How to Pay Monthly Bills Online
The introduction of automatic bill pay has simplified countless lives. Now routine payments such as mortgages and credit cards can be set up and left to run on their own without taking the time or effort to write a check every month. And the best part of all, most banks now offer free online bill pay, so you’re effectively saving the value of all those stamps by paying monthly bills online.
Set up an Online Bank Account
To pay bills online, you must have a bank account that is linked to an online account. The easiest way to pay monthly bills online is to work with your own bank to set up payments rather than use a third party bill pay source. If you already have a bank account with an established bank, ask about accessing your account online and the availability of bill pay services. Once you have online access, provided your bank offers bill pay, you should be set to begin paying monthly bills online.
Organize Your Bills
If you normally pay bills as they come through the door, you need to add a new step to your regime for a month. Rather than pay that bill using a check, set up an account for the payee online in your new bill pay account. Entering the payee will take a few minutes, but you won’t have to do it again after they are set up in the system.
Set Up Payments
Once the payee is added, set up the payment. If this particular payee is an installment loan or balanced billing, there is no reason to not set up a repeating payment. A repeating payment means the same amount is going to the same payee at the same time every week, month, or even year. Mortgages, minimum credit card payments, car loans, cable bills, cell phone bills, phone bills, student loan payments and more can all be set up as repeating payments.
Once the repeating payment is set up correctly to leave the account on the correct day every month, you don’t have to worry about that payment again. It will automatically be paid every month whether you take the time to login to your online bank account or not.
Other payments, such as the water bill or gas are harder to set up as repeating payments. If your service provider offers uniform billing, you can take advantage of that to set up repeating payments, or just set up a new payment every month when those few bills come.
Check Your Account
It is important, of course, to be sure you have money in your account for when the bills automatically are paid. You can pad your account with a bit of savings to avoid going negative if a bill leaves before your paycheck arrives, or you can time all the bills to leave at a certain time following the arrival and deposit of your paycheck.
Then, you can sit back and relax knowing your money is being direct deposited into your account then sent out to pay your bills all without having to pick up a pen or dig out another stamp – ever.
(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)
Posted in Business & Finance, Money
