Auto bill pay?

[ftaisawesome]

On directvs website they have an offer of a $100 visa prepaid card. The fine print says you have to sign up for auto bill pay at the time. I was wondering if anyone knows what their main motivation for that is? Is there any reason a customer should stay away from auto pay? I personally like getting a bill in the mail and writing out a check to pay for it. It keeps me fully aware of where and how much of my money is going.

What advice can you give a newbie as to how to make the order and how to pay etc? Any tips you think I should know. Thank you in advance

 

[Jimbo]

On directvs website they have an offer of a $100 visa prepaid card. The fine print says you have to sign up for auto bill pay at the time. I was wondering if anyone knows what their main motivation for that is? Is there any reason a customer should stay away from auto pay? I personally like getting a bill in the mail and writing out a check to pay for it. It keeps me fully aware of where and how much of my money is going.

What advice can you give a newbie as to how to make the order and how to pay etc? Any tips you think I should know. Thank you in advance

Interesting, it use to be they would give you a one time $ 5 dollar discount.

The reason they would like you to go to the Auto Pay (like every other company) is 1. they don't have to print a paper copy, you X however many subs they have now.

2. when you do it electronically, it clears much quicker and your bill is paid right away (advantage , you if your running late) advantage D* because they have your money right away.

I feel that they should do some other options as well, like maybe a monthly discount instead of a one time thing, but your saying they now offer a $ 100 Visa, thats better, however, I pay my bill once a year to them and do NOT get the one time $ 5 off or the $ 100 Visa either way.

They say I don't qualify that way.

 

[ftaisawesome]

Thanks Jimbo. It's a special holiday offer. I suspected the not having to send out paper bills as being part of the reason but, I wondered if there were something more to it. Maybe I'm just a little cynical and, start wondering if something sneaky is involved.

With auto pay, do you still get an itemized bill, say in your email? How do you pay once a year? I've never heard of that. Also, I don't watch starz or showtime. Do you think it would be a waste of time to ask for something different in lieu of the 3 free months of those channels?

Any tips from anyone for a new subscriber before he pulls the trigger?

 

[This1]

make sure you get a referral friend 100.00 off I can help

Also remember you are leasing equipment unless u find owned stuff you will be under a commitment

Good luck and enjoy DTV

 

[scoop8]

Thanks Jimbo. It's a special holiday offer. I suspected the not having to send out paper bills as being part of the reason but, I wondered if there were something more to it. Maybe I'm just a little cynical and, start wondering if something sneaky is involved.

With auto pay, do you still get an itemized bill, say in your email? How do you pay once a year? I've never heard of that. Also, I don't watch starz or showtime. Do you think it would be a waste of time to ask for something different in lieu of the 3 free months of those channels?

Any tips from anyone for a new subscriber before he pulls the trigger?

Just me, but I like the Auto-pay option. I just check my online acct a couple of days before the billing cycle closes to make sure everything's "kosher".

If I understand your question about an itemized listing, your online acct gives you that info as well.

I admit that the "auto-renewal" for the sports pkg's (CI, EI, ST, etc) can be a surprise to some if they're considering cancelling during the off-seasons.

 

[88isgreat]

I have been using auto pay for over 5 years. Never had a problem. I don't know if this option is still available, but I still get a paper "bill" every month (of course it shows paid in full).

 

[sddtvtech]

becareful.. theres still people screwed over referals. you could be screwed...

 

[Jimbo]

becareful.. theres still people screwed over referals. you could be screwed...

Actually I think thats from them not calling the correct phone number.
D* has a special number for referral calls.

 

[Jimbo]

Thanks Jimbo. It's a special holiday offer. I suspected the not having to send out paper bills as being part of the reason but, I wondered if there were something more to it. Maybe I'm just a little cynical and, start wondering if something sneaky is involved.

With auto pay, do you still get an itemized bill, say in your email? How do you pay once a year? I've never heard of that. Also, I don't watch starz or showtime. Do you think it would be a waste of time to ask for something different in lieu of the 3 free months of those channels?

Any tips from anyone for a new subscriber before he pulls the trigger?

Yes, you get an itemized break down when you log in to your account on line and go to Billing section.
It will keep track of up to 12 months I think it was.

I do pay my bill once a year, I hate monthly bills.
When I go online to look at my billing, it shows a - xxx amount and is deducted every month, this way I don't have to send any checks or do the auto pay thing monthly.

 

[ftaisawesome]

becareful.. theres still people screwed over referals. you could be screwed...

By screwed do you mean.. just not getting the referral credit? Also the person who gives me the referral gets the money or credit or whatever it is right?

 

[ftaisawesome]

Yes, you get an itemized break down when you log in to your account on line and go to Billing section.
It will keep track of up to 12 months I think it was.

I do pay my bill once a year, I hate monthly bills.
When I go online to look at my billing, it shows a - xxx amount and is deducted every month, this way I don't have to send any checks or do the auto pay thing monthly.

Ahh ok. That's ok then. So you pay up front in sort of a "kitty" that they then take the money from?

