Most checking accounts now include a Billpay feature. My account has Pay My Bills and it is free. It works better for me than Automatic Pay. We have a tight budget, and with automatic payments on my bills, I would have to worry about having enough money in the account when the creditor decided to withdraw his payment. With Pay My Bills, I choose the date the payment is made.
I definitely agree with you on the Bank Bill Payer as opposed to the automatic withdrawal by the creditor. Temporary file for payment pending is a fantastic idea. Wish I had thought of that a long time ago. I have projected my bank account showing expected income and expenses for several months with a running balance so that I do not get overdrawn.
I have for years projected into my checking account to give me leeway for paying all of our bills via the Bill Payee on my account. It keeps me solvent and I don't worry about having to come up with money that we wouldn't have if I didn't do this. I only have a couple of bills that are set up to pay automatically via my Bill Payee account. I have no payments set up to withdrawal from my checking account, because I want complete control over my accounts and when they are paid, I have them set up to be billed to a credit card. It works for us, no worries and no problems either.
