My Checkfree alerts coming through Charter have had problems, which caused me to miss a couple of due dates and cost me some late fees. I called the credit card companies to determine the problem, and at least got the error noted on my account as a communication account error. I do prefer using the mail servers as the messages are downloaded to MY computer and not retained on a server somewhere in the cloud where they can be hacked, but there do seem to be more problems beginning to appear there. Seems like the way to go(didn't say best) is to go ahead and use a pay for use account, and set up as POP where everything can be downloaded and deleted from their servers. BEST thing is to realize that NO electronic communication is secure, and NEVER send or say anything that you want to keep private!