Myers Depot Metal Detectors

Lost Payment

Silversmith45

Silversmith45

Elite Member
Joined
May 15, 2009
Messages
10,730
Location
Wichita, Kansas
Lately every month my phone company had been texting me that my payment is due. I always tell them that I already mailed it. Last month they said it was received and posted on a Monday. It was only Saturday when they sent the text. That doesn't make sense. This month they claimed they never got it. they wanted me to send another. In order to search for the missing check they wanted me to send a copy of it. How can I do that when it is missing. The bank wants $32 to stop payment on the check. I'm on a fixed income and can't afford that. I finally went ahead and paid last months bill and this months bill. I got to thinking that if they find that missing check they will go ahead and cash it anyway, making all of my other payments overdrawn. It would probably cost me about $30 from each one of them as well as my bank. I went and pawned my detector so that I would have enough in my account in case they did. I have used this company for over ten years and have never been late. Any suggestions to keep this from happening again. I don't use credit cards.
 
If you have a checking account .. then you must have a debt card ... Use it and do the online payment system .. some wireless service does a discount on no mail and auto pay monthly
 
See if they will do check by phone, you call and pay by check via bank routing number. It’s like an ACH payment (instant) and they give you a confirmation number.
 
Silversmith45 said:
Lately every month my phone company had been texting me that my payment is due. I always tell them that I already mailed it. Last month they said it was received and posted on a Monday. It was only Saturday when they sent the text. That doesn't make sense. This month they claimed they never got it. they wanted me to send another. In order to search for the missing check they wanted me to send a copy of it. How can I do that when it is missing. The bank wants $32 to stop payment on the check. I'm on a fixed income and can't afford that. I finally went ahead and paid last months bill and this months bill. I got to thinking that if they find that missing check they will go ahead and cash it anyway, making all of my other payments overdrawn. It would probably cost me about $30 from each one of them as well as my bank. I went and pawned my detector so that I would have enough in my account in case they did. I have used this company for over ten years and have never been late. Any suggestions to keep this from happening again. I don't use credit cards.
Click to expand...

We use credit cards...way too much (LOL). But we still send in checks for most things like utilities. I'm just not comfortable letting every incompetent utility have any access to my electronic payments. I worked for a utility, I know how stupid the management often is.

BTW, I like your avatar. My Father was in the 82nd Airborne and landed (somewhere near/behind) Utah Beach.
 
You can buy those prepaid credit cards. Just load whatever amount you need onto it and use that. Doesn't have a name or anything else to tie it directly to your account. I know Kroger, Walmart etc sell them. Basic just a Visa/MC gift card. You can reload with cash it when needed at the store.
 
My wife and I have our phone bills set up for auto-pay which automatically pays electronically when it is due, we get a discount for having it on auto-pay as well as another discount for paying both bills together as a multi-line discount.

https://www.att.com/prepaid/plans.html

So not only do I not have to remember to pay on time or the payment going missing, we get a discount also !
 
Silversmith; First, check with them to see if they altered your billing cycle.
Second, do they send you a paper bill? (I require all my utilities to do so.)
Start paying close attention to the "due by" date on the bill. Those dates are a "must receive by" date, rather than a "mail it by" date.
As RBachman alluded to, never allow a third party electronic access to your financial accounts. They will empty it out to get "their" money, not caring what the consequences are to you.
I've had to pay the fee for stopping a check once with my gas/electric company, and it was them that lost it, as I had dropped it into one of their drop boxes, right outside their office. I knew that if I didn't, and they found it later, they'd cash it and get a double payment. I don't use their drop boxes to this day.

Just my 2-pence.....Roger
 
Nothing has changed on my account. I get a paper statement each month. I always send my payment the day I get the bill or the next, about fifteen days before it is due. I have been doin this for over ten years without a problem. Lately they must have some new people that don't know what they are doing. How can you say you posted a payment several days before the day arrives? i don't trust paying bills over the webb. Thats another reason that I don't use credit cards. The cards you load that I have seen charge you a yearly amount to use them.
 
I once had a balance of $50 with JC Penney, and mailed the pay-off check. Unfortunately, this happened around 9/11/01, and due to either that or the subsequent anthrax attacks which hit some of our local postal facilities, it never arrived. They sent the next month's bill with a $25 late fee (50%!!!!).

After I complained, they took it off, but the fact that they were too inflexible to take into account what was happening in the country at the time has led me to NEVER do business with them again. I think my phone payment was late/non-arriving, but they were able to deal with it, which shows how horrible JCP's organization/customer service were/are.

I have also had bills arrive the day they are due, but I can't tell whether that's the company's fault or the USPS.

Things do get lost in the mail. It's unavoidable.

