What is Online Bill Payment?
Online bill payment is a service that allows you to manage and pay bills electronically. These can be monthly bills like electricity bills, car payments, or credit card bills, or they can be one-time payments for businesses or even individuals. Online bill payment services also provide the option to set up recurring payments for the beneficiary.
What Makes Online Bill Payment Safe?
Online bill payment is safe when you choose the right bill payment service. Generally, an online bill payment service backed by a bank or a company that provides online banking services is safe and reliable. Paying bills online is more secure, for instance, than handing your credit card to a waiter at a restaurant.
Online bill payment services encrypt your data to keep your information confidential and use multi-step identity verification and password protection. In contrast, someone handling your credit card during a transaction at a restaurant could easily copy your credit card account information and use it for unauthorized purchases.
Tips for Using Online Bill Payment Safely
Keep these tips in mind when selecting and using an online bill payment service:
– Do not reply to or send any information to any bill payment service that asks for personal or financial information directly via email. Email is an insecure method of communication, and trusted services will never ask for sensitive personal or financial information through email.
– Do not pay bills through a link in an email. In your web browser, type the website address yourself to go directly to the bill payment site.
– Avoid clicking on any email links that appear to be from your bill payment service. Instead, go directly to the service’s website and log in to follow up on any communications or requests. Some email scams look as if they were sent from your service or financial institution and contain links to counterfeit sites that may look exactly like your trusted service. You are then tricked into entering your login information or other sensitive details.
– Read the privacy or security policy of the bill payment service you are considering using. The policy should mention strong data encryption and other protective measures. If a bill payment site offers to save your username or password for your account, decline the offer. Always enter this information yourself.
– After paying bills online, log out of your account to prevent anyone from accessing it when you leave your computer.
– When using online bill payment services, enable a password lock on your computer at the operating system level.
– Always use firewall and antivirus software for Windows or Mac operating systems.
– Most online banking and bill payment services require you to answer some questions or verify an image you selected previously in addition to logging in with your username and password. While this may seem inconvenient and time-consuming, it adds another layer of security.
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Source: https://www.thebalancemoney.com/is-online-bill-pay-safe-1294251
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