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Absolutely do not use your debit card ... well, anywhere if you can help it.

(Apologies, saw the wrong parent comment) How many utilities, credit card companies require a checking account for autopay? How many times have you thrown out an old checkbook that contains routing and account numbers on a carbon copy pages?

Bank accounts are not especially secure, we mostly hope to limit the risk/reward calculation for hacking them and basic security controls.



> How many utilities, credit card companies require a checking account for autopay?

In my experience, this is getting better! I now have all but one of my bills being paid by my credit card. Used to be that the utility companies made you pay extra and use a third party service if you wanted to use your credit card.

Not all, though. Verizon, for example, will let you pay with a credit card, but they give a substantial discount if you use a debit card instead. For obvious reasons. I hope that does not become normal. I'm used to Verizon being scummy, I hope it doesn't become the default behavior for the other utilities I pay for.


The US needs an automatic bill payment system with strong guarantees.

In Britain, most people¹ pay bills (electricity, water, phone, internet, insurance, car loan, credit card etc) by "Direct Debit"². (Most European countries have a similar system with similar guarantees, but this one is described in English.)

If anything should go wrong, the bank must fix it. There's a list of direct debits in the bank's interface, and they can be cancelled/suspended with one click (or by phoning or going to the bank).

It isn't perfect (see 3 from two weeks ago) but that sort of problem is rare enough that it was reported in newspapers.

¹ "Direct Debits are used by nine in ten UK consumers to pay some or all of their regular bills".

² https://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/Pages/Dir...

³ https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/03/tsb-customers...




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