Paytrust 2

Paytrust is an "online bill management service." That means that when you sign up, you enter all your billers into their database, and then they send letters to the billers asking them to send their invoices to a P.O. Box in South Dakota. They will scan the invoices that are sent, and put them on Paytrust account. In addition, they will summarize the bills by payee, due date, min. pay, and total due. If a biller will send electronic bills, Paytrust will accept them. Paytrust has an online payment service as well.

Sounds good in theory. In reality, based on nine years as a customer, my experience is that only a percentage of billers will play along and send their bills to a P.O. Box in South Dakota.

Also, having your bills scanned doesn't mean that you don't have to read them closely. In fact, with Paytrust, you need to compare the remittance address that you entered into their database, with the remittance address on the bill as well, since billers change those addresses often. So the Paytrust service doesn't save you all that much time in processing your bills.

However, for the ones that are scanned, and your electronic bills, at least you, your spouse, or kids won't misplace them around the house. That has value, depending on how chaotic your home is and how many hours you work or travel.

Nowadays, most banks and credit unions offer an online bill paying service. My credit union's service will set up the receipt and archiving of electronic bills too, for free.

Bottom line is that for the monthly fee, you get some of your paper bills scanned, and you get the Paytrust trolls to summarize the bills for you. Is it worth it? Depends on you.

Paytrust, by the way, requires you to pay its bill by automatic, electronic debit of your checking account. Not a good idea, unless you are flush enough with cash that you always have a cash cushion there. Otherwise, the automatic debit could catch you short and generate penalty fees. The better practice is to minimize the number of creditors who you allow to automatically debit your account. There is no compelling reason for Paytrust to be one of them.

Finally, Paytrust customer service is poor. It's as if the customer service reps have never really used the service themselves, and they are just repeating a script. How can you give good service if you don't really understand the product and the needs of your customers?