I've had nothing but bad experiences with these automatic payment schemes and they ended up costing me more money than if I had mailed the check myself. What makes it even worse is there is no system in place to resolve disputes. No help from the banks, no help from the payee, and no help from any government agency. You're pretty much at the mercy of them sending you your money back whenever they feel like it.

When I moved across the Atlantic, my wife was much more comfortable with the system here. Every company sent you a form to do deductions and the bills arrived a few days, or weeks, before the deductions were processed. And they are easily reversible if something isn't settled. You've got to love a system that is fraught with abuse and little power for the consumer.