Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by vecinu 1933 days ago
Sorry but how is this dangerous? You don't have your credit cards on autopay?

I regularly verify what transactions show up across my cards and you have 30 days to dispute anything.

10+ years and I never had an issue.

3 comments

I don't actually auto pay any of my credit cards.

I keep my checking account balance intentionally low and often run into times where paying off my cards would overdraft me.

I don't think it's all that crazy of a thing to do, I just don't do it.

Same here. I carefully plan my bill paying schedule so as to never go below zero in my checking account. Sometimes that involves deferring payments until the next paycheck. With AutoPay I give up that ability to schedule exactly when the money goes out.

Additionally, I like to review every bill I pay to make sure it makes sense. I've had to dispute bills in the past that were unexplainably incorrect by $10, $20, sometimes close to $50, and if I had them on AutoPay I probably wouldn't have even noticed it.

Every card which I've owned has allowed an option to autopay the minimum payment. This way you don't have to deal with accidentally missing a payment which can be quite costly.

That said, the real solution here is to not spend more than you can pay off. Every time you carry over your balance, it's a big win for the credit companies. If you get to the end of the pay period and your card balance is greater than your checking balance, then you lose.

I don't autopay credit cards. I only do this for accounts that have fixed value and require little overseeing, e.g., car payments. Any of my credit cards are payed only when I review the amount and make the decision.
Some people use their CC as an accounts payable. It acts like a buffer to give you time to dispute BS nuisance charges.