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Gear Grinding 9: I Need a Wine!

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Re: Gear Grinding 9: I Need a Wine!

Brenthoven said:
Well, duh. But you have given them access to your bank account, and that does open the door for possible problems.
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You don't understand how billpay works, do you? You don't give anyone any kind of access to your account if you use billpay...the company you're paying doesn't take money from your account, you send it to them, on the date you select. It just gets sent electronically, instead of via a check. Much more secure.
 
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Re: Gear Grinding 9: I Need a Wine!

Brenthoven said:
Well, duh. But you have given them access to your bank account, and that does open the door for possible problems.
Click to expand...

You can also have your mail stolen when you send a check, or someone could forge your signature on a check. Probably same percentage likelihood. And you know your banking account information is on your check, right? So anyone that sees one of your checks has your routing number and account number, and your name and address as well.
 
Re: Gear Grinding 9: I Need a Wine!

bigblue_dl said:
You don't understand how billpay works, do you? You don't give anyone any kind of access to your account if you use billpay...the company you're paying doesn't take money from your account, you send it to them, on the date you select. It just gets sent electronically, instead of via a check. Much more secure.
Click to expand...

I don't have that. I just have them pull money out. You send a cancelled check and they can do an ACH transfer out. Xcel does it, my garbage company does it, and GDO does it for utilities. There might be one or two other ones.
 
bigblue_dl said:
You don't understand how billpay works, do you? You don't give anyone any kind of access to your account if you use billpay...the company you're paying doesn't take money from your account, you send it to them, on the date you select. It just gets sent electronically, instead of via a check. Much more secure.
Click to expand...
why would he know how it works before forming an opinion on it? This is 2018!
 
Re: Gear Grinding 9: I Need a Wine!

Brenthoven said:
Well, duh. But you have given them access to your bank account, and that does open the door for possible problems.
Click to expand...

Let me guess...you cover the web cam on your laptop too because you fear "THEY ARE WATCHING!!!!1" ;) :p
 
Re: Gear Grinding 9: I Need a Wine!

dxmnkd316 said:
I don't have that. I just have them pull money out. You send a cancelled check and they can do an ACH transfer out. Xcel does it, my garbage company does it, and GDO does it for utilities. There might be one or two other ones.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you can do it like that. I don't though. I use billpay offered by my bank. When I pay my bills I go the website and schedule an electronic payment. It makes it easier to keep track of how much I'm paying for stuff, and monitor expenses, when compared to them just taking money out. The only exception are my wife's student loans, where she gets a half a point reduction in interest rate if she signs up for auto-debit, so its a no-brainer to sign up for it on those accounts.
 
Re: Gear Grinding 9: I Need a Wine!

bigblue_dl said:
Yeah, you can do it like that. I don't though. I use billpay offered by my bank. When I pay my bills I go the website and schedule an electronic payment. It makes it easier to keep track of how much I'm paying for stuff, and monitor expenses, when compared to them just taking money out. The only exception are my wife's student loans, where she gets a half a point reduction in interest rate if she signs up for auto-debit, so its a no-brainer to sign up for it on those accounts.
Click to expand...

I use Mint to aggregate everything. Most banks have separate Mint/Quicken logins now so you don't actually have to give Mint access to core accounts.

I just don't track my money flow for bills and utilities that often. Maybe quarterly or semiannually. Garbage isn't going to change much. Water is only billed every other month and I'd forget to pay if I didn't have it setup. And Xcel is what it is. I'm generally pretty low cost for gas and electricity (I think I'm in something like the 5th percentile for energy users in my neighborhood). Car payments are always the same.

I took a look at billpay but I would rather not have to worry about remembering to pay. I can be absent-minded about things like that, so I did what works for me which isn't for everyone. ;)
 
Re: Gear Grinding 9: I Need a Wine!

Brenthoven said:
Well, duh. But you have given them access to your bank account, and that does open the door for possible problems.
Click to expand...

