NO automatic payments!

[buckeyefarmer]

And yes, I have been stuck - with Serus XM - had to cancel and change credit card number. They continued to bill AFTER I request cancellation. I will NEVER subscribe to them again.

XM is flat out crooks. I will never have it again.

 

[Oaktree]

And yes, I have been stuck - with Serus XM - had to cancel and change credit card number. They continued to bill AFTER I request cancellation. I will NEVER subscribe to them again.

XM is flat out crooks. I will never have it again.

Personally, I have no use for XM, but my wife has it in her car...she enjoys the smooth jazz channel (Watercolors I think it's called). She has a fit anytime I suggest cancelling it. Once a year I call up, threaten to cancel and they give me a greatly reduced rate. I wish they'd just give a good rate to begin with so I didn't have to play this game every year.
The subscription is my birthday present to her every year...gets me off the hook for having to come up with something else she'd like.

 

[SgtSluggo]

We have pretty much everything on autopay. Never had a problem. I review bills when they come in and then they come out when they are due. Almost everything is on a credit card that we pay in full every month.

Personally, I have no use for XM, but my wife has it in her car...she enjoys the smooth jazz channel (Watercolors I think it's called). She has a fit anytime I suggest cancelling it. Once a year I call up, threaten to cancel and they give me a greatly reduced rate. I wish they'd just give a good rate to begin with so I didn't have to play this game every year.
The subscription is my birthday present to her every year...gets me off the hook for having to come up with something else she'd like.

I think XM must be making a pretty penny from folks that don't know to go argue the subscription rate. They are so desperate for customers now, we get 1 or 2 "free trials" that don't even require a credit card a year now. This most recent one was for 3 months. We listen to it while we have it, then go back to the radio when it's done.

 

[Jstpssng]

Personally, I have no use for XM, but my wife has it in her car...she enjoys the smooth jazz channel (Watercolors I think it's called). She has a fit anytime I suggest cancelling it. Once a year I call up, threaten to cancel and they give me a greatly reduced rate. I wish they'd just give a good rate to begin with so I didn't have to play this game every year.
The subscription is my birthday present to her every year...gets me off the hook for having to come up with something else she'd like.

I had it for a couple of years, as there is little to no radio service in many of the places I work. It got so that no matter what station I listened to I always heard the same few songs; although I'm SURE that the Rolling Stones have recorded more than 4 songs in their career. They also had the same MO... play two songs, then you hear them tooting their own horn about how they had no commercials, then play two more songs and another promo... "If you want to hear more Bruce Springstein go to channel..." (I'd rather eat ground up glass.)

I wish that every utility would have transparent pricing. There's no way that my phone and poor quality internet package is worth what I am paying for it, yet it would be the same if I went to cellular.

 

[Oaktree]

We have pretty much everything on autopay. Never had a problem. I review bills when they come in and then they come out when they are due. Almost everything is on a credit card that we pay in full every month.

While I'd rather have individual bills to pay each month, I don't have too many objections to autopay tied to a credit card. If there's a dispute, at least you have some rights. I absolutely positively refuse to give any merchant/service provider direct access to a bank account!!
Several gas station chains offer 10¢/gal discounts if you sign up for their direct pay, but I won't do it.

I wish that every utility would have transparent pricing. There's no way that my phone and poor quality internet package is worth what I am paying for it, yet it would be the same if I went to cellular.

Supposedly, congress is considering a bill to require a more transparent fee structure for banks, but it doesn't extend to any other businesses. I used to have the ultra-basic cable tv package (mostly OTA channels from a neighboring state, along with a couple shopping channels, a religious channel and CSPAN) that was fairly cheap. Except. They tacked on a "broadcast tv" surcharge that more than doubled the cost of the service. We didn't watch enough tv to warrant the expense so we dropped it (off air reception doesn't exist here).
Phone companies tacked a lot of fees onto landline charges that the cable company doesn't charge for their landline. A "city" friend has so many surcharges on his water bill that it almost doubles it.

I don't know how many of these surcharges/fees are legit, but at the very least either roll them into the advertised cost or at least be upfront about them before customers sign up.

 

[jyoutz]

I only do auto payments from my credit card. Never my bank accounts.

Another option is a pure online payment system such as Paypal. With that you can cancel any "subscriptions" or auto withdrawals from the website. However with Paypals most recent policy change stunt I cancelled the account immediately. I had it for 12 years. Not putting up with that ridiculousness.

What did pay pal do recently?

 

[Richard]

I'm on the side of NOBODY has access to my account for any automatic payments.....nobody.

I got burned on that 30 years ago when the timing of their bill, therefore taking cash out of my account, was 2-3 days ahead of me getting paid so I bounced a number of checks.

Never again. I agree with and actually am generally, paid several months in advance on everything.

If you pull up virtually any of my bills other than mortgage, you'll find a credit on the account. Heck, my new car is already paid up to the middle of January.

I've always done this so I have options. If for example, I need to take a dog and our cat to the Vet on a "rushed" (not emergency) basis, I've got the cash in checking and I can wait a bit on my reoccuring bills to maybe let the credit take care of a month until my next payday.

 

[grsthegreat]

Jchonline, what did paypal do to piss you off? if this was about them saying they would fine a person $2500 for misinformation, that was "possibly" done by mistake, and deleated. mind you, if they kept it inplace, i too would have dropped them.

 

[LittleBill21]

everything we humanly can is on auto pay. 0 issue in the last 15 years.

 

[Jchonline]

Jchonline, what did paypal do to piss you off? if this was about them saying they would fine a person $2500 for misinformation, that was "possibly" done by mistake, and deleated. mind you, if they kept it inplace, i too would have dropped them.

That was it. Not at all interested in doing business with any company that "thinks" they can do something like this. I am pretty sure they backed it out after the backlash. I have lots of other options.

Kind of a straw/camel scenario for me. I have had a few issues in the past with them holding funds and me having to go back and forth with them (huge waste of time). No thanks.