Now a huge number of different services are offered, which, in theory, should make the life of a modern person easier. For example, recurring payments. What is it, what are their pros and cons, let's look in the article.
What are recurring payments?
The name of the payment comes from the English recurrent payment , which literally translates as "regular payment". This type can also be found under the name "auto payment". The idea is that money is debited from your account or mobile phone automatically, you only need to set up the system once, indicating the frequency of debiting and the amount required. It is important to observe only one condition: the account must have funds. In fact, this is a kind of schedule for payments and transfers.
Benefits
Periodic payments have a number of advantages. If you regularly carry out certain monetary operations, from month to month, then by setting up auto payment, save time that you spend on their execution and commission.
Further, this is good because you do not need to keep in mind the dates of repayment and be afraid to delay payments. This is especially convenient with loans, because the bank has a fine for late payments of funds on loans.
It is also convenient to set up auto payment for a mobile phone while lowering its balance below a certain level. This removes the concern that you may suddenly be left without a connection due to an amount not paid on time. Actually, this will be for those people who often go on business trips.
Another plus is that certain services offer discounts on their services, subject to automatic payments. Also a plus will be savings on commissions. In case of auto payment it is either not present or it is lower than when using other payment methods.
disadvantages
Recurrent payments, unfortunately, relate to high-risk operations, as they are made without acceptance. This means that no one will ask for your permission to write off money.
If the auto payment is configured for external transfers, it must be borne in mind that they are not executed on weekends and holidays. It is also important to ensure that the total amount does not exceed the limit or balance on the card. Otherwise, payment will not be made.
Auto payments are also not protected from the possibility of a technical malfunction in the system. There is also no way to suspend the deposit of funds for a while, you will need to delete all the settings, and then set the parameters again.
Therefore, in the case of regular payments, you should act on the principle of "trust, but verify."
Who cares about auto payments?
You can make regular payments for various goods and services, as well as serve the needs of the business. Therefore, they are convenient not only for individuals, but also for organizations, private entrepreneurs.
In the interests of business, you can set up auto payments for access to storages of various content or SaaS services (for example, online accounting), set up payment of taxes and fees.
For personal needs, it is convenient to arrange auto payments for cellular communications, the Internet, commercial television, utilities, and repay loans. Automatically you can set up money transfers, for example, to relatives or friends, as well as currency exchange, if you need it for some reason.
The largest online stores offer their users to subscribe to pay for goods, services, and services.
If you participate in charity, then such transfers can also be configured as recurring payments. If you are engaged in investments, then the deposit data can be adjusted on a periodic basis. That is, in fact, almost any type of payment that is made with a certain periodicity can be made recurrent.
It is convenient to set up automatic payments for those who participate in microcredit systems.
How to reduce risks?
To ensure that payment of payments does not turn into a series of troubles for you, follow the safety rules. Do not, under any circumstances, transfer the card to third parties. Even the waiter in the restaurant does not have the right to carry her away. All manipulations with the card should be done only in your presence.
The fact is that to make a payment you need to know not so much: the card number, name of the holder, its expiration date and CVV \ CVC code, which is publicly available on the back. Therefore, there is no need to even steal a card from you, just rewrite the necessary information.
Keep the bank phone on hand to urgently contact him in an emergency and block the card. Connect a mobile bank, then you will receive an SMS notification about each movement in your current account. Use only trusted sites, shops and hotels. Regularly update anti-virus protection on your computer and do not use other people's PCs for payment transactions. Set a limit on online payments. Some banks allow you to do this remotely, without visiting the office. Most importantly, do not forget to turn off auto payment if you have stopped using any service.
It’s not difficult to follow these rules, but they really help to save your money.
How to set up auto payment?
Banks offer almost any type of payment to set up automatic payment. To do this in the Internet bank, just check the box “Repeat regularly”.
If you want to set up regular payments and you don’t need to pay for services at the moment, select the “Set up automatic payment” option. There, indicate the name of the operation, select the frequency of execution (weekly, monthly, or for specific dates), mark the validity period (without limitation, up to any specific date or by the number of payments). The procedure in each bank may vary slightly, but the principle is the same everywhere.
You can set up auto payments not only through the Internet bank, but also through an electronic wallet. For example, Yandex.Money allows you to replenish the balance of a mobile phone.
Regular payments and business
If you look at auto payments from the point of view of business owners, it turns out to be very profitable. Customers who are able to set up regular depositing of funds often become regular, as there is no need to re-enter the details.
Auto payment makes the procedure for calculating goods or services simpler, saving the user from a number of additional actions, which, in turn, increases the sales of the online store several times. This becomes especially important for those entrepreneurs who offer regular services: hosting, commercial television, training programs, access to any resources.