“We have requested an AutoPay enrollment form to be mailed to you. You should receive it within 7 to 10 days.

Please keep in mind that it takes 4 to 6 weeks from the time we receive your completed request, for the enrollment to become active.”

I’d like opinions on this: Do you think I should close any of the several other accounts that I have that I don’t use at all? Besides the Chase cards, most don’t have any rewards at all. I’ve heard closing old accts. as well as opening new ones can affect your credit. A few years ago I wanted to get a number of cards in my name only, so I’d be sure to have my own credit without being tied to the husband’s. I think I went overboard and probably have around 10. In the years since I opened them, it seems there’s a lot more talk about credit ratings than there used to be. I have to refinance mortgages on income property every so often, and I just recently opened the new reward credit card account, so it seems like someone is looking at my credit all the time. The only bad thing on my credit is “too many accounts with balances” (of course I pay off everything every month, except for mortgage balances) and “too many consumer finance company accounts” and “too many inquiries in the last 12 months.” So should I just keep them open and not use them, or should I “clean out” and get rid of them? I’d like to hear nickel’s or anyone else’s thoughts. Thanks. (Sorry to be so lengthy!)

By the way, as I should have mentioned earlier, I enjoy reading your blog. Keep up the good work and all that.

I’ve used Click-to-Pay in the past and it was a one-off type of thing where I’d have to come back each month. As far as I can tell, that’s still the way it works.

Assuming your layout is the same as mine, it should show in the box under the current balance and minimum amount due, on the left side of the screen, and to the left of the box showing your APR, credit line, statement balance, etc. If nothing else (and if you’re comfortable with it), you could try setting it up over the phone.

My misunderstanding; sometimes banks and credit cards and processors have joint products, and it’s hard to keep track of ‘em all.

FWIW, BofA stands to gain nothing from not allowing me to auto-pay my Citi card. I’m not talking about a BofA card here. I’m talking about paying Citi via BofA billpay.

I hate to say it, but I think you’re doing something wrong.

Auto pay is definitely a very good time saver, but it makes most people lazy by not really checking their charges!!

2. Question: is there an issue with disputed or fraudulent charges if you automatically pay? For instance, it’s hard to dispute a charge when they already have your money for it.

One thing to watch for is that in some cases if you forget about automatic payment for some reason and pre-pay, the amount they take from your bank is reduced by whatever check you sent them. This is how my card works. In others, they will ignore your payment and take the amount from the bank in addition. Bank of America card works this way – apparently they schedule the payment when they send you the bill and regardless of what you do they still take the money. This what happened with my mother the first month she set up automatic payment: she wasn’t sure the automatic payment has taken effect yet and she sent them the check for the full amount; then they took the full amount again ignoring the fact that the balance was 0. So suddenly she was left with a very small amount on her checking and plus a negative balance on the card; since it takes time to get the money back she had to transfer money from her savings for other bills. Since then she cancelled automatic payment and now just walks to the bank that is located close by and pays in person.