You are right, that it's easy to link to you bank to make the payment, and I bit the bullet and did that. But when I have 18 other monthly bills that I can pay through my bill payer, it is, long-term, a hassle to need to remember that one other bill is paid through some other method. Because my account was past-due, my PayPal debit card using SmartConnect as backup didn't work yesterday. I called support today to try to figure out if it would work now that my payment has been made. The PayPal debit support guy didn't seem to understand the problem and sent me to GE Credit support. The GE Credit support woman asked for my account number. I said that I didn't know my account number, because they didn't like to make it available. She insisted I need it to continue. I insisted that I needed assistance but didn't have it. I think she had to override protocol to continue. Then she told me I can't use SmartConnect except online. I explained how PayPal debit cards supposedly work, or have worked for me for five years or so. She said she needed to send me back to PayPal. I explained how I had already been on hold for 20 minutes with Paypal and they had forwarded me to her. Finally, she took a look at something and said my problem should be gone now that I've made a payment. The whole SmartConnect operation is a clusterf*ck. As soon as I can afford to, I will pay off that balance and never use this service again. Oh, and the GE woman just had to offer me the credit protection service before I could get off the phone. PayPal and GE Credit are horrible.
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