When you finally have less time than money
Posted on June 11th, 2007 – 12:10 PMBy Kara McGuire
So this weekend, I sat down to pay a bill and realized I completely forgot about paying one last month. Luckily it wasn’t a credit card and I didn’t incur any fees.
When I meekly mentioned to Matt that I slipped up and it’s “getting harder to remember to juggle all of the bills,” he gave me a confused look and said something like “aren’t the bills set up on auto pilot?”
It’s a good question. We pay most bills online, why in the world don’t I set up automatic bill pay?
Because despite the fact that I have bounced a grand total of two checks in my 15 year check writing career, I’ve always been afraid that bill pay would lead me down a slippery slope of bounced checks and closed accounts.
But with our average checking account balance above the $1,000 level, I think it’s finally time for me to truly enter the 21st century and automate my bills.
Now the question is, how? Do I pay through Quicken or some other one-stop shop? Do I set it up at each bill’s web site? Should I start paying bills with a credit card to maximize points (that seems like an obvious yes!)?
36 Responses to "When you finally have less time than money"
you already answered the last question, maximize those points/miles! some cards give double mils/points for paying bills like phone or gas.
I sign up thru the bill’s website. I’ve heard of quicken and other bill payers screwing up(wrong amounts, delayed sending checks, computer glitches, etc), but never had any of my bill websites screwup, I imagine they make sure to get their money.
The only cash payments we have are: the credit card, rent, the car insurance (it’s the same place as our bank anyway), and electric.
I had the same conversation with my husband, VERBATIM, a few weeks ago. After some pleading he agreed that we should split the list of bills in terms of who is responsible for coordinating payment. Whenever possible, I set up autopayments through each company’s web site. There are still two for which we need to write paper checks–my car loan, and the student loan that’s in my dad’s name (which I pay).
I’ve been debating the automatic payments too. I don’t have to worry about bouncing checks, but something about them having access to my checking account makes me nervous. It would make sense to do because of saved money on stamps and time of writing out checks, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.
I have the majority of my bills paid via credit card… great way to earn miles! There are a few that don’t accept credit card payments (Xcel and CenterPoint… I’m talking to you!), so I am still mailing a check to them. Like Carla, I’m hesitant to give them access to my checking account for auto pay. Now that stamps just went up again, I’m starting to reconsider.
We’ve had all of our bills on auto-payment for over 10 years…many of these were done before you could sign up on the web (back then you called them up and they sent you a form to send in, with a cancelled check). We’re split about 50-50 between using our checking account and our main credit card.
We even have our credit cards set up to auto-pay our balances in full from our checking account…this is a great way to make sure we never have a late fee or have to pay any interest.
We also have several of our regular charitable contributions set up via auto withdrawal (we use checking for those, since I hate the idea of the credit card company getting a percentage of our charitable donation).
In all the years we’ve been doing this, I don’t remember that there has ever even once been a mistake on the amount charged. And we would know…we are very meticulous about accounting for every penny in all our accounts (we use Quicken religiously).
So if you are on the fence, I really don’t think you should worry about it. I would never go back (by choice) to paying bills by hand and mailing them in every month. The money saved on checks, and postage over the years is certainly up in the hundreds of dollars. When you add the time we save by not having to write the checks each month, that’s nice, too.
It makes me mad that Xcel and Centerpoint do not accept credit cards too.
My suggestion is to stick a toe in the water and start auto-bill pay with a couple small monthly bills at a time- ones that you know you’ll be paying for indefinately. Then rip a page out of an old calendar and mark the days of the month, the amount or appoximate amount and name of each bill on auto-pay to help you remember.
What did our parents and their parents do? People. Get some discipline! Pay your bills on time.
Huh. Wow. The generation older than us never missed a payment on a bill? Amazing. Jon, you might have missed purpose of this post, but just to let you know it is to figure out tips/tricks to make sure that people pay their bills on time.
Kara - how do you pay your bills each month? (every other week, when the come, etc) I’ve found the twice a month method to work splendidly. It works out that about half of our bills are due at the beginning and the other half due in the middle of the month. Twice a month, when I have to pay the bills that aren’t auto, I know exactly which ones I’ll pay. Until I got it memorized, I had the due date (beginning, middle) listed out on our budget spreadsheet and checked them off when paid. Maybe dorky, but haven’t missed one yet!
I pay my bills through my bank. They send out the checks for me. I have it linked to my checkings/savings/credit card account with them. Free service. Very easy to use. I can even send checks to friends/family for free. I can send one check, or set it up for monthly checks. Very, very easy.
Sarah, I see a lot of wanting to make a big rule-book or procedure, but it’s really simple: pay the bills on time.
