One of the Biggest Mobile Carriers Now Lets Your Family Members Help Pay the Bill

AT&T is introducing a new feature that automatically splits and texts members of a phone plan when the bill is due. This makes managing bill payments easier for the primary account holder and also ensures that everyone pays their part of the phone bill.

AT&T SplitPay Allows Other Users to Directly Pay Their Share of the Bill

This feature is calledAT&T SplitPay, and you can set it up directly on the AT&T website or app. Once the feature is set up, the company will text the users you designate as payers when a bill is due. They can then tap on the link in the message and pay their share of the bill directly to AT&T. The payment link will send the payer directly to AT&T’s secure site; they can settle the bill directly on that page without needing to sign in.

While this makes splitting your phone bill much easier, note that it still doesn’t get you off the hook if one of your members doesn’t pay up. The company says that if the total balance is not settled on time, “a late payment fee will be added to the bill and wireless service on the account may be suspended.”

Furthermore, you cannot use the SplitPay feature if you use AutoPay with a credit card. If you want to use it, you’ll have to switch your AutoPay payment method to a bank account or debit card. The company also said that only devices that can receive text messages should be enrolled in SplitPay. After all, if the enrolled payer cannot receive AT&T’s notification and payment link, then they cannot settle it.

Aside from easily splitting your phone bill, AT&T SplitPay also makes it easy to track individual payments and even resend a payment notification if one of your payers still hasn’t settled their share. However, once the pay-by date passes, the payment link will no longer work, so the individual payer must coordinate with the primary account holder to settle the bill.

This feature helps make AT&T one ofthe best mobile carriers, especially if you’re splitting a single phone line with your siblings or adult kids. But if you’re already out of contract and only pay for your plan, you shouldconsider switching to an MVNO to save some money.