Can you get the referral online? Cause you have to sign up online to get the extra $5 a month off for the first year from what I understand

 

[Jimbo]

Ahh ok. That's ok then. So you pay up front in sort of a "kitty" that they then take the money from?

Can you get the referral online? Cause you have to sign up online to get the extra $5 a month off for the first year from what I understand

Last I knew, referrals were good for $ 100, 100 would go to the new sub (or a credit) and 100 would go to the person that your using as a referral.

You need the persons account number and the Referral PHONE NUMBER, don't just call the main number.

Yes, I give them the money and they just deduct from that monthly .... normally you could do that with any of your bills if you wanted to.

Only drawback is you no longer have that money to play with and D* has it and can collect the interest on the amount you gave them.

 

[ftaisawesome]

I got ya. The autopay comes from your credit card right?

Am I going to be able to get the best deal and do the refer a friend or, do I then give up some of the online discounts?

Those questions are for anyone that knows.

 

[Jimbo]

I got ya. The autopay comes from your credit card right?

Am I going to be able to get the best deal and do the refer a friend or, do I then give up some of the online discounts?

Those questions are for anyone that knows.

Yes I use a CC, actually a Debt card, so I don't pay interest on it.

Are you getting the best deal ? You mean if you pay for the year, or auto pay ?

If your going to pay for the year, call into billing and see what they are willing to discount for you, point out that they will have your money all year.

 

[stonecold]

And we will kinda be like so .... you could blow through that money in one month. To be honest I have never seen dtv give a discount for paying yearly. I see alots of service men and people who work out of oil rigs call in who have super large payments on the account. because they do pay for a whole year some times 2 up front. and it does not seem to entitlethem to anything else that not available to month to month payers.

 

[Farn]

Stone Cold, am I right in thinking that D* will give my leeway to people who have been on autopay?

Basically if you are a customer who calls in with a gripe or to cancel or whatever they are more apt to throw offers at you than if you are a non autopay person? Maybe they realize they should maintain the person who always pays automatically to keep that cash rolling in?

 

[stonecold]

Autopay has no affect on the rep. remember offers are different for every account. Autopay helps as your always ontime So there would be no negatives like we could not add a offfer because there was a past due amount on the account.

 

[Jimbo]

And we will kinda be like so .... you could blow through that money in one month. To be honest I have never seen dtv give a discount for paying yearly. I see alots of service men and people who work out of oil rigs call in who have super large payments on the account. because they do pay for a whole year some times 2 up front. and it does not seem to entitlethem to anything else that not available to month to month payers.

It varies from year to year, one year they gave me like a 10 % discount.
The next year that wouldn't do that, but they would credit me for my HD package for the year and maybe one of my premiums, or give me the $ 10 off for x amount of months, somethign like this, but it's always something that I would be paying for regardless.

So if they pay for my HD package for the year , thats $10 x 12 = $ 120, that wouldn't cover the 10% offered the first time, but it they also cover my premium .... it works out over the long haul.

 

[doctorg]

I got ya. The autopay comes from your credit card right?

Am I going to be able to get the best deal and do the refer a friend or, do I then give up some of the online discounts?

Those questions are for anyone that knows.

Just signed up and got the referral credit. I did it from the website through the email my buddy sent me...You can get the best deals that way too...no worries.

 

[cfb]

Couple of things. First off, make sure you set up the autopay well in advance of your bill date, and watch the first one. I set my autopay up about three days before my bill was due and directv applied the payment the day after it was due and then tried to charge me a late payment fee. Because they autopaid themselves a day late.

Spent a lot of time with Bob in India trying to explain that they couldnt charge me late and then charge me a late payment fee

I guess they hadnt gotten around to putting the autopay into the system or some other glitch came up where they didnt do the payment application and charge my card.

Whats in it for directv to give you a credit or up front bonus? Maybe you'll use their card for other stuff instead of one of the ones you currently use. They get the float on your money. Maybe you're late paying the bill one month or cant pay the whole thing and they get to put 20%-25% interest on you.

I think the directv card does have some 'rewards' set up if you use it a lot, like free equipment or programming. Havent really looked at it that hard, but I think I remember seeing something like that.

You can get these sorts of deals all over the place. Sony will give you $100 off anything you buy in the Sonystyle store for getting the sony credit card, and they regularly offer deals where if you spend a few thousand through the card within six months, they give you $300 back.

Only downside to taking the $100 is opening another credit card account usually involves a hard hit on your credit report, and an additional potential debt load. This may temporarily lower your credit rating by a bit, and may alter the rating a small amount longer term.

Instead of applying for lots of credit cards, I have ALL of my bills charged for autopay to one credit card that pays me a 1.25% cash rebate, then that card is set up to be autopaid through withdrawal from my brokerage money market account. I get about $250-350 a year in free money from this arrangement. No chance of missing a payment or forgetting to pay the credit card bill.

The pentagon federal credit union card pays 1.25%. I think Schwab has one that pays 2% a month into your brokerage account. Nice part about these two is that they automatically deduct the cash rebate from your monthly bill instead of making you ask them for a check.

Whats nice is that credit card statement has all my monthly bills listed in one place, so I can see where my money is going, and I can look at any statement online for details.