Why do you need to go to a different website to pay each bill? Do you not have online banking?
I have all of my accounts set up with my online banking. I pay bills twice a month…takes roughly 5 minutes to do all of them. I enter the amount in the right row…and click “set up payment” poof. Done.
We had to fax in a co-signed lease agreement for D’s off-campus apartment. We have a multi-function printer with fax, but had just cancelled our landline. Oops. Turns out there’s an app for that! I found a fax app that takes a photo (of the lease in this case) and sends it out as an actual fax.
How about VCR ? Have tapes and 2 players that I never use, but for some reason I don’t throw them out !
Typing on a Windows XP PC right now. Still works fine.
@blevine: The last company making VCR’s is shutting down operation, can’t get parts and the demand isn’t there.
Lol. “People in Japan” are listed among fax users. So true! Some Japanese firms stubbornly prefer to conduct all official communications by fax. We use some sort of an email to fax program, but it is still a minor pain because there is no ccing.
We have to use a fax machine at work for insurance companies and hospitals.
I write some checks at work for some vendors who have proven untrustworthy with cc info and don’t accept ach payments without bungling. Our various landlords are pretty old school as well.
We accept payments through our website but we’re probably 50 50 with checks mailed in.
I very rarely write checks but I have had a hard time getting people who regularly send me money (clients) to buy into anything other than checks. Might be a generational thing. Kids seem to be using venmo or similar to transfer money.
I don’t own checks anymore. If I need to send a check, I hop online and have the bank send it for me. No charge or postage. Works for me.
I still have checks. I used to write them to D’s piano teacher, so that was like six a year (he preferred to be paid every 2 months). Occasional things for school. I’m sure now that she’s off to college I will almost never write any.
It’s very silly that Fax is considered HIPAA compliant and emails are not. You fax something and it lands in a basket where anyone and their mother can walk by and see it.
I don’t write that many checks but I still have a checkbook. I don’t have a fax machine. I use myfax.com.
It has to do with access to electronic transmissions vs phone lines. It has to do with the security of the transmission- not who receives the fax, @greenwitch. This is an older article bit addresses it. Emails need to be encrypted and/ or password protected. And it’s still hackable. http://www.findafax.com/info/sending-documents-fax-versus-email-better/
Re: travel agents
Aren’t most internet bookings that are not directly through airlines done with travel agents (Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, Priceline, etc.)? So they are still frequently used.
Package tours/tour companies also have agents.
When I have my trip paid for by an org, I generally have to use their travel agent. When we go on foreign travel (especially packaged tours), I use a travel agent. When fares are crazy expensive, I use an agent if the agent can get a better deal.
Also, business travelers may have to use a company-specified travel agent.
Many businesses also have online travel portals.
But these result in the booking of travel through a company-specified travel agent, correct?
Nope. All automated.
I think it’s hilarious when a broker, attorney or doctor insists that something be faxed, since anything that comes to my “fax” number ends up in my email, and anything I send by “fax” gets scanned and uploaded to myfax.com, similarly to what would happen if I emailed it. Even banks are starting to allow emails.
I use lots of checks, for my personal and business bills, though some of them are set up to autopay. Another funny thing is that I did everything using online billpay more than 10 years ago, but when we moved to Hawaii I had fewer bills and it just seemed like such a pain to set it all up again with a new bank (and there was a charge, and we were pinching every penny), so I went from high-tech back to low tech! Thinking of doing it now, though.