It's a short post, but something I just had to share with you.

From ABC News:

In a twist of irony, a West Virginia woman is trying to collect money from a collection agency. Diana Mey, of Wheeling, W. Va., won the largest judgment ever against an abusive debt collection company — more than $10 million.

"I'm a mom, and I'm a housewife, and I'm an accidental activist," Mey said.

From her small-town home base in Wheeling, Mey went after a debt collection empire that hounds people nationwide and won. But she still hasn't received any money.

"I don't know that I'll ever collect a dime, but if I can get their operation shut down, that would make me very happy."

Watch the video.

I mentioned it briefly in my last post about Verizon's $2 online billpay fee (which has since been canned due to public and FCC response), but it looks like 2012 is shaping up to be the year credit cards see a legitimate challenger in online e-commerce.

Since the Internet's inception, credit cards have been the primary means buying things online, whether it's through standard e-commerce shopping carts or through a third-party processor like PayPal or Google Checkout. Obviously, the "security" credit cards provide and the relative ease of the transaction has made them the default purchase method, but more and more, it looks like bank accounts are on the rise as payment method.

Here's an example of a notification I received when making a payment using my debit card via my PayPal account, which is linked up to both my debit card as well as my bank account.

You're choosing not to pay with a bank account. Please note that both bank account and credit card payments are sent instantly, and account numbers are never exposed to the merchant.

You'll also find that transactions paid with a bank account:

• Will not accrue credit card finance charges.
• Let you stay in control of spending and avoid credit card debt.

No matter how you pay, you get 100% protection against unauthorized payments sent from your account.

Do you want to make this payment with your bank account?

Sure seems like PayPal would rather you pay with your bank account and not with your credit card, and as much as we'd like to think it's because they don't want to accrue credit card debt, that's obviously not the reality. (In fact, I was using a debit, not credit, card.)

The credit card industry has had their hand in almost every e-commerce transaction over the past 15 years, taking a little bit here and a little bit there. Over that amount of time, it adds up to a ton of profits for them and lost money for merchants.

I think we're going to see some real growth in non-credit card based online transactions in 2012. It's going to be fun to watch.

Verizon has announced that they will begin charging customers a $2 fee for paying their bills online via credit card, in order to "continue to support these single bill payment options in these channels and is designed to address costs incurred by us for only those customers who choose to make single bill payments in alternate payment channels (online, mobile, telephone)," the company says.

While the fee applies to one-time online payments, there will be no charges for using the company's AutoPay option, which will pay your bill automatically each month via either credit/debit card or directly from your bank account.

Not totally surprisingly, there was a lot of uproar online about the new fees, with GigaOm calling it an "excessive" charge.

But $2 not only seems excessive; it runs counter to the policy that Verizon and all service providers – whether wireless, wireline, cable or utility – have implemented in recent years: cutting the enormous cost of issuing and sending paper bills and processing hand-written checks.

One of Verizon's obvious goals is to get people to enroll in AutoPay, in order to ensure that they get paid each month and have fewer customers to chase for payments.

Since the AutoPay option still accepts credit cards (meaning Verizon still has to pay credit card processing fees), they can't just argue the change is just about processing fees, says GigaOm. However, according to the NY Times:

Those one-time payments cost Verizon money since it must pay merchant fees to card companies and others. The amount it costs Verizon to accept cards in stores could be less because of quirks in how the card companies set fees. It may also be willing to swallow the costs of accepting cards in its stores in exchange for the opportunity to sell upgrades to people who come in to pay their bills.

Surely, many of the folks who enroll in AutoPay use their bank accounts to make the automatic payments and not their credit cards. That also reduces the costs for Verizon, and I think points to a bigger trend coming down the pipe in the industry.

New services like Dwolla (which I need to cover more in the future) facilitate bank-to-bank payments, going around the credit card companies and the associated fees. Any consumer or merchant wants as few hands as possible on every transaction, because it means fewer costs to do the transaction. That's likely something Verizon is looking at, as well.

Honestly, I don't really mind the new Verizon fee. You can say it's silly, because they don't charge a fee to come into a store and pay your bill (where there are a ton of overheads costs — people, the store, etc.). But the folks who come into the store to pay their bills most of the time wouldn't be paying online, anyway, and forcing them to make that switch by adding in-store fees would result in a bigger backlash than this effort.

What do you think? Is Verizon in the wrong, or is this a legitimate business decision?

I'm not going to spend the time linking back to posts where I argue that you shouldn't listen to so-called 'experts' when it comes to investing or stock picking – I've talked about it so much that if you haven't gotten the message yet, you're on your own.

