Personal Finance

Online bill notifications

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  • Mar 14th, 2015 3:06 pm
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Member
Dec 20, 2006
242 posts
151 upvotes
Mississauga

Online bill notifications

This has happened to me twice in the past year with Scotiabank Visa and Koodo. I signed up for online billing in order to be "green", but in both instances I never received notifications that my bill was available, causing me to miss payments and accrue interest. Am I mistaken to expect that I be notified when an e-bill is available? All of my other online bills have notifications. It seems to me that if a company wants to move customers to e-billing to save money, the least they can do is e-mail their customers when their bill is available. It's like printing a paper bill and just leaving it in the office, expecting the customer to come get it on their own. Yes, it is my responsibility to pay my bill on time, but I don't believe it's reasonable to log in to a dozen websites each week just to see if my bill is ready yet. What are your thoughts?
10 replies
Deal Addict
Jun 8, 2005
3160 posts
639 upvotes
Toronto
Did the emails they sent you go to your spam folder? It's been known to happen.
Member
Nov 29, 2008
255 posts
122 upvotes
GTA
why not just set up pre-authorized payment with your visa card? This way the payment is made automatically each month based on your balance
Member
Dec 20, 2006
242 posts
151 upvotes
Mississauga
No, there were not emails sent. They confirmed after I called them. For Koodo, I cancelled my plan after the first month (just wanted the phone). The agent said I would receive my final bill with the balance of my Tab. My first bill was paper, my second was electronic as it turns out. I guess he and I have different ideas of the definition of "receive". I would define it as "given", he would define it as "made available to".
Deal Guru
Aug 5, 2006
10745 posts
7903 upvotes
Global Village
finalfantasy wrote: why not just set up pre-authorized payment with your visa card? This way the payment is made automatically each month based on your balance
Scotia does not let you do this with their Visa. And, I have to say, I really dislike their infoalerts for statements, there is no way to be auto-notified once your new e-billing statement is ready. There is only an option to be notified 10 days before your statement is due. I guess they think that there is a higher likelyhood of you missing a payment if they only notify you much closer to the deadline.
Deal Expert
Mar 25, 2005
22705 posts
3696 upvotes
It's a monthly bill. Just set a recurring reminder.
Member
Dec 20, 2006
242 posts
151 upvotes
Mississauga
Kasakato wrote: It's a monthly bill. Just set a recurring reminder.
I have done that with my recurring bills after the Scotiabank incident. My Koodo bill was unique since I cancelled my account after a month and it was only my second bill. I actually had to go back and make sure I hadn't paid for the phone already as I thought I already did. I didn't even know I still had an outstanding bill until I received an alert from Equifax that my rating changed.

So it looks like the general consensus is that companies shouldn't be responsible for letting you know that you have a bill, and you should check on them regularly yourself.
Deal Expert
Mar 25, 2005
22705 posts
3696 upvotes
Asher wrote: I have done that with my recurring bills after the Scotiabank incident. My Koodo bill was unique since I cancelled my account after a month and it was only my second bill. I actually had to go back and make sure I hadn't paid for the phone already as I thought I already did. I didn't even know I still had an outstanding bill until I received an alert from Equifax that my rating changed.

So it looks like the general consensus is that companies shouldn't be responsible for letting you know that you have a bill, and you should check on them regularly yourself.
I think of it like a paper bill. I should get a copy every month but it does not always happen.
Deal Addict
Dec 16, 2001
1864 posts
838 upvotes
Oakville
Imo, you shouldnt sign up for estatements unless the company gives you incentive to. Eg points or cash back.

Some have preauth debit thatll take out the total balance from your bank account, but some dont. I'm looking at you Amazon Visa.

FIs are REQUIRED to give you timely paper or estatemnts. If they dont, escalate internally to get any interest charges reversed. If they still dont escalate all the way to OSFI.

You can setup reminder in your oen calendar as a backup.
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Banned
May 12, 2004
9756 posts
4136 upvotes
Ottawa
Kursor17 wrote: Some have preauth debit thatll take out the total balance from your bank account, but some dont. I'm looking at you Amazon Visa.
I never understood this. Why don't people just mail every company their bank card with PIN number? Same thing...are people really that lazy or careless where their money goes?
Member
Dec 20, 2006
242 posts
151 upvotes
Mississauga
A quick update. I called Koodo to ask why I was never notified, and they said that they can't see whether an email was sent out to me, and they also didn't call me when it was overdue because I was a "good customer" and had paid on time before. The CSR was nice enough to issue me a cheque for the interest payments, so kudos to them for that. Hopefully it does in fact arrive.

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