I tried to keep today’s Tightwad Tuesday in line with my budgeting theme this week. And what goes with budgeting better than paying bills?
I use online bill pay to save money. My bank provides free online bill pay through their website. I just have to input each payee, payee address, and account number one time, and then each month I fill in the amount I want to pay and hit submit.
Yesterday I sat down and figured out exactly how much I save by paying my bills online.
I have 9 bills that I pay monthly, not counting the two bills that are automatically deducted from my checking account each month. Each of these bills would cost 42 cents to mail. That’s $3.78 saved a month, or $45.36 a year. Now, $45.36 a year may not seem like much, but it’s almost enough to register one of our cars with the DMV every year!
But online bill pay saves me in another way. It helps me to keep track of the bills, so I never miss a payment. I can just look down the list of payees on my bank website, and I can see the last time I paid the bill. That saved me a late fee many times when we were in the process of moving and slightly unorganized!
The other thing I like about online bill pay is nothing gets lost in the mail! Especially when dealing with credit cards, it’s important to make sure your payment gets processed in time. If your payment is even a day late, you can incur late charges and hiked interest rates.
With online bill pay, your payment can be processed in two days! And if there’s ever a discrepancy, your bank can go to bat for you, which is often more effective than trying to handle things yourself.
That doesn’t happen often, though. I’ve been using online bill pay for years, and I’ve only had one payment that showed up as paid by my bank, but not by the payee. I called my bank, and they worked it out for me right away.
Online bill pay saves me stress and saves me money. What do you do to save money? Write a post and share with the rest of us by signing Mister Linky! Don’t forget to link back to Being Frugal.net, so others can find great money saving tips, too!
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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
We use online bill-pay too. So nice. I love how much is saves on postage and that it’s all in one spot.
We pay our bills online too, and I wouldn’t do it any other way. It saves time and money.
You can also count the money you save from not having to order checks!
I would like to add that you must always check your statements whether it is mailed or online to watch the due date. I have my payments setup automatically to be paid before they are due. However, some bills change their due dates and I ended up with a late payment fee. I did contact them and complain and was credited back the late payment fee.
Also with my bank, if they have to mail a check for me and it is late they will pay the late fee. They try to negotiate and get it removed and if they can’t they put that amount into my bank account.
I think online bill pay is great. You don’t have to worry about someone stealing them out of your mail box. That happened to a friend of mine and she had to close the account, get letters from some agency, contact all the people that were intended to be paid, etc. I will never ever put a bill to be paid in my mail box again.
Thanks all
Coco
I love online bill paying, too, but I agree with Coco — you must double-check and make sure everything is going smoothly. We almost had our power turned off because Husband thought he’d set up an automatic pay for that bill…and something had gone wrong!
Great post. We use online bill pay too. People rarely think about the fact that it saves on postage. All those little things add up. The $45.36 you save in a year is a savings of $453.60 in ten years. Who wants to spend that much on stamps? It also saves on stress as you don’t have to worry about forgetting anything.
Thank you for this post! I typically log in to the company’s website to pay my bills and sometimes they charge a fee.
I’ll start using this next month (as I have already paid January’s utilities).
Thanks!
I approached online bill paying from the opposite direction by signing up for automatic bill payment (for free) with each payee directly to my credit card. Yes, I pay the full balance each month. This way, I rapidly earn the reward points for paying my monthly bills. In addition to saving on postage, I’ve also earned several hundred dollars by cashing rewards for gift cards that I use to buy household items, gifts, etc. At the time I set this up several years ago, free online bill paying through my credit union was not yet an option. It is now, but my system has been working great for me to date.
Online bill payment has saved me a lot of time. Instead of me to be thinking of buying stamps, thinking of when the post office opens and closes, I just go online to my bank account and pay the bill. I learnt my lesson after my credit card company jacked my interest rate.
Thanks for the post! It inspired me to write about it on my own blog. Online bill pay is fabulous – I credit it with one of the reasons I have a high credit score, because nothing is ever paid late.
I do on-line billpay for some of my bills, too. What I like is that I can divide a larger payment in half–one early and one on time. What I don’t like is when they send the notice so early (Macy’s is guilty of this) that it gets buried! Oh…and I also don’t like when something is due the 15th, but if you pay that day it doesn’t go in until the 18th. If some companies can let you pay on line (or by phone) on the due date, why can’t everyone?
I like Jackie’s idea of combining online bill pay with a rewards credit card. I do that too.
You are absolutely right that paying online saves time, money and worry. I switched, and I’ll never go back.
You know that I love on-line bill pay, too. I feel like I have greater control over my budget because I can input a bill for payment the day it comes in the mail. I also write the amount that is being paid out on a small desktop calendar (also free from my bank) so that I can just glance over and see what each weeks cash flow looks like. I haven’t had one late payment in the past 15 months, since I began this system. Also, I use my debit card for all purchases. When I carry cash I tend to piddle it away. This way I can keep track of expenses to the penny – also, my debit card has a Visa logo on it and when I use it as a “credit” instead of debit, my bank pays me 10 cents. I usually earn between $3 and $5 a month doing this.
Happy Tuesday!
We also use online bill paying and I love it. For one thing it got my Hubby more inolved with our finances. When he could do it with a computer it became much more interesting to him. He does almost all the bills now. I only handle medical–since I’m usually the one who has those bills and I use my HSA card to pay them. I like the way its easy to see what is paid with the online service and also I like to use my debit card for almost all purchases so I can track purchases and expenses and understand my budget better.
I save money by NOT using the online bill pay…. if you don’t pay at least 2 bills a month on line, there is a $5.99 charge per month at my bank, and I only have the credit card (if I use it) that I can’t pay in person or at a local drop off window. (electric, water, car/house insurance) Those bills I walk a couple blocks and get some exercise (which I need) while saving the postage – like getting paid to exercise is how I look at it. :) I know – I’m different :)
direct debit for me, i save money as they give you a saving on each bill if you pay this way and you don;t have to worry about forgetting to pay a bill.
However you do have to check at least once a month to make sure nothing is going wrong. But to date alls been fine.
Hi! I tell my bridal clients that online bill pay is a great way to really track what they are spending on their wedding and reception. If they set up a separate account just for their wedding expenses, this makes it easy to see where and when the dollars are going!
My hubby does on-line bill paying and I think it works pretty well. Thanks for doing your Tightwad Tuesday carnival — this is my first time visiting :)
I love online bill pay!
I do not do “Bill Pay” but do pay bills electronically. I tried it when my credit union first offered it and still have a sour taste in my mouth. I mailed my bills days before due and knew how long it took the check to be received and processed. I tried with one bill. I set it up and waited. Two weeks before it was due it was drafted. I called my credit union to complain and was told, “we don’t do the bill pay it is processed by a third party, let me connect you.” I was told by the third party, there are two ways bill pay works, the bills are paid and then drafted from the payer’s account. The second is the draft is taken and then paid. I was told “we do it the second way and we take the draft early so we are sure we have the money. I then received a late notice and found, though the draft was taken early the bill was paid late. I immediately canceled bill pay.
In reading this posting though I realized if a person was religious about using bill pay to pay ALL bills, the data it provided would help in maintaining a persons budget. Having picked up on this I may look again at bill pay to see what is will do for me.
Thank you for the wonderful postings and blog.