But yet again, there's irrefutable proof that even the folks the financial media and institutions hold up as investing 'experts' can make some really bad calls.

As reported in the December 2011 issue of Money magazine, three so-called experts made horrible investing choices this past year.

Who: Bond guru Bill Gross

His call: Earlier this year Gross announced that he had dumped Treasuries out of Pimco Total Return (PTTRX), the world's largest fixed-income fund. He believed yields would rise and prices fall once the Fed ended bond purchases (a.k.a. QE2).

What happened: Yields sank and prices rose as risk-averse investors sought the safety of government bonds. Pimco, among the top 13% of bond funds over 10 years, tumbled to the bottom 10% year to date.

Who: Wall Street analyst Meredith Whitney

Her call: In late 2010, Whitney, who had called the financial crisis, predicted on "60 Minutes" that loads of cities were at risk of defaulting on bond obligations worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

What happened Only $760 million worth of munis have defaulted so far in 2011, down from 2010's $2.4 billion, per Standard & Poor's. Meanwhile, munis have returned 8.1% vs. 6.8% for taxable bonds.

Who: Bruce Berkowitz, Morningstar's U.S. stock fund manager of the decade

His call: Berkowitz was so confident that financials like Bank of America and Citigroup were on the road to recovery that he kept 75% of his Fairholme fund in them. (To be fair, MONEY was also bullish on financials.)

What happened Banks have been the year's worst-performing sector. Fairholme is down 23.4%; its peers are down an average 1.6%.

In a survey conducted this year, researchers found out that four out of five households with Internet access now use online banking. This new way to keep track of your finances has become somewhat of a norm in our society, but the few who do not take advantage of this option have made accusations about banking online.

To help weed out some of these accusations, here are ten myths about online banking.

Myth 1: Your Money Is Not Safe If You Bank Online
A very common myth about online banking is that your money is not secure. However, the reputable companies who provide online banking are committed to protecting their customers' account information in every way. User names and passwords are used for verification purposes, and most sites will log the user off automatically after the account is inactive for a certain length of time.

Data encryption and firewalls are also used to keep the customers' information safe. A study by the Center for a New American Security showed that banks are always looking for new technology to prevent fraud and alert them to fraudulent activities.

A Better Business Bureau (BBB) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) study found that online banking users discovered fraudulent charges on their own 68.2% of the time. As explained by a Jevalin report, this is because online banking users are four times more likely to actively monitor their banking activities over non-online banking users. This is why the series of regulations called "Reg E" were established by the Federal Reserve.

These regulations limit consumer liability in the instance of fraud. If a consumer detects fraud within two days, they are only responsible for the first $50 of fraudulent charges, and they become more financially responsible the longer it takes them to detect the problem.

Myth 2: You Lose Customer Service With Online Banking
The second myth is that customer service is not available with online banking. Banks actually want their customers to use online banking because it is more cost effective and easier for them to conduct business. This is why most banks encourage online banking by providing special online support services, some of which are even better than the bank's regular customer service support.

Myth 3: Online Banking Is Expensive
Some consumers my think that online banking terms and conditions are subject to changes not used with non-online banking. This is quite simply not true. Online banking actually saves the average consumer $1,100 in paper checks and postage, according to the BBB and FTC study. Also, the time and money spent traveling to a bank branch is eliminated.

Myth 4: Online Banking Is Time-Consuming
Another common concern is that online banking is time-consuming. At first, it may be difficult for a new customer to get to know their way around the bank's online system, but after a few visits to the site, they can complete common tasks much more quickly. According to the same BBB and FTC study mentioned above, online banking has the potential save the average customer up to 60 hours in their lifetime.

Myth 5: Online Banking is Complicated
Potential customers may worry that the process of banking online is confusing, but most find that the confusion is only temporary. As mentioned before, after a few visits to the site, the customer becomes more familiar with the system, and they are able to complete tasks much easier. Banks design their websites with the customer in mind, and they make sure to provide a site that can be easily navigated. If a customer is confused, customer support services are easy to find.

Myth 6: You Cannot Trust Online Banking
Due to many of the myths listed above, many consumers don't trust online banking. They believe that making a mistake will cause them to loose money. As I have said, banks want customers to use their online services. Therefore, the companies have devoted themselves to solving problems with customer service.

Myth 7: Banking Offline Is More Convenient
Banks have made online banking much more convenient than offline banking. One of the best parts of online banking is that the banks' websites are available all day, every day. A customer could check their balances, see images of cleared checks, and pay bills, even in the middle of the night. Banks have also started to use mobile applications to help customers do their banking wherever they have cell phone service.

