Recently I barely avoided a potential financial disaster. Like many people who bank online and try to automate their life, all of my bills are paid through my online banking. Month after month for several years I’ve had complete faith in knowing that my bills were paid in full and on time.

Until recently…

Even though my bills are paid automatically, I still find paper statements in my mailbox every month. Like clockwork, I check my mail and there it is. Knowing that it is just a bill that will be taken care of by my trusty online banking setup, I proceed to toss the bill in the shredder without looking at it.

Last week was different. For some odd reason, I had a minute in my life with absolutely nothing to do. So I decided to kill time by actually looking at my mail. It took 30 seconds to turn nothing to do to a raging headache that made me late for my weekend travels.

I looked at my mortgage statement and noticed that I was past due on my payment and had a $50 late fee assessed. I figured it had to be a mistake and promptly got on the phone with customer service.

This “mistake” ended with me driving to my branch to speak with my personal banker in order to get everything fixed. Turns out the property value of my house was re-assessed and the escrow payment my bank requires me to pay increased. Since my automatic bill payment sent a partial payment for the old amount, my bank considered the payment outstanding.

In the end there was no harm done other than my blood pressure going through the roof, but of course this could have been completely avoided if I took the time to open my bills.

Long story short, just because my bills are being payed automatically, I’ll be sure to not get too comfortable in knowing everything is being taken care of. In the end, it’s ultimately my responsibility to make sure my bills are paid on time and in full – not my computer’s.