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count or prepaid card occur the same day (often instantly), versus being delayed in the mail. And, if you sometimes forget to mail payments on time, auto payment protects against late fees and overdraft charges.
• They're convenient. You can choose one-time bill pay, where you first review your bill and then authorize payment; or recurring bill pay, where your bills are paid automatically at a scheduled time - for either for the full amount (usually mandatory with utilities), the minimum payment due, or an amount you choose. You can usually have funds drawn from either your checking or credit card account (be sure to ask).
• They're safer. Even in these high-tech times, old-fashioned mail theft remains a major problem. For example, in 2010 more than 540,000 mailed federal benefit checks were reported lost or stolen and had to be replaced.
• That doesn't mean electronic transactions are risk-free. As with email or any kind of online activity, you should take precautions to protect your computer (and cell phone) from being hacked. For example:
• • Make sure your anti-virus and anti-spyware software is up-to-date.
• • When making online payments, look for safety symbols like a padlock icon in the browser's status bar, an "s" after "http" in the URL, or the words "Secure Sockets Layer" (SSL).
• • Review credit card and bank account statements regularly and report duplicate bill payments or suspicious/unauthorized charges to the card issuer.
• • Ask whether your credit or debit card offers "zero liability," which means you won't be responsible for unauthorized or fraudulent purchases.

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