<p>Does everyone enroll in the E-Bill service (MyBerkeleyApp keeps telling me to sign up for it on my checklist of things to do), or can we just write checks by hand and mail them to Berkeley...do we have to pay electronically into our CARS account? Seems like there's a fine or something for each E-check you submit. Anyone have any info on this?</p>
<p>You can just write checks. It's a trade-off. E-Bill charges you something like 50 cents per transaction. A stamp costs 37 cents or something like that. Walking to University Hall costs nothing except some time. Ideally, you'll have a bank with free online bill payment and you can pay through that service for free without having to walk anywhere or write any checks.</p>
<p>So it isn't necessary to do e-bill? If i set up a bank account, I will be able to do bill payments online so then there really is no extra cost right?</p>
<p>It is not necessary to do E-bill. If you set up a bank account, it <em>might</em> include online bill payments. I know for a fact that Bank of America offers this. I have no idea if others do. This you'll have to find out yourself. If they do offer this service, though, then there is no extra cost.</p>
<p>As of this last March, there is only electronic billing, so you need to sign up for e-bill. There are several options as to how to pay the bill, including e-check, online One Time Payment, your bank's online bill pay, checks, and money orders.</p>
<p>I believe you can do online payments. Bank of America offers the service for free.</p>
<p>Wait, so we do have to sign up for e-bill. But that's contrary to what you're saying if we can pay online through our bank. And I am under Bank of America.</p>
<p>Should I sign up for e-bill anyway? And then use my bank's online payment system?</p>
<p>confused.</p>
<p>OOOOH i think i get it. someone correct me if I'm wrong.</p>
<p>So the E-Bill service you must sign up for (unless you want to pay by mailed checks or whatever). This E-Bill service in itself does not cost any money; it is the E-Check method (which is one of the ways you can choose to actually pay into your CARS account after you've signed up for E-Bill itself) that costs some $$ per check you send electronically.</p>
<p>So if you have a Bank of America student checkings account (which is what I have) I believe you get free online bill pay (<a href="http://www.bankofamerica.com;%5B/url%5D">www.bankofamerica.com;</a> login and check it out). So we can use that free online bill pay + E-Bill and not have to pay anything. The E-Check service is for those whose bank accounts don't have online bill pay, I'm guessing, or who don't have bank accounts at all.</p>
<p>Once again, I MIGHT be wrong but this sounds correct to me.</p>
<p>You do not have to sign up for E-Bill. CARS is the service that tells you how much money you owe. You can pay that amount however you want. E-Bill is just a service provided by the University to pay. Once again, you do NOT have to sign up for E-Bill. It doesn't cost to sign up for it, though, it only costs to pay through it.</p>
<p>Okay so E-bill and E-check are the same thing?</p>
<p>Sorry, but I think eudean does not have it quite right. Below is an email from CARS regarding e-Bill. You do need to register for e-Bill so that you can see your statements</p>
<p>"A new CARS e-Bill statement is available for you to view. Effective
March2006, paper statements will no longer be mailed. CARS statements will
be available only through e-Bill."</p>
<p>To view your statement you need E-Bill. But CARS will tell you the minimum amount you owe at any given time directly from Bearfacts. You do not need E-Bill for this. I'm not saying you shouldn't sign up for E-Bill, since it costs nothing and is convenient, but you certainly don't need to in order to figure out when and how much you need to pay the university.</p>
<p>But once you sign up for E-Bill (which is free), then you can either pay using E-Check (which costs money) or have your bank account be free online bill pay.</p>