I do all my bill paying through my bank Wells Fargo. They offer all of the services you mentioned. They do send email reminders and/or text messages. You can set the reminders by days of notice. I also set all my utility bills to pay automatically based on an amount-limit I predetermine. My home loan and home owner dues also pay automatically. It's all so easy to have it in one place and not to even have to think about it.

I also have automatic payments to savings accounts.

I also use Wells Fargo bill pay. Don't other banks offer the same/similar services?

I bank with Chase, they offer free online bill payment. I use it for all the bills I pay. They have all of them on next day payment except a few local ones. I pay those through Chase also, they actually mail it to them for free I don't have to pay for stamps, envelopes etc. It's a wonderful service. In general those say to allow 5 days. I have never had a problem with any bills not getting paid on time. I am very happy with them. I have a notebook I write down each time I pay a bill online, I write the transaction number, date and amount. I do that just for my own benefit. All of that information is easily accessible from the website. I have the ability to set up auto pay for the bills that are the same amount each monthly but I prefer to pay each one each month individually online each month. I do have my electric bill set through the company for auto pay.

I do the vast majority through my local bank. They have reminders and they have auto pay and I can transfer funds between savings and checking as well as between DH's bank and mine so we can manage funds very easily. One stop bill paying so to speak. They also send me emails of when the bills are paid or any other transaction takes place on the account so I'd be informed right away should something unauthorized happen.

I pay bills on the 1st and 15th. All through my bank's bill pay. I still receive my bills (electric, water, credit card) in the regular mail. It's easy to add a new 'pay to account' and click away.

I pay all of my regular bills through my credit union bill pay function. I have one utility bill that is drafted, and my mortgage is with the CU, so it's an automatic transfer. I get email reminders from the billers, and a couple of them also still come in the mail, no matter how hard I try to stop them. I don't use the reminder system in the CU, or the auto-download-your-bill feature. I want to 'push' my money out, not have some biller 'pull' it. And I definitely don't want the CU deciding when and how much.

I typically sit at my desk at least once a week and process papers. We have two businesses, so there is a lot of paper flowing through here. Once they're scheduled, I file and and forget them, no need to remember what day it is and what is coming due. In my off season (now) when I am not working, I try to process every piece of paper that came in the house that day. That way it doesn't build up. Nice idea, doesn't always work. :P

Guess I better look into what my bank offers. I have accounts at PNC and Wells Fargo. Your feedback helps a lot. I don't know why I don't use auto-pay. I guess it forces me to look at the amount and be aware of what I am spending. Thanks.

I pay only my CC bill online and a couple of loan payments. Otherwise, I pay my utility bills through the mail because I want to support the US Postal Service. I think we're in trouble if we lose it.

I use autopay for everything but water and credit cards bills. The water bills for our 2 houses don't accept autopay, and use an online bill paying service which costs 2 or 3 dollars. I just pay 6 months at a time and receive monthly emails showing balance. I prefer paying the credit card bills several times a month, so I just do that on their website.

I pay all my bills once a month at the local bank, its free,

I use the bank or phone and whoever will take my cash back credit card.

Chase and Wells Fargo bill pay. auto/home insurance which is a large bill, I pay by phone. Skype, landline and auto pass (tollway) they debit my account as needed, aprox. quarterly.

I pay all my bills through BofA. I keep my own records of bills received and when they are due. I'm the one who decides when to pay. It's not that I'm afraid of not having the funds to cover all my bills, but I am a control freak and prefer to decide when to pay.

The only exceptions are my church pledge and internet/phone provider. It works out better for them to be auto-pay.

I not only handle our personal and business finances, but my parent's accounts and sister's trust - 14 bank accounts. Everything that can possibly be on auto-pay is on auto-pay via bank draft. But my personal bills, either bank draft or credit card auto-pay (if no fee to put on CC, I earn rewards and I pay off each month). I rarely hand write checks, but use local bank accounts to send. Pay credit cards online/their websites. Some things, like our insurance company, I use their website to pay (put on CC).

All bills for everyone are e-billed, sent to email addresses - one for each... and I do not give them out to my parents or sister. These are for my use/bill paying only. I run through these email account twice a week, but only sit down once a week to actually do "paperwork." We own commercial real estate, so first half of month is busiest.

I am very organized.

Allison, you are organized! I will remember your ideas when I have to start taking ove my mother's finances. Last month was the first time in Avery long to

ime that I was haphazard about the bills, which is what led me to thinking that I must get a better system. I like the idea of paying as much as possible on my credit card in order to get miles. I am very disciplined about paying my entire CC balance each month. Interesting to hear everyone's approach.

I do everything through Wells Fargo bill pay. I don't auto pay anything. I review all the bills before I pay them.

My local bank which offers free bill pay. I set up the accounts, get email reminders, type in my payment monthly and click. Easy Peasy.

I have accounts at TD and Wells Fargo. DH uses Wells Fargo because his business prefers to do direct deposit with them but their fees were significantly higher than TD and since I do all the bill paying I use TD. I have an 'over 60' checking account - keep $250 minimum balance and the monthly $10 fee is waived and you get free checks, money orders or cashier checks - it does pay interest but that's so minimal I shouldn't even mention it.

I usually charge as many bills as I can to my Am Ex card so that I can maximize my frequent flyer miles. I pay my Am Ex and everything else with TD's online bill pay - it's simple and reliable. You can also do mobile online banking and take a photo of a check and deposit it that way.

