Paying Bills Through an Automated Paying Service
Question: Many banks offer a service whereby customers may instruct the bank to pay their utility (or other) bills on a specific date of the month. Should one refrain from using this service since eventually a payment will be made on his behalf on a Shabbos (or Yom Tov)?
Discussion: There is no halachic reason not to use this service. While it is true that eventually a payment date will fall on Shabbos, and one may not instruct a non-Jew — even before Shabbos — to perform a service on his behalf on Shabbos,[1] in this case there is no action performed by a non-Jew on Shabbos; the entire process from beginning to end is automated. The bill is paid through a computer transaction from one account to the other. There is no halachic restriction on having a machine perform a service on Shabbos on behalf of a Shabbos-observant Jew, if the machine is programmed in advance to do so.[2]
[1] O.C. 307:2. [Although in our case there is no direct command to pay the bill on Shabbos but rather to do so on a specific date of the month, it still would be prohibited to specifically tell a non-Jew to do so, since that date will, at one time or another, fall out on Shabbos. This is halachically considered as if he instructed the non-Jew to make payment on Shabbos; based on Igros Moshe, O.C. 3:44, s.v. aval.]
[2] O.C. 252:1.