Autopay Luddite Bills When my Bank Doesn't Offer It?

April 26, 2017 9:55 AM

Is there a service out there that will send paper checks to my billers automatically each month? Difficulty: my bank absolutely does not offer this service.

Here's my situation:

1. I have to write three checks every month to three organizations that do not take electronic payment of any sort.
2. My bank does not offer free bill pay service.
3. I want to set these payments on autopilot until I switch to a better bank.

I am thinking there has to be some kind of service out there that will charge my debit card or bank account, then send out paper checks for me automatically each month with details of my choosing. Does anyone know of anything like this? I'm coming up with nothing on Google.

posted by FakeFreyja to Work & Money (11 answers total)

Best answer: Plastiq
posted by caek at 10:05 AM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

"Check Writing Service" is the search term you want.

Here's one.

(Note: I haven't used such a service.)
posted by notyou at 10:10 AM on April 26, 2017

Would it be an option to set up a free checking account with an online bank that does provide automatic bill pay? I've got a Capital One 360 checking account that's free and that allows automatic bill pay including to payees that only take paper checks, and you can also set up a recurring transfer from another bank/account to pull in the money from your main account to cover these 3 bills.
posted by drlith at 10:14 AM on April 26, 2017 [12 favorites]

Bank of America does this easily in their bill pay function. Lots of reasons to complain about Bank of America, but their auto bill pay has been consistently great and flexible.
posted by brainmouse at 10:15 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

My credit union does this for free, so maybe open a small account at one?
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:23 AM on April 26, 2017 [3 favorites]

Yeah, I would just open a free checking account at a bank that offers free bill pay and set up an auto-transfer to move funds into the account from your main checking account to that account each month just before the payments are due to go out. I personally use Salem Five (a small bank in Massachusetts) that has an online presence. It's free to pull funds from other bank accounts and free to pay bills (even when they mail a check) and you can set up both on a schedule. I use them for all my everyday banking because they rebate other banks' ATM fees and even pay a decent interest rate on checking balances.
posted by kindall at 10:57 AM on April 26, 2017

Try checkfree. I believe this is the organization that did it for me back in the day. Although back then it was a dial in phone service, not computerized. It is what I used until my CU started offering bill pay services.
posted by SLC Mom at 11:16 AM on April 26, 2017

Bill pay through US Bank used to do this a few years ago. Not sure if it still does. I stopped using it when I moved and no longer had to send a paper check to a guy for my rent.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 11:25 AM on April 26, 2017

USAA will do this, too, if you're eligible to join.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:44 PM on April 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

I think Mint Bill Pay will let you do this.
posted by mskyle at 1:02 PM on April 26, 2017

Schwab does this; we have several bills we pay this way. They have the usual types of autobill pay and everything, but they also have 'we print a check for you' that you can set up to repeat every month.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 4:58 PM on April 26, 2017