Good luck,

-- Tom
 
My credit union provides the ability to actually look into my account and see a pic of the check I wrote complete with backside pic of who endorsed the check.
I had a hospital turn me into collection saying I never paid the bill. When I called them I had a pic of the cancelled check right in front of me. They insisted that I never paid, I told them I was looking right at the check. The lady then told me that I must have eother forgot to include the account number or put the wrong one on it. I read back the account number under the Memo line of the check and it was correct. I then asked for her email address so I could forward her a pic of the endorsed check, she told me that she does not give out her work email info. That is when I went off on her, I told her to get her supervisor and get them on the phone right now! I explained to the supervisor the details and that this was completely THIER fault. I also told them that I had several different legal option that I could choose and none would be good for them. I was then allowed to email them a copy of the cancelled check and told them that they had one hour in which to have the collecting agency to call me and inform me that this has been taken care of and that the hospital was at fault and the payment was received on time.
20 minutes later I received the call and the issue was taken care of.
What really jerked my chain was the first lady I talked to tried to explain to me that if I paid my bills on time I would not have these kind of problems. I pushed for a letter of apology but never got it.
Makes me wonder just how many people get double billed these days.
 
I prefer to mail in most of bills. Reason being, years ago, verizon double charged my account one month and it just happened to be when money was tight and it overdrew my account. I called, sat on the phone for at least an hour, because they wouldnt handle it in store, and they said they would refund it to my checking account immediately. They didnt, so i gave them a loan for a couple hundred bucks at my own cost. Dont trust big companies, im sure they could empty our accounts with little or no recourse.
 
I was wondering how safe online bill paying was compared to sending a check in the mail and from an online search it seems paying by regular mail is actually riskier than paying online.

Here is just from one search result -

https://classroom.synonym.com/online-bill-paying-safe-regular-mail-7033.html

from the above link -

Bill-Paying Safety

Most identity theft isn’t due to thieves stealing your information online. According to the Equifax credit bureau, two-thirds of identity thefts start with lost or stolen mail, Social Security cards, checkbooks, bank statements or similar documents. Online bill paying doesn’t carry these risks, because there is no paper document to fall into the wrong hands. Plus, a paper check sent through the mail can get lost or delayed and cause you to be late paying a bill.
(end of quote)
 
GKL said:
from the above link -

Bill-Paying Safety

Most identity theft isn’t due to thieves stealing your information online. According to the Equifax credit bureau, two-thirds of identity thefts start with lost or stolen mail, Social Security cards, checkbooks, bank statements or similar documents. Online bill paying doesn’t carry these risks, because there is no paper document to fall into the wrong hands. Plus, a paper check sent through the mail can get lost or delayed and cause you to be late paying a bill.
(end of quote)
Click to expand...
***********************************************************
This may all be true, but here's what's not mentioned. By paying online, the trail is easily erased or compromised! It's kinda hard for an organization to claim you didn't pay, when you have a cancelled check, and the financial organization can supply evidence as to where your money went.
With an electronic trail, tentative at best, an individual, or organization can claim you didn't pay, and there's nothing you can do about it, as all legal entities are going to believe the big guy, rather than the little guy.

I will never fully trust electronic banking or payment means. It's just too impersonal.

Roger
 
GTS225 said:
***********************************************************
This may all be true, but here's what's not mentioned. By paying online, the trail is easily erased or compromised! It's kinda hard for an organization to claim you didn't pay, when you have a cancelled check, and the financial organization can supply evidence as to where your money went.
With an electronic trail, tentative at best, an individual, or organization can claim you didn't pay, and there's nothing you can do about it, as all legal entities are going to believe the big guy, rather than the little guy.

I will never fully trust electronic banking or payment means. It's just too impersonal.

Roger
Click to expand...


Well, if you think about it, you are not dependent on just the company you are paying to do things right, your bank or credit card company knows who they sent the money to and when, so that company can't say they didn't get paid when your bank or credit card company can prove they did get paid.
 
T-Man said:
You can buy those prepaid credit cards. Just load whatever amount you need onto it and use that. Doesn't have a name or anything else to tie it directly to your account. I know Kroger, Walmart etc sell them. Basic just a Visa/MC gift card. You can reload with cash it when needed at the store.
Click to expand...

Good idea. These are good for online shopping too.
 
Just don't stop payment. If the check re appears and they cash it they will have to reimburse you or pro rate your service. Or I'd call a lawyer or news station if they don't.
 
I'm not going to stop the payment. The bank wants $32 to do it. That's almost half of the paymewnt. I pawned my detector and put the money in the bank in case they cash it so I won't be overdrawn and get charges from the bank and my other bills.
 
I absolutely deplore the cellphone companies!
One is worse than the next.
The ridiculous fees they charge have me seeing red!!!
I just paid over $600 for a phone my son bought against my account and now they changed the billing cycle.
These companies have you where they want you and take advantage of it.

I have tried to pay in person, but the stores do not accept cash or check, only credit cards at the kiosks.

Hate is not too strong a word here.
 
matmit said:
I absolutely deplore the cellphone companies!
One is worse than the next.
The ridiculous fees they charge have me seeing red!!!
I just paid over $600 for a phone my son bought against my account and now they changed the billing cycle.
These companies have you where they want you and take advantage of it.

I have tried to pay in person, but the stores do not accept cash or check, only credit cards at the kiosks.

Hate is not too strong a word here.
Click to expand...

Yeah, years ago we had At&t for cell phone and they jacked us like they were a credit card company with interest!:mad: I didn't pay them for years until they offered a half price settlement and when I had the cash I paid the settlement.:yes:
 
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