How to pay your AT&T bill or BellSouth bill

AT&T offers its customers a variety of ways to pay their AT&T bill, ranging from the traditional and basic method of mailing in a check to an AT&T payment remittance center, to perhaps the newest and most futuristic method of paying by texting a message from your mobile phone.  AT&T's goal is to make enough payment options available to make it convenient for everyone to make their AT&T payment.  We won't spend any time focused on paying with a check sent through the mail, since we assume that readers know how to do that already.

All of these options can be accessed from the AT&T website by going to the AT&T online account services and support page. 

View your current AT&T bills and past statements

AT&T allows you to view your current AT&T bill as well as past statements.  The default ebill view shows current payment and charges due, last payment received amount and date, and a statement summary.

If you are viewing your AT&T wireless bill, you will see information on wireless minutes used as well as a breakdown of the various fees that comprise your AT&T bill.  If you want more detail than is provided in the summary view, you can link over to view the full bill online.

 

The default bill is your current AT&T bill, but historical bills can be viewed by selecting the desired statement period from the drop down list.

There is a Make a Payment button on the page that allows you to pay your AT&T bill electonically right from this page. 

Should you want to sign up for AT&T paperless billing and save some trees, stamps and time, you can do that on the AT&T website.  With AT&T paperless billing, you receive a notification via email every month when your statement is available online.  Then you can login and review your bill, print it, or download it to your computer to print at a later time.   Click here for more information on how paperless e-billing works.

Making an AT&T online payment

One of the easiest and quickest ways to make an AT&T payment is by doing so directly from the AT&T website via the Make a Payment button or link.   Note that you will have to be logged into your AT&T account in order to do this.  You are presented with a page that requires 3 steps to complete.   Note that the due date for the payment is set to current date, so you cannot future date a payment.

  • Step 1 - Enter the payment amount that you want to pay to AT&T, and select whether you want to make your AT&T payment via checking/savings account, credit/debit account, or by using a gift card.  Note that you can choose to pay an amount less than or greater than the full amount due at any given time.
  • Step 2 - If you are paying via checking/savings account, you are prompted to enter your bank account routing and transit account information along with your bank account number.  The routing and transit information can be found at the bottom of the paper checks that are issued to you by your bank, or your bank will be happy to provide you with the correct information.  If you are paying via credit/debit card, you have to enter the usual credit/debit card information such as card number, expiration date, and card security code.  Paying by gift card requires that you provide much of the same card information that is needed when paying with credit or debit card.
  • Step 3 -  The final step is just to confirm the payment information entered on prior screens, and accept the AT&T payment terms and conditions.  After you click the Submit button, your AT&T online payment is complete.

Another option for making an online payment to AT&T is to use a bank-based electonic bill pay service.  Click here for more information on paying your bills online.

AT&T AutoPay payments

If you sign up to make your AT&T payment using the AT&T AutoPay service, you are authorizing AT&T to either automatically charge your debit or credit card each month for the amount of your AT&T bill, or you are authorizing AT&T to generate an ACH payment draft from your checking or savings account every month on your payment due date.  Autopay services can be a handy way to ensure that your bills are paid on time every month without you having to lift a finger to do so, but you have to be sure that you have sufficient funds in your bank account or adequate credit available on your credit card for this to work for you.

The down side to autodebit programs such as this is that they can sometimes be a bit of a pain to turn off, as you may have to contact a customer service representative to disable autopay.  Also, if there is an issue with the amount of your monthly bill from AT&T and you want to dispute some of the charges on your statement, it likely will be difficult for you to get timely agreement from AT&T to not draft your bank account in any particular month for the full amount due.

To read more about how auto debit programs work, click here. 

Paying your AT&T bill using your wireless phone

AT&T offers a couple of different ways to pay your AT&T bill by using your wireless phone.  These options may be useful for those that travel often and may want to take advantage of being able to pay your bills from anywhere while away from home.

AT&T TXT-2-Pay 

The TXT-2-Pay service allows you to enroll for a text message reminder that arrives on your mobile device six days prior to when your AT&T bill is due.  You can immediately see your balance due amount and pay your AT&T bill by simply responding with a free outbound text message back to AT&T from your handset.

You set up the service to pay your bill to AT&T on receipt of your text message to them from either you checking/savings account or your credit/debit card.

*PAY

If you dial *pay from your AT&T wireless device, you can use your phone to check available minutes, inquire regarding your outstanding balance, or make a payment.  To make a payment using the *Services feature from AT&T, you dial *PAY (*729) on your phone, and press the Send key.  You will be connected to an automated voice system that will guide you through the process of paying your current AT&T bill.

In person payments to AT&T

You can make in person payments to AT&T by visiting an AT&T wireless phone retail location.  Alternatively, you can make a cash payment to AT&T by visiting a Western Union Agent location, or a CheckFreePay Agent location.

Paying your AT&T bill at your bank

Many people choose to pay their AT&T bill using the free electronic bill pay services that are offered by virtually all of the major banks in the United States.  The advantage of paying this way is that you can consolidate all of your bill paying activity at a single website, rather than needing to login each month to various biller sites.  This also means that all of your bill pay history remains in one place as well, which can be useful when you find you need to research past payment activity.  Most of the major banking bill pay sites also support the ability for you to receive electronic bills, so going paperless is not a problem.

On the negative side, you'll typically need to build in some lead time for scheduling your payment to arrive by the biller's due date.  This lead time allows the bank bill pay system to process your payment and transmit it over to the biller.  If the bank has an electronic connection with the biller, the lead time can be as little as 1 day.  If they don't, then they may require that you schedule your payment as much as 5 days in advance of your payment due date to give them time to generate a paper check on your behalf and mail it to the biller.

Learn about online bill pay providers such as Bank of America and MyCheckFree.