Track and Pay Your City of Lawton, Oklahoma Water Bill Online

Utility companies have perfected the art of tacking on fees for late payments, charging seemingly small amounts that can add up in a hurry. While Americans pay nearly $3 trillion overall in recurring payments each year, late fees are nickel-and-dimed customers and badly damage user credit. But instead of relying on memory for your Lawton water bill, there are much better ways to avoid credit damage and costly late fees that can hold you back financially.

Paying Your Lawton Water Bill With DoNotPay

While many utility companies charge one or two percent for late payment, you can expect to pay a 10% late fee if your Lawton water bill isn't paid on time. Making matters even worse, research finds that a single missed payment of 30 days can even result in a credit score drop of 100 points or more. That's a tremendous penalty for a simple mistake.

But there's also a simple method to avoid paying a late fee ever again. If you want to set up recurring check payments but don't know where to start, DoNotPay has you covered in 6 easy steps:

1. Go to the Bill Pay product on DoNotPay.

2. Connect a bank account if you haven't already.

3. Schedule recurring or one-time payments by entering the person you want to address the check to, the payment amount, and their mailing address.

4. Customize the payment with a PDF attachment, image, and memo.

5. Enter your contact information, including email, address, and phone number.

6. Submit your task! DoNotPay will mail the check on your behalf, and make sure it gets sent each recurring period if you set up recurring payments. You can always return to the product to delete or add new payments.

While hefty 10% fees can turn into a sizeable source of revenue for a water department, DoNotPay can help put you back in the driver's seat with your Lawton water bill. DoNotPay will send out your check on time every single pay period and allow you to quickly make changes within its easy-to-use platform.

Much like grabbing a free Netflix trial with a virtual credit card, DoNotPay can keep you one step ahead of the bill collectors by turning deadlines into nonevents. You can also put all your recurring payments in one place for easy monitoring.

Creating Your Account and Finding Your Lawton Water Bill Information

The first step in using DoNotPay for your bill payment is to create an account. Once you have an account, you will be able to use the services to do various tasks with your Lawton water bill information, including:

Paying Your Lawton Water Bill on Your Own

Paying your water bill on time every month can be done, though you should be ready for red tape and convenience fees. If you're paying with a credit card—the easiest direct method for paying a Lawton water bill—you can expect to pay a fee that will increase as your bill goes up; the cutoff is $300 for Lawton before convenience fees increase. You can also mail or deliver a check every pay period, although this tends to be a recipe for late payments.

If you're looking to set up auto payments directly with the Lawton water department, here's what you need to do:

1. Complete the bank draft form on the company website
2. Attach a voided check.
3. Mail or drop off the appropriate forms.
4. Contact customer service to make sure auto-payments were initiated.
5. Monitor your checking account to ensure correct payments are withdrawn.

It's critical to make sure your auto-payment request was not only received but initiated; if a mistake is made and you miss a payment, you will likely spend time reaching out to customer service and will possibly have to repeat the process.

If you go directly to the water company for auto payments, also keep the following in mind:

• Watch out for overdrafting
• Know the processing time for payments
• Look out for payment mistakes
• Monitor the company for changing fee structures

Although designed for convenience, auto payments directly with a utility company still need to be closely monitored. Overdrafting from your account is a common drawback of autopay. If your checking account is too low, it may be difficult to halt payment with a utility company, leading to costly additional fees. Research finds that the average American pays $117 in overdrafting fees every year—on top of the $132 wasted annually on late fees.

Meanwhile, you also need to figure out what the payment processing time is, as it can also lead to late payments and additional fees. Customers should monitor for payment mistakes from processing, which can be time-consuming to correct. With DoNotPay, however, payment changes can be quickly made before problems even occur—and all without having to contact customer service.

Beyond Late Water Bill Payments: Costs of Credit Hits

Missed or late payments for a utility bill is an easy way to ding your credit, which can be much more expensive than associated late fees. While CNBC estimates Americans pay $132 in late fees every year, the loss associated with credit damage is an eye-popping $301 annually. Credit problems can lead to higher mortgage rates and car payments, issues with renting houses and apartments, and difficulties saving for retirement, among other things.

Mortgage and Car-Loan Rates After Missing Water Bill Payments

Having bad or average credit can be incredibly costly—especially when you're looking to make larger purchases like a house or car. Research estimates that the average person can easily lose tens of thousands of dollars for a 30-year mortgage loan due to lowered credit. For a car, a negative credit event could mean missing out on a great promotional deal or simply not being able to get financing at all. Simply put, if you already have bad credit, it can still get worse with just one late utility payment. And if you have good credit, your days of excellent interest rates could quickly end from one careless mistake.

Renting After a Hit to Your Credit

Credit checks are usually a fundamental part of renting a house or apartment, which can put a strain on someone with bad credit. If you have an ongoing dispute with a water company over a late payment, for example, you could easily have to pay a larger deposit for a housing unit than you would have before the dispute. And that's if you can even get the apartment/house at all. You also may have to find a co-signer or even spend time rehabbing your credit simply to be able to apply for new housing.

Troubleshooting if There Is an Error in Your Water Bill Payment

Utility companies provide an essential service—don't expect quick resolutions from customer relations reps if there is a problem. Customer service times are even worse than usual due to the pandemic, so resolving an issue with your Lawton water bill or payment takes a considerable amount of time.

Instead, you will have a leg up on your Lawton water bill by using your web browser to set up a DoNotPay account. By scheduling your payment with DoNotPay, you end up with a much higher degree of control than dealing directly with a utility company. With DoNotPay's services, you can easily switch accounts, halt a payment, alter your payment date, or access payment records with just a couple of clicks.

For help with streamlining your utility bill or with other items like license plate assistance, here is an incomplete list of what DoNotPay can assist you with:

• Pay by Plate MA
• Suddenlink
• Dominion
• MediaCom
• Charter
• Washington Gas
• Duke Energy
• National Fuel
• GA Power
• Alabama Power

DoNotPay can help you in a ton of ways beyond just bill payments. We offer a variety of services you may find useful.

1. Paying or challenging your parking tickets
2. Getting you your chargebacks or refunds
3. Canceling subscription services and more
4. Canceling credit cards
5. Finding missing money you're owed

For everything from initiating a property tax appeal to managing free trials and auto payments, DoNotPay is the platform to help you take control of your finances. Get started with DoNotPay today.