Some banks have even developed an application that allows the customer to deposit checks from their cell phones.

Myth 8: Virtual Banks are Unstable
Another myth that may concern customers is the possibility of their virtual bank being shut down and their money going with them. The truth is that any customer of any Federal Deposit Insurance Coverage (FDIC) insured bank is covered for up to $250,000. Every customer gets this same protection if their virtual bank or their physical bank closes, as long as it is insured by the FDIC.

Myth 9: Transactions Made Online Take Too Long
Some consumers believe that online transactions will take longer than if they made the same transaction in a physical bank. Every bank has a different system, but according to Bankrate.com, "Online bank sites generally execute and confirm transactions at or quicker than ATM processing speeds."

Myth 10: Virtual Banks Do Not Give Physical Checks
Most customers still want the ability to write physical checks, but think that they won't be able to do so with online banking. While this statement used to be true, ING Direct, the world's largest bank, recently started providing customers with checks due to customer demand. It is possible that many other online banks will follow in their footsteps.

Beth Montgomery is a writer on various consumer finance topics including credit cards for people with fair credit. Beth welcomes your comments at her email beth.montgomery87-AT-gmail.com

I know you've been waiting patiently for the last few chapters for the ebook – so here we go.

With smartphones, SMS and apps, it's easier than ever to get automatic updates delivered straight to you wherever you are. Let's set those up today.

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Believe it or not, you are almost completely financially automated!

You've got your income automated, your savings automated, your billpay automated, and your spending automated. That's amazing!

But now that the processes are in place, you need to set up easy ways to track your performance. For that, we return to Yodlee.

How to Get Budget and Spending Email Alerts

Yodlee offers the option to notify you by email when your spending in a category hits a certain percentage of your budget goal.

So if you've spent 90% of your entertainment budget with half the month left, you can re-evaluate your plans for the next two weeks. It's a great reminder that you need to act smart in addition to putting smart processes into place.

To set up budget alerts, log in to Yodlee and head to "Spending Reports" then "Set Budget Goals." At the top of the page, you'll see a checkbox next to text that says "Notify me when my spending for any category exceeds __% of my budget goal."

You need to determine your own tolerance for spending. Do you need reminders every 10% or 25% to better track your spending? Or can you live with an alert only when you hit 100%? Enter your choice into the blank field, click the checkbox, and then click the "Save Changes" button at the bottom of the page.

You'll notice there is also an option to "Send me a status report summarizing my spending versus my budget." You can choose either a weekly or monthly report. Again, decide how often you want to know your status.

A monthly report gives you a full picture of your performance, but you may want to get more frequent updates.

Choose your selection and click "Save Changes" at the bottom of the page.

Get Alerts by SMS Text Message

Yodlee also offers the option to send text message alerts (in addition to email) when a number of events occur, including:

• Changes in net worth
• Portfolio balance changes
• Money is deposited or withdrawn
• Your balance changes
• A new bill is received

To set up these alerts, head to the "Options" menu and click "Customize." Follow the "Configure Alerts" link to get the whole list.

Add in your mobile number (if you want text messages), select the alerts you'd like and customize them appropriately. Click the "Update Alerts" button and you're good to go.

Mobile Banking Offers More Tracking Options

An up-and-coming option for tracking your money is mobile banking, using your cell phone to log in to your accounts and aggregators.

While options at banks vary, generally, mobile banking gives you the ability to:

• check your balances and activity
• transfer money
• pay bills

Services like Yodlee even offer mobile versions for use on a cell phone, allowing you to access to all of your accounts and to check your net worth.

The most popular new platform for mobile banking is Apple's iPhone, where a number of financial applications have launched and succeeded. Mint, an account aggregator, offers an application for managing and checking your account.

Banks have even gotten into the act, offering their own applications for account access.

TIP: How often you want to be notified of activity depends a lot on your confidence in your own habits. Don't be afraid to get updates more frequently if you are worried about your spending. After a month or two, re-evaluate your standing and consider changing the alert frequency.

There's almost no spiffy commentary I can offer about today's chapter.

Direct deposit makes life easier. If you have access to it, then you should use it. There's almost no reason not to use it if you can.

That's it. Read today's chapter and get it done!

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Today most employers offer direct deposit for their employees' paychecks.

It seems like a no-brainer – who wouldn't want their income added to their bank account automatically on payday – but still, not everyone uses it.

Make the changes at work to ensure that you have direct deposit set up. This will ensure your money is available when your bills are scheduled to be paid and your savings transferred.

Having the income automatically deposited into your account removes an extra layer of management; you don't have to find the time to go to the ATM and deposit your check or worry about having enough for scheduled transfers.