THis was in AARP magazine (yes I am old enough) - seems to go against what I believed. I have access to everything but I don't pay most things on line. "Register for online access to every financial account you have (bank accounts, credit cards, 401(k)s and so on). Then check each one weekly. Also consider setting up alerts on your major accounts so that any time there is activity, you are sent a text message. Most companies will do this for free and allow you to set a dollar threshold. "
 
Re: Gear Grinding 9: I Need a Wine!

dxmnkd316 said:
I use Mint to aggregate everything. Most banks have separate Mint/Quicken logins now so you don't actually have to give Mint access to core accounts.

I just don't track my money flow for bills and utilities that often. Maybe quarterly or semiannually. Garbage isn't going to change much. Water is only billed every other month and I'd forget to pay if I didn't have it setup. And Xcel is what it is. I'm generally pretty low cost for gas and electricity (I think I'm in something like the 5th percentile for energy users in my neighborhood). Car payments are always the same.

I took a look at billpay but I would rather not have to worry about remembering to pay. I can be absent-minded about things like that, so I did what works for me which isn't for everyone. ;)
Click to expand...

I track everything manually, both for personal and the farm. Spreadsheets for all of it, no separate software to do anything.
 
Re: Gear Grinding 9: I Need a Wine!

dxmnkd316 said:
I don't have that. I just have them pull money out. You send a cancelled check and they can do an ACH transfer out. Xcel does it, my garbage company does it, and GDO does it for utilities. There might be one or two other ones.
Click to expand...

Even that doesn't give them, "access to your account". They have to submit a request to your bank for each monthly payment and your bank has to respond. They can't just arbitrarily take money from your account and you can put a stop to it with your bank at any time. That's no more giving "them" access to an account than you give to your company when you sign up for direct deposit.

Brent doesn't have that either? ;)
 
Re: Gear Grinding 9: I Need a Wine!

Slap Shot said:
Even that doesn't give them, "access to your account". They have to submit a request to your bank for each monthly payment and your bank has to respond. They can't just arbitrarily take money from your account and you can put a stop to it with your bank at any time. That's no more giving "them" access to an account than you give to your company when you sign up for direct deposit.

Brent doesn't have that either? ;)
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Yeah, there are a whole series of safeguards on automated money transfers so as not to simply allow "direct access" to an account. Most people don't see them because they just witness the end results. I've had to go through some ACH processes, really just an introduction as part of my job, and there are a great many steps involved. Tremendously involved, and tremendously stepped.
 
Re: Gear Grinding 9: I Need a Wine!

bigblue_dl said:
I track everything manually, both for personal and the farm. Spreadsheets for all of it, no separate software to do anything.
Click to expand...

I love my Quicken but I enter everything manually and it isn't connected to any of my accounts. I love that I can look up things, predict them, etc.
 
Re: Gear Grinding 9: I Need a Wine!

leswp1 said:
I love my Quicken but I enter everything manually and it isn't connected to any of my accounts. I love that I can look up things, predict them, etc.
Click to expand...

I prefer spreadsheets. Very powerful, and very customizable. Plus, none of the regular softwares like Quicken can do **** for farm stuff.
 
Re: Gear Grinding 9: I Need a Wine!

bigblue_dl said:
I prefer spreadsheets. Very powerful, and very customizable. Plus, none of the regular softwares like Quicken can do **** for farm stuff.
Click to expand...

I don't think I even know all the things spread sheets can do. I can make simple ones but I have no idea how to make them anything other than check lists
 
Re: Gear Grinding 9: I Need a Wine!

I prefer to control when the money exits my account. Still pay everything online though. Only have rent, cable/internet, electricity, and car payment (Also, I never make only the minimum payment on my car).
 
Re: Gear Grinding 9: I Need a Wine!

I've been using Quicken my entire adult life, so I can tell you where every penny has gone since 1995. The only exception is cash - for the first few years, I even kept track of that (treating withdrawals as transfers into a cash account, which I then spent on food, hookers, blow, etc). I have so many accounts that I can't imagine doing it manually via a spreadsheet.
 
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