It's a little odd perhaps but I haven't signed up for any autopay - I guess I'm old fashioned but I still review each bill as I receive it - then I log into my TD account and pay it.

I use my bank's on-line bill pay for the most part. Most are on auto-pay but a couple I like to review the bill (my AMEX for example), so I go online to pay it. I charge most everything to my AMEX to get the points and then pay that bill online. I log into my AMEX account (and my bank account) every few days just to check and make sure there is no unusual activity, but I get notices from AMEX if my card is used without my being actually present. Happens every time I make an online purchase but that's ok, as I know I made it & the system is working.

I also can do mobile online banking so I can also take a photo of the check and do a mobile deposit to either my checking or savings account from home.

" I don't auto pay anything. I review all the bills before I pay them."

E-bills arrive a week or more before items draft, so you would have time to stop an auto-draft, if necessary. I've never had to do this.

I'm not sure you can even auto-pay a CC. I pay those either on the CC website or online banking (depends on account, who owes what).

I haven't ventured into depositing checks into accounts via photos. For commercial accounts, there is a charge for this and DH is in town daily, so he will take deposits if I'm not headed out the next day.

We (almost always DH) pays as many bills as possible online through BofA. There are only one or two things that must be paid separately, such as our bills for water, trash, and sewage (all combined). Paying bills on two houses at the present time is a bit of a pain, but our routine should be simplified once the old house goes back on the market and sells.

I'm glad to know that about autopay, Allison. I wasn't sure how it worked, but sounds like you do have an opportunity to review bills before the draft is made. That's the only uncertainty that's prevented me from signing up, but it would certainly simplify things even more for us.

No autopay for me either. I figure, with hackers being far more sophisticated than me, it's better not to let outside sources have access to our bank account. I do use online bill paying via our local bank, with all transactions initiated by me. But some companies aren't listed in their system, so instead of going through the effort to set up an account for those companies, I just print out checks at home with my money management software. That's easy enough.

I use a program called Money Dance in conjunction with my online banking. Money Dance is like Quicken, not quite as good. I had computer conflicts with Quicken and switched to Money Dance several years ago and have stuck with it. The reason I use the app is because my online banking doesn't show the new balance after I send payments. We can have, say, $8K in payments waiting to be processed by their recipients, but that amount isn't reflected in the balance yet. So downloading all the banking data & entering transactions in process to Money Dance is more accurate. I reconcile our bank balance with Money Dance once a month to make sure there aren't errors & to keep it all in sync. It's work, but keeping close tabs on your finances is a necessary task -- all part of being an independent adult.

I still prefer paper bills & bank statements. Long power outages during Irene, Sandy, & Snowtober where we had no internet or cell phone made me wary of being totally dependent on electronic financial services. Snail mail proved more reliable. And when the IRS comes calling, paper is your friend.

Except for one CC, I pay through my bank's bill pay feature. Electric is auto-deducted. I charge some to a CC for miles/points. The only things that I pay for by paper check are the property tax bill and any odds and ends (conventions, household repairs).

I get paid twice a month. I pay all my utilities and my car payment one pay, and my house payment the other pay.

I don't use auto-pay, but I do use our bank's on-line bill pay. It's free and it's easy. For the very few that I can't pay through their system, I pay on their website. I only write the occasional check.

I also handle my grandmother's finances. Most are handled the same way, although I do write more checks for her bills.

I don't use auto pay either. For most of our accounts I get emails notifying me that a bill is ready but even so I still prefer to get paper bills as well. I pay the bill within a day or two of getting the notice. The mailed copy gets reviewed for errors and serves as back-up just in case the email isn't received or something. I pay most everything on each companies website. The exception is our mortgage, Comcast and medical bills. Those are paid through bill pay with the Credit Union which is free. What I don't like about the bill pay service though is that it's provided by a third party and they're not easy to work with if something goes wrong and a stop pay or something is needed; they've not been too friendly to deal with and their fees for that help are also expensive.

No one is as organized or sharp as Allison. She's an absolute whiz.

I do bills for us and all medical for DD1 who is disabled. I use a big bank with a superb online payment system. Most of my bills are paid electronically same or next day. Those are all hooked up in the bank console and can be scheduled to pay on any day I like. Things like mortgage and car payments and DD's rent are set to be paid the same day each month. Each year I set up our drug plan payments the same way but with an end date since the drug plans can change yearly.

The companies that don't have electronic transfer get checks I can generate via the bank. The bank mails them. I can add notations like account numbers.

Why I do this is that I was told at the bank that these days, you don't want your routing and account numbers circulating on many checks. I use very few personal checks -- only when necessary for that reason.

I would never arrange an ACH payment where money can be removed from an account automatically. Never.

When I pay for most anything I like to do that with a credit card so I get points. That's also an easy way to keep track of things as I use certain cards for certain types of purchases, or try to. When I get enough points I use it to pay a bill. One card is linked to Amazon so points can pay for parts of purchases.

When I make a payment through the bank I print it out and staple it to the bill. Those go into monthly folders. If I was super organized I would go through things every month and keep for taxes as I go. But not there yet. So I have taxageddon this month. Ugh.

Think my system is easy, fairly streamlined and safe. What I don't want is my vital information stored in many different computer systems that may be easier to hack than a major bank.

Hey, thanks everyone. With the impending blizzard in my area, I will have plenty of time to look into your suggestions and change my system.