing errors” that I will never consent to it. It is actually reckless to recommend this to people.
Hence, I will continue to use Bill Pay to pay bills, until banks / “financial institutions” are compelled to allow us to initiate easy and free/very-low-cost wire transfers to creditors.
PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) initiated “service charges” recently for paying your bill the most common ways. Some of us suggested intentionally sending them paper checks via Bill Pay as punishment for the rip-off (they’re not allowed to charge for checks).
Re: “Why Clark Howard Has Ditched Bill Pay and What He’s Doing Instead”
What do you suggest for businesses or organizations that do NOT have a means of accepting payments online, such as my Church?
But what about the credit card bill? Citibank has started requiring paper checks for amounts over $5000 so we have to be sure we pay the bill from our EFT in time for the check to arrive if it is over this amount.
I have had my credit cards and utilities withdraw from my account for almost 20 years and have had zero problems with this.
Well, good for you!
Are you trying to imply people who do have billing errors are making it up or are, somehow, “at fault” for it?
I believe he is just saying that he has used the individual sites, vs bank bill pay, without any issues.
I think KC is saying the opposite, when he says “account” that means his bank account. Like KC, I’ve been paying most of my bills through my bank Epay system. I like that as opposed to visiting 10 different web sites to pay 10 different bills. I’ve had no security issues so I do wonder why Clark has changed to the individual sites method.
Maybe I wasn’t clear. I go to my credit cards website and set up auto pay there. I have all of them set to pay the statement balance on the payment due date. I have my gas and electric on average pay and I have set up on their website to automatically withdraw that amount on the due date. Water and waste water do not have online pay so I use my bank bill pay for that. I haven’t used a checkbook in 20 years. Everything is online and everything is done from the vendors website and not my bank. I have had zero problems with any of that.