<p>I need to vent. I put my mortgage payment in the mailbox Friday morning, I checked the mail after work, and it was still there and I had no incoming mail (it happens sometimes). I left it there thinking they would get it on Saturday. Got home Sunday, took the new mail out of the box, the envelope is still there. My box is attached to my house by my front door, rather then a stand alone mailbox out by the road, so they actually have to walk all the way up here to give and take my mail. They never seem to come up and take my mail if they have nothing to deliver to me, and even then they forget to take it sometimes. I’m fed up. I’m going to the post office tomorrow to physically mail my payment before it’s too late and make a complaint. Actually, at this point I’m just hoping it makes it there on time. They have a $5 dollar fee to make payments online.</p>
<p>Has anyone else had this happen? If so, what did you do about it?</p>
<p>I don’t ever put anything in the mailbox to go out- too many people picking stuff out of mailboxes and washing checks.
I always go to the post office and even then make sure I go inside and not just put it in the box on the sidewalk.
I emphathize with you though- but can you pay online? That is how we pay all our regular bills except dr bills.</p>
<p>fendergirl, did the post office cut off Saturday delivery/pickup due to budgetary issues? In any case, I do not recommend leaving your payment envelopes in the mailbox for the mailman to pick up. The little red flag also attracts mail thieves… A friend of mine had to go through a nightmare when her electricity payment was stolen from her mailbox, the check was washed and forged, her bank account was cleaned out of $3,000, and the rest of her checks bounced. The crooks are still at large. I never put outgoing mail in my rural mailbox. I swing by the post office on the way home and drop the payments that I cannot make online into one of their (more) secure boxes.</p>
<p>I know I can pay them online at their website for 5 bucks, or i can call it in for 10 bucks. It just seems silly to pay extra for something that should be free. I can have them automatically deduct it from my checking account on x day each month, but since I get paid on different days I like to just mail it the old fashioned way. It’s the only bill i do that with. The others I use the bill pay on my banks website. I’m actually not sure if I can pay this one on my banks website… It never said anything about fees for doing it that way. </p>
<p>I live in a good area so I don’t really have too much concern with people taking stuff out of the box… it just irritated me. When I got home tonight I realized I left my garage door open the entire day. Oops!!</p>
<p>I think i mixed up my days in the above post. I put it in there thursday morning, it was still there after work with no mail, then i went away for the weekend friday after work, and when i got home sunday it was still there but I had some mail stuffed in with it. </p>
<p>I’m pretty sure they still do saturday delivery here… I know the post office is open saturdays.</p>
<p>I guess i’ll try to go mail it tomorrow. I’ll have to ask them how long they think it will take to get there… may wind up paying the fee and doing it online.</p>
<p>I think I am spoiled from living at my parents house for so many years… at their house you can literally leave like 8 bucks or whatever a pack of stamps cost in an envelope in your mailbox and they will actually leave the stamps there for you. Talk about service!!</p>
<p>“I live in a good area so I don’t really have too much concern with people taking stuff out of the box…”</p>
<p>I thought I lived in a good area (TPing of trees seemed to be the major crime around here) until our mail was stolen by drive-through crooks who figured out that in a good neighborhood there would be something good in the mailboxes. Unfortunately, DH’s paystub was in it, and his SSN was printed on it (he made a stink about it later, and the HR changed their policy about printing SSNs on paystubs). We paid for 2 years of credit monitoring, cancelled our bank account, moved money to a new one, got a PO box, etc. Luckily, it turned out that the crooks were not after our IDs, they were after cash enclosed in birthday cards, packages, books, anything of “instant” value.</p>
<p>I actually just read something online… it says…</p>
<p>If you have a mailbox attached to your house and the mail carrier doesn’t have mail to deliver to you, then he will not pick up your outgoing mail. If you have street delivery and put the flag up then they will have to stop and pick up your outgoing mail. Postal policy, sorry to say.</p>
<p>If your box is on the street, I believe he is supposed to check for outgoing mail every day, but taking it from a box on your house is a courtesy, not a requirement. If the carrier has no mail to deliver to the box he is not obligated to pick up any outgoing mail, even if the flag is up (but most will).</p>
<p>Is there a flag on your mailbox to indicate there is mail in there? Are you putting the outgoing mail all the way inside the mailbox? The mailperson may not be seeing the mail.</p>
<p>Before I had a box with a flag, I would fold the envelopes in half and hang them over the edge, so it was obvious something was there.</p>
<p>We pay all our mortgages on-line using our credit union’s bill paying service for no charge. Them charging $5 to make on online payment makes no sense to me - it saves them money so they should be encouraging it, and you can probably use some other service to avoid the fee anyway.</p>
<p>I pay almost all my bills online from my bank’s online banking feature. I log into one site, pay all the bills at one time and then can move on with my life. I can’t see the point of going to all the different sites to pay each bill individually. I suppose I would only do it if I needed the payment to be counted as received by the mortgage holder THAT DAY. </p>
<p>I’m also not sure why your mortgage holder charges a surcharge for you to use their system to pay online. Is that normal?</p>
<p>We used to until someone did take our outgoing mail out, walked along the road opening it all and it was strewn down the street. Fortunately, we were able to gather most of it. I don’t know what he thought he would gain. It didn’t appear that he copied any info. or took anything. Our house is situated in a very safe area, but the mailbox is at the road. So I don’t put any outgoing mail in the box anymore. I just drive it to the PO.</p>
<p>Another vote for online banking here. I probably write about three or four physical checks a month now, everything else is done online. I have never had a problem and it eliminates postal issues. It also helps with budgeting and I like having an easily accessible account history.</p>
<p>I even pay Doctor bill online through my bank’s website. No charge, no postage, no worry.
I go to town hall to pay my property taxes, they don’t allow online payment.
Could use the town’s website for a 7.5% service fee. Yeah right, on top of the outrageous
$9000/yr tax bill. NOt likely.</p>
<p>I do not think there should be a problem paying online from your bank’s website. There is not a functional difference to the payee in doing this from your mailing the check yourself. It’s just that your bank assumes the responsibility for getting the payment to the payee (either via paper check or electronically) by the specified time. </p>
<p>I pay all our bills this way. We use ING Direct and they are fantastic.</p>
Unfortunately, DH’s paystub was in it, and his SSN was printed on it (he made a stink about it later, and the HR changed their policy about printing SSNs on paystubs). We paid for 2 years of credit monitoring, cancelled our bank account, moved money to a new one, got a PO box, etc. Luckily, it turned out that the crooks were not after our IDs, they were after cash enclosed in birthday cards, packages, books, anything of “instant” value.</p>