Online Bill Pay

When it comes to paying bills, I have found that using the computer to pay my bills makes things a lot easier for me.

Many of my bills are sent to me electronically. This saves concern with having bills left in the mailbox or misdirected mail. It also reduces paper usage - think of all of those extra ads and inserts that come in a normal bill. With electronic notifications, typically a notice is sent that I have a bill available and I can log onto the company's website and view my bill. As an added bonus, most companies also allow me to view recent bills, sometimes as far back as 18 mos or more. I like this, it saves me from having to print and have lots of paper copies on file. In addition, many of the websites feature reminder notifications that you can set up - to alert you activity on your account, payment reminders, payment verification, etc.

Many of my bills are able to be paid through the biller's website. The ones I like best are the ones that let me schedule my payment. This way, I don't have to remember to log on on a specific date to pay my bill, I simply can set and forget. Plus, I get to keep my money in my account until the bill is due. When I was mailing bills, I always felt like I needed to mail it a little bit early to make sure that it was received on time. In addition, once again, there is no need to worry about misdirected mail or your payment getting there late.

Those that can't be paid through the biller's website, I use my bank's online bill pay feature to pay. The biggest challenge I have with my current bank's online bill pay system is that they send a paper check to the biller. As a result, you have to schedule it about a week in advance. My old bank, before we moved, would try to set up an EFT with any of the billers that they could. This way, it became an electronic payment instead of having to mail a paper check.

Paying bills online saves me time and money, and that works for me.

For more tips and tricks, check out Works for Me Wednesday.