People Who Use Direct Deposit Save More Money

According to a study by NACHA – the Electronic Payments Association, people who use direct deposit and direct payment save $90 more per month on average than those who don’t.

"People who save using electronic payments are usually more consistent and committed savers,” said Diane Freeman, 2007 chairman of MMG and FedACH product manager at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

“Once you set up Direct Deposit or Direct Payment, the money goes into your savings account automatically each month. You are less likely to notice the deduction if this happens automatically versus manually.”

Having direct deposit is not necessarily responsible for that extra savings, but by making the financial process one-step simpler, it's easier to save.

With Instant Deposits, You're Not Losing Interest

If you have an interest-bearing checking account or a portion of your paycheck is being transferred to an online savings account, carrying around a check can actually be costing you money.

Think about it: when you have a check in your wallet or purse (or even a large amount of cash, for that matter), it's not making any interest. Your money can't work hard for you when it's going everywhere you do.

You don't need to wait until your check clears like when you deposit it at an ATM. The money is there and it's yours.

Setting up direct deposit doesn't take long at all; talk to your human resources department about getting it set up today. You only need to do it once, and then you're done.

TIP: One of the obvious benefits of direct deposit is that you'll never lose your paycheck. Why bother taking the chance that you'll misplace a big check? It's just not worth it.

Beyond the obvious financial benefits, Automatic Finances provides you with something that everyone desires: simplicity.

You've got fewer bills you have to remember to pay. You don't have to remember to save … it happens automatically. And today, you're going to get rid of the stacks of paper that always end up creating a mess on your desk or in your house.

It's the beauty of today's payment options. You don't need paper bills or statements. Get rid of them!

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Remember those stacks of paper you gathered way back on Day 1 to organize your finances? It's time to stop building those piles up.

When your financial life happens online, there's no need to waste the paper, stamps and shoeboxes to print out, mail and store months and years of bills, pay stubs and statements.

In an age when going green is more and more important, many banks and service providers offer digital options for your paperwork.

For your banks, bills and other recurring services, log on to their Web sites and look for the link to "stop your paper bill," "sign up for e-delivery" or something similar.

Why Going Paperless is a Win-Win-Win Situation

Ending the influx of paper bills and statements and instead receiving PDF versions works out for everyone, from you to the service provider to the garbage man.

• You: With paperless statements, you can more easily organize, find and store your financial records. You won't be overflowing with paper – much of it you'll never need. And when you do need a statement, it's easier to search a digital archive than to sift through a closet or drawers for one sheet of paper.
• Bank/Provider: Banks and service providers love paperless billing options because it saves them tons of money. They don't have to pay for the countless sheets of paper, the mailing envelopes, and stamps. Often, when you go paperless and switch to e-delivery, some of the savings will be passed on to you.
• The Garbage Man: Chances are, you're probably shredding or throwing out a bunch of your bills anyway. That by itself is a reason to switch to paperless billing. But did you know that 18.5 million trees could be saved each year if all U.S households banked online? It's true, according to the Electronic Payments Network.

Three Paperless Options Beyond Your Bills

There are even more options available to go paperless:

• Scan and Deposit Your Checks – Some banks, like USAA's Deposit@Home, allow their members to take the checks they need to deposit, scan them on their home scanner, upload them to the Internet, and then deposit them into their account. It's not a widely offered feature among banks, but it's available to some.
• Send Paper Checks – Some checking accounts, like ING Direct's Electric Orange, offer the ability to send paper checks online. They write the check, pay for the stamp and lick the envelope – you simply put in the amount and who it's going to.
• Transfer Money Online – If you need to make a payment to someone online, services like PayPal connect to your bank account, grab the money and transfer the funds to another person online. While PayPal charges a fee, your bank may have a similar option for sending money to people who also are members.

 TIP: Living a paperless lifestyle also helps you avoid a big pain: going to the ATM. Even in a big city, your branch's closest ATM may not be that convenient. When your money is all digital, it gets where it's going a lot quicker than that check sitting in your wallet for the past two weeks.

I hate paying bills. But who doesn't?

It's so arcane to take a couple hours out of a beautiful day, or a night when you could be sleeping, or otherwise doing something fun or productive, and write a ton of checks and stuff a lot of envelopes and stick a lot of stamps.

Today, you're going to set your bills to pay themselves. And then you're going to spend the time you used to waste writing checks and do something fun instead.

Sounds pretty good, right?

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Today's the day you'll never forget to pay a bill again.

Most of the monthly recurring services you're using likely have a way to sign up for automatic payments where, once a month, on a specified date, money is taken from your bank account and applied to your bill.

