We use HawkHost and so far, the hosting funds tend to be in the account and ready before the due date and the payment tends to come out regular at the time stated with no issues so we would definitely say they are reliable when it comes to having to pay 🙂
I always pay before the expiration date since I might have it not to renew to be not taken out of the account. My renewables tend to happen over the long Good Friday weekend with the sales on 😛
I talk via phone or emails to get a black Friday deal hahahaha
My payment processes always go through when it's time to renew, I never have issues with my host. 🙂 I make sure to have the money before hand so my site doesn't get taken offline. However, if for some reason I forgot to turn on automatic renewal, I get a email reminding me that my hosting is about to expire so I can pay it.
I actually use funds for the one host I still use and it works great. I just add money each month and they take what they need for each server as it becomes due. Until one day when the minimum deposit was $50 and the maximum was $15 and I emailed their support to get a "that is how it is" reply. Needless to say, I've gone from being a major fan of my host to just using them for side projects that already existed there.