Paperless

Yesterday afternoon (Wednesday, November 30, 2011), yrs trly managed to change one utility to so-called “paperless” billing, National Grid, our electricity supplier.
Makes sense. I’ve wanted to do it a long time, and hope to eventually do it for all our utilities.
E-mail the bills, instead of snail-mail.
But I ain’t havin’ ‘em do automated bill-pay.
Not the payees.
Authorize that, and the payee can go bonkers.
I’ve seen it happen.
A girl I worked with authorized a creditor to automatically charge her account every month to pay off her college loan.
The system went bonkers.
Multiple charges per month overdrew her account, and sent her bank into penalty mode.
Try to straighten that out, with people in far-away India, of course.
“We understand your concern.”
I pay my bills online, but only I institute the charges, not the payee.
And the bank better not screw up, or there’ll be hell to pay.
And they’re not in India.
The way it will work is National Grid e-mails me their monthly bill, and I authorize the bank to pay ‘em.
Just like I do now, except the current bills come snail-mail.