You can likely do this for your:

• Mortgage/Rent
• Utilities
• Cable/Internet/Phone/Cell
• Insurance
• Car Payments
• Loans
• Credit Card

You've already set your savings to be transferred automatically; now it's time to do it for your bills.

The Easiest Way to Set up Auto Payments

While there are ways to tell your bank to make payments of a certain amount on a recurring basis, the easiest way to ensure that your bills are being paid precisely is to sign up with your service provider.

Head to the Web site of each of your fixed costs and look for a link that says something to the effect of "Autopay my bill" or "Sign up for automatic payments." Each of your services is likely to say something different, so you may have to do a little sleuthing.

When you're ready to set up the auto payments, have on hand the account information for your main checking/debit account.

Do this for each of your services. It will take a little bit of time, but it's worth it!

3 Reasons to Pay Your Bills Automatically

Having your bills basically pay themselves is one of the most convenient aspects of Automatic Finances. Beyond the convenience, here are three reasons to pay your bills automatically.

• Never Forget Another Bill – When your bills are set up with autopayments, you'll never forget to pay one again. You may have a great memory, but why bother taking the chance that you'll never mess up?
• No More Late Fees – When your bill gets paid on time every month, you'll never get a late fee. Even if you mail your check before the bill is due, what happens if the Post Office loses it? Don't risk paying more for a bill or getting stuck with a fee.
• Save Yourself Time – Your time is valuable. Do you really want to spend it sitting around, sorting through your mail, writing checks and licking envelopes?

Like many other services, your provider may offer you a break if you set up automated payments. Be sure to look for any deals or offers they have when you're signing up.

TIP: Keep track of what day of the month money will be withdrawn for your bills. You want to be sure that you aren't getting hit with every bill all at once, leaving you with little to no money in your main checking account for day-to-day purchases.

Since today's post is about automation again, I can use another picture of a robot. So here's a robot with a frog.

Automating your long-term savings is the key to protecting yourself … from yourself. When you're attacking a long-term goal, it's incredibly easy to procrastinate or convince yourself that something else is more important.

When it comes to retirement investing, automation also has a number of other benefits, which you'll learn about today.

Enjoy.

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Now that your retirement accounts are up and running, it's time to start the investment process – and keep it going.

While any retirement plan you have with your employer will automatically receive contributions directly from your paycheck, you'll need to set up automatic transfers to your other accounts, like your new Roth IRA.

Follow the instructions on your financial institution's Web site to begin your investments and set up automatic contributions, using the amount you have left in your flux account. If you'd like to be investing more – which is great! – make changes to your budget to allow for a higher retirement contribution.

(While we won't suggest an exact investing plan for you, you may be able to get by with as little as two funds. Read Paul B. Farrell's "The Lazy Person's Guide to Investing: A Book for Procrastinators, the Financially Challenged, and Everyone Who Worries About Dealing With Their Money" to find out more.)

How You Benefit From Automating Your Retirement Contributions

When you set your retirement contributions to automatically occur every month, there are a number of benefits, including:

• Dollar Cost Averaging – By spending the same amount of money on your investments every month, you buy less when the market is high and more when the market is low. This is called "dollar cost averaging" because, over time, the cost you spend per share averages out.
• No Temptation to Time the Market – If you're constantly monitoring the markets for the right time to invest your monthly retirement amount, you're playing a loser's game. Let your automated contributions happen on a regular schedule and you won't waste time trying to figure out when to invest.
• Fewer Fees – Some financial institutions will not charge certain fees when you are set up to automatically invest every month. Fees can eat up your savings overtime; whenever you can avoid them, it's worth it.

Why You Should Set It and Forget It

When you're investing for retirement, you're in it for the long term. Despite the up and downs of the stock market on any given day, week or month, you will not be using that money for years.

After you determine what you'll be investing in, and set it to happen on a regular occasion – once every other week, once a month, etc. – don't touch it.

Don't take a loan out against it. Don't pull it all out when the market drops. And don't throw money at it when it's going up. You've got a schedule set with automatic contributions – the last thing you need is to add human error into the mix.

Depending on your level of confidence, you may not want to check your retirement portfolio more than once a quarter or even once a year. Remember, it will go up and it will go down – but you're not using it anytime soon.

Use your judgment to decide how often you can stomach seeing the swings in your account.

TIP: While it can be easy to procrastinate contributing to your retirement, the longer you wait, the less money you'll have. Albert Einstein reportedly called compound interest – the money you make from the interest you earn – "the most powerful force in the universe." The earlier you start investing, the more time you have for compound interest to build your retirements.