Tell a payment you send from one they collect
Tell which of your regular payments you control and which the company controls, and know why that decides everything.
These two get used as though they mean the same thing. The difference decides what happens when you want the money to stop.
A scheduled payment is your instruction to your bank: you set the amount and the day, and you can change either whenever you like. Autopay is a company’s permission to collect from your account, and the company decides how much. One screen coming up has a row the other has not.
Nothing here refunds itself. If autopay ever takes something you did not agree to, tell your bank within 60 days of the statement showing it — that is the federal deadline, and missing it is what turns a refund into an argument.
Key points
- Open the list of payments that leave your account by themselves
- Tell a payment you set up from one a company collects, at a glance
- Say why canceling at the bank does not end an agreement
What to remember
- Every bank prints which sort it is on the row.
- Stopping the money and ending the agreement are two separate jobs.
Try this
Look up Regular payments in your own bank and read it right through. Most people find something they had forgotten.
Practice: Tell a payment you send from one they collect. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.