Your gym membership, your antivirus software subscription and your cell phone subscription—several bills commonly paid automatically via your credit card or bank account.  While this can be a convenient way to make sure you pay bills on time, it can have some unintended consequences.

CCCS credit counselors recommend that whenever you set up automatic bill pay, you are literally giving the merchant permission to access your funds.  For your safety, make sure you are only giving permission to reputable businesses.  Canceling the service might be difficult with a shady business that has permission to access your accounts. Magazine subscription houses, for instance, are notorious for such tactics. These are often the same companies that call you at home to sell you their products.

Automatic bill paying can also lead to laziness or forgetfulness.  You should keep thorough records on when such bills are going to be paid and, to avoid overdraft fees, make sure you have enough money to cover the expenses.  This also involves checking each bill before the payment gets drafted. You could have erroneous charges on your credit card account or mistakes on your utility bills and if you aren’t checking them line by line every month you might miss overcharges.

For these reasons, if you are concerned with keeping good records, you may want to keep paying your bills manually.