So- we have all of our bills set up on auto-pay, except for our credit car, which I pay twice a week on line (Tuesday after the weekend charges clear, and Friday). Theere is a downside to this, which is that it makes it hard to change the source of payment- that is, if you want to change checking accounts or credit cards from which payments come, then you have to contact every bill source to notify of the change. It ties you to one payment source; we have not changed money market funds for this reason alone.
I don’t like giving up the control of my money by allowing a company to debit my account directly. Instead, I pay all my bills through my bank’s online site. Essentially, the bank is sending out a check for me; however, most companies (like a credit card or utilities company) have electronic capabilities so a check is never actually mailed.
I like my approach because: 1) I control when my bills are paid, either manually or recurring. 2) I’m not giving anyone my credit card or check card number. 3) I can pay anyone, even if it’s not a bill (ex - send a check to a friend).
Then again, I work for a bank so my opinion might be biased!
My grandparent’s generation really didn’t have any more discipline than people do now, they just didn’t have the option of getting into debt because it wasn’t offered. My grandfather was a truck driver and my grandmother took care of four kids, and I know they struggled, just like everyone else in lower middle class. If they were raising that family today you can bet your behind that they would have racked up credit card debt. Why? Because they were ignorant about money the way most people (still) are; I’m not being derogatory, it’s just a fact. They were not educated about finances. When people missed payments back then (and they did) they just had to wait till the next payday and eat canned beans for supper.
Some people are looking to the past with some seriously rose colored glasses, and missing the point of every post. Any blowhard can blather, “Be responsible! Pay bills on time!” Everybody who reads these posts KNOWS that. Duh. The title of the post is the topic, and what people do to make sure they don’t FORGET to pay the bills on time, and whether or not they like automatic bill pay.
Me: Put everything on our credit card for the miles and then phone in the payment to the credit card company. We only mail our utility and mortgage payment. I haven’t done auto-pay, but may consider it in the future. What we do now works well for us.
Kara - you say it
The way I see it, they have the routing # and account info when I send them a check as it is. It made me uncomfortable at first to pay electronically, but it’s so much easier. I don’t have everything set on auto though (just stupid Comcast) - all others notify me three days before it’s due and then I pay online or by phone (Xcel). Pretty swift!
I will make a one-time payment using my credit card or checking account, but I do not use autopay. I have heard horror stories of people who end up with gigantic, erroneous bills which are set up on autopay out of their checkign accounts and who get stuck trying to get their money back from the utility company, etc. If I were to use autopay, I would only use a credit card and not have it set up to take the cash out of my checking account, so if there was a dispute regarding a bill I wouldn’t be stuck trying to get my money back into my account.
I prefer all my bills to go through to my credit card when I can. It’s nice to get the “award” from the card for money I’m going to spend anyway.
For the rest, I schedule them through my bank monthly. Like Kara, I’ve never missed been overdrawn, but there’s some fear of it somewhere deep inside. I did have my phone bill (back when I had a land line) auto-deducted, but it was the same every month, so I could plan ahead. I prefer to go to my bank’s site and set up payments each month when the bill comes, because the amounts change and I want to consciously think about what’s happening.
Bridget
Is choosing how we hand over money to our creditors really control?
Mindy has no self-discipline.
Jon, pray tell how you would know? I have never bounced a check, never made a late payment, and have no debt beyond my mortgage payment.
It sounds like you don’t either.
The difference is that you are smug and self-righteous about it, and never have anything interesting to add to the conversation, while other posters actually relate personal learning experiences and relevant opinions.
You must be a riot at cocktail parties.
Mindy, the phrase “personal learning experience” is boring. Quit over thinking and pay your bills!!!
Jon, you’re boring and sound like a Myna bird. Everyone posting comments here pays their bills. You’re a friggin’ genius.
Mindy, the fact that you brought up the “myna bird” is really obscure, boring and tedious.
Mindy, you’ve got to be a librarian.
Jon-
you’re an ass.
Chris, thanks for the entertaining comment.
Jon, bitch please. I’m not a librarian, but it’s safe to say I know more than you. It matters very little if you think it’s tedious - it’s still true. I’ve read your retarded comments for months… do you have to practice to be such a bag of assh*les or does it just come naturally?
Mindy, you should be a librarian.
Go create a process or rulebook for your life. It’s apparant you have more time than money.
BAN JON!
Mindy and Anon, whatever.
Going way back to the post from Mindy that started this volley back and forth, I have to say I agree with Mindy.
Some people like to praise the discipline of older generations, while criticizing today
Scott, it’s still the same answer - even with the story of your Grandfather. It still comes down to discipline - the ability to not do the wrong things that many people do.
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