{"id":90,"date":"2026-07-03T19:21:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T19:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedonlineshopping.com\/?p=90"},"modified":"2026-07-03T19:21:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T19:21:01","slug":"clark-ditch-bill-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedonlineshopping.com\/?p=90","title":{"rendered":"Why Clark Has Ditched Bill Pay and What He\u2019s Doing Instead"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clark.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Here-are-the-credit-cards-in-Clark-Howard-wallet.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Here are the credit cards in Clark Howard's wallet\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clark.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Here-are-the-credit-cards-in-Clark-Howard-wallet.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clark.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Here-are-the-credit-cards-in-Clark-Howard-wallet.png?resize=600%2C600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clark.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Here-are-the-credit-cards-in-Clark-Howard-wallet.png?resize=50%2C50&amp;ssl=1 50w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clark.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Here-are-the-credit-cards-in-Clark-Howard-wallet.png?resize=200%2C200&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clark.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Here-are-the-credit-cards-in-Clark-Howard-wallet.png?resize=480%2C480&amp;ssl=1 480w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clark.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Here-are-the-credit-cards-in-Clark-Howard-wallet.png?zoom=2&amp;resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Do you use your bank or credit union\u2019s \u201cbill pay\u201d function to pay your bills each month?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You may want to consider changing this strategy. Using bill pay, especially when a paper check is involved, exposes your payment to a few different risk factors:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Potential delayed delivery of your payment.<\/li>\n<li>Inability to track the status of your payment.<\/li>\n<li>Checks lost or stolen in the mailing process.<\/li>\n<li>Payments lost or misapplied by the recipient.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Money expert Clark Howard says that he ditched the convenience of using a bank or credit union\u2019s service to pay all his bills for a more time-consuming method: <strong>Paying each vendor directly on their<\/strong> <strong>website or online payment portal.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He does this in the name of financial safety and transaction transparency. Read on to understand why.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n<h2 id=\"h-clark-cautions-against-using-bank-bill-pay-advises-direct-payment-instead\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Clark Cautions Against Using Bank Bill Pay, Advises Direct Payment Instead<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During a recent episode of\u00a0The Clark Howard Podcast, the risks associated with modern-day bill-pay services from your bank or credit union were a topic of discussion. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A listener wrote in to express frustration with an experience with USAA. Clark responded with some practical advice we all could use as we navigate our monthly expenses.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"h-johnny-in-florida-writes\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Johnny in Florida Writes:<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat do you know about USAA\u2019s checking account processor change?\u00a0 The new USAA system debits my checking account 1-2 days before the payment is sent.\u00a0 This is not a problem for electronic payments.\u00a0 However, with paper checks using Bill Pay, the payments are deducted from the account when the check is sent.\u00a0 Customer service told me that I will not receive a canceled check image, and I will not get any confirmation that the check was actually cashed.\u00a0 This only becomes a problem when the checks are not cashed.\u00a0 Unfortunately, some of my Payees do not cash checks in a timely manner.\u00a0 Some checks remain uncashed for several months due to a problem with the vendor\u2019s business office.\u00a0 My question to the Customer Service is where does the money go, if it is not in my account? The only status I get in the Bill Pay is \u2018Processed.\u2019 Sadly, the days of \u201cfloating a check\u201d are gone with USAA.\u201d<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"h-clark-responds\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Clark Responds:<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWell, it\u2019s actually a lot worse than that, Johnny. Any bill pay service that doesn\u2019t have an electronic link to an organization to pay is printing out a paper check. This is creating hazard for you like you can\u2019t imagine. So, think about this scenario: They deduct money from your account and then somebody steals the check in the mail process. You don\u2019t know that the check\u2019s been diverted, your money\u2019s gone already from your account, and then maybe you had a dunning notice saying you\u2019re past due on whatever you were paying through USAA\u2019s billing service. You\u2019re out the money, and they still want their money. <strong>It is a mess. And that\u2019s why I don\u2019t use bill pay service anymore.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe problem is in how the bill pay system works now with most financial institutions, where the money for any paper check is deducted and then you are in a position where you don\u2019t know what happened. Let me tell you: Ignorance is not bliss in this situation. <strong>So, what I have gone to \u2014 and I found that it\u2019s worked much better \u2014 is that I am paying most of my bills at the site of the vendor. Vendors overwhelmingly now have the ability for you to pay in their payment portal. So, instead of just being able to conveniently go to one bill pay service at my financial institution, I have to go to every single one and pay bills there. It\u2019s much safer and the audit trail of the payment is much clearer.<\/strong>\u201c<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>How do you pay your bills? Have you had an experience that would add to this discussion? We\u2019d love to hear your thoughts in the <a href=\"https:\/\/community.clark.com\/\">Clark.com community<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/clark.com\/personal-finance-credit\/clark-ditch-bill-pay\/\">Why Clark Has Ditched Bill Pay and What He\u2019s Doing Instead<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/clark.com\/\">Clark Howard<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/clark.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Here-are-the-credit-cards-in-Clark-Howard-wallet.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Here are the credit cards in Clark Howard&apos;s wallet\" loading=\"lazy\">Do you use your bank or credit union\u2019s \u201cbill pay\u201d function to pay your bills each month? You may want to consider changing this strategy. Using bill pay, especially when a paper check is involved, exposes your payment to a few different risk factors: Money expert Clark Howard says that he ditched the convenience of [\u2026]<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/clark.com\/personal-finance-credit\/clark-ditch-bill-pay\/\">Why Clark Has Ditched Bill Pay and What He\u2019s Doing Instead<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/clark.com\/\">Clark Howard<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,19],"tags":[23,25,21,24,22,20],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-money-credit","category-partner_rss_exclude","tag-auction","tag-cheap","tag-discount","tag-giveaway","tag-presale","tag-shopping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedonlineshopping.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedonlineshopping.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedonlineshopping.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedonlineshopping.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedonlineshopping.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/unitedonlineshopping.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedonlineshopping.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedonlineshopping.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedonlineshopping.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}