I’ve always resisted fully automating our finances.  Recently, however, I’ve had a change of heart.  Now, not only are most of our monthly bills paid online, but I’ve also automated deposits for savings, and payments towards our mortgage.

We have a power bill, a telephone bill, a satellite bill, and a cellphone bill.  Each of these is delivered electronically, via email.  The only “paper” bill that we receive is the one from our local water department.  With online and instant access to our accounts, it’s extremely easy to pay bills, check current balances, and keep things organized.  As the bills arrive in my inbox, I look them over, make sure that everything looks to be in order, and make payments via online bill pay.

Our bank allows us to not only pay bills via bill pay, but to receive them as well.  I recently used this service to automate the payment of our various automobile and life insurance payments.  Using this e-bill service, I never have to worry about stamps, envelopes, late fees, or due dates.  The bill arrives and it gets paid.  I also have the option to delay payment for a few days, so that I can review a particular invoice or bill.

I’ve even automated, through the bank’s bill pay feature, weekly payments for various services, like child care and kids’ gymnastics.  The checks are mailed directly and I never have to worry about remembering the checkbook.

Our cash reserves, somewhat depleted by the recent home purchase, are being rebuilt, one automated weekly deposit at a time.  Each week, a fixed amount is withdrawn from our primary checking and deposited, automatically, into our online savings account.  This “set it – and forget it” system really is a great way to rebuild savings.

The payments and deposits are all controlled by me, via online banking.  In other words, I haven’t given “pull” authority to any of the companies with which I do business.  My payments aren’t automatically deducted – but they are automatically sent.  I can cancel them, review them, or change them, any time I want.  I am in control.

Well, well.  Just a few days ago, it was announced that Citigroup was going to buy my bank, Wachovia.  Now, however, it looks like Wells Fargo will be buying Wachovia, not Citigroup.

As a customer, the following quote from Yahoo Finance makes me feel a little better about the new deal -

While Wells Fargo has logged three straight quarters of profit declines, the bank has been weathering one of the nation’s worst credit crises much better than most of its competitors, in part because it had less exposure to the subprime mortgages whose failure undermined the financial sector. (This quote has been removed from the original Yahoo Finance article.  See note at the bottom of this post.)

As a tax payer, it’s great to see that this deal will go through without government funding or FDIC funding.  Again, from Yahoo Finance -

The Citigroup deal would have been done with the help of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., but the Wells Fargo deal for Wachovia will be done without it. (This quote has been removed from the original Yahoo Finance article.  See note at the bottom of this post.)

This might not be the end of the Wachovia saga, but I feel much better than I did a few days ago.

Edit – Not one minute after I wrote this post, the information from Yahoo Finance changed.  It looks like Citigroup is upset about this deal and is claiming that it has an exclusive agreement with Wachovia.  Stay tuned.

In August of 2000, I opened a checking account with SouthTrust bank.  In 2004, SouthTrust was purchased by Wachovia.  Today, as I opened my browser to check my fantasy football scores, I was met with the news that Citigroup is now buying Wachovia.

I can’t say that I’m surprised, but I will say that I’m disappointed.  This didn’t have to happen.  Quoting from this story about the acquisition -

Wachovia’s problems stem largely from its acquisition of mortgage lender Golden West Financial Corp. in 2006 for roughly $25 billion at the height of the nation’s housing boom. With that purchase, Wachovia inherited a deteriorating $122 billion portfolio of Pick-A-Payment loans, Golden West’s specialty, which let borrowers skip some payments. (Emphasis mine.)

Now, it appears, that Wachovia, at least in its current form, will go away.  I’ll have to make a choice about whether to stay with the new company, Citigroup, or find another bank.

I’m getting sick and tired of reading about government bailouts, mortgage defaults, and bank failures.  All of this could have been avoided if companies had followed solid lending practices and consumers had followed solid borrowing practices.  Instead, companies and consumers fell in love with exotic lending and borrowing schemes, and now every tax payer will pay for their, combined, foolishness.