The US needs an automatic bill payment system with strong guarantees. In Britain, most people¹ pay bills (electricity, water, phone, internet, insurance, car l

The US needs an automatic bill payment system with strong guarantees. In Britain, most people¹ pay bills (electricity, water, phone, internet, insurance, car loan, credit card etc) by "Direct Debit"². (Most European countries have a similar system with similar guarantees, but this one is described in English.) If anything should go wrong, the bank must fix it. There's a list of direct debits in the bank's interface, and they can be cancelled/suspended with one click (or by phoning or going to the bank). It isn't perfect (see 3 from two weeks ago) but that sort of problem is rare enough that it was reported in newspapers. ¹ "Direct Debits are used by nine in ten UK consumers to pay some or all of their regular bills". ² https://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/Pages/DirectDebitGuarantee.aspx https://www.directdebit.co.uk/DirectDebitExplained/Pages/Dir... ³ https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/03/tsb-customers-double-charged-due-to-technical-error---here-s-wha/ https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/03/tsb-customers...