... is a day to begin to catch up in MD, and it's also a day for questions.
Today I'll pose a possibly boring question, but it's come up because it's concerned with what I have to catch up on in MD - paying bills. I have always been the kind of person that wanted to receive a paper copy of bills in the mail, which I then put in a special place in my desk, and then paid with a credit card online. That system has gradually fallen apart as I'm not always where I need to be to receive a paper copy of the bill, several companies have even stopped sending bills and now send emails, and quite a few companies impose a surcharge for paying with a credit card. I've been gradually using my bank's Bill Pay features which allow me to receive "e-bills" that I can then pay easily through my checking account. They are very good at notifying me when there is a new bill, so I no longer have to worry about terrible mail service or being in MD/NJ to get the bill.
Then there are still the bills that have to be paid by check. I hate writing checks, addressing the envelopes, finding a stamp, and going to the post office. Too many steps! Most of these bills are for quarterly property taxes in NJ, quarterly water and sewer bills in NJ and MD, and annual property taxes in MD. They all accept credit card payments, but the surcharges really add up, and I'm too cheap for that.
So my questions today are do you have any sort of system for paying bills? Do you pay them as soon as you receive them or wait and just pay them all at one time? Am I missing some wonderful function of Bill Pay that would make this all easier? Have you given up the illusion of control (one that I am still clinging to) and signed up for auto-pay for your bills? I'd appreciate your thoughts and ideas!
Thanks for reading and I hope your week is off to a good start!
Well, I'm old fashioned and pay almost everything by check and snail mail. I used to do bill paying once or twice a month, but this past year (being home all the time) I have started paying bills as soon as they arrive (also because of the mail situation...things taking forever to arrive). One time our electric bill arrived the day it was due. I sent a check and included a note requesting that no late fee be charged and it was not! Our water bill also arrived a day before it was due and I called and paid by phone and they tacked on a charge for that. The next one arrived late too, but I paid by check and enclosed a note to that company requesting no lae fee. They complied! I do pay our car insurance on line, but I have no auto pays set up and I have never used a credit card to pay bills. No magic solutions for you - sorry!!
ReplyDeleteWe have very few snail mail bills these days, and they are paid as soon as they arrive. It's easier to pay them than take the risk of overlooking them later. And though I resisted for a while, all our routine bills are paid automatically via bank account, even the credit cards. All that is required is to check a couple of times a month to check to see if they have been paid. It really is much easier than stacking them up and paying them later.
ReplyDeleteI am thankful that my husband pays a lot of the bills (utilities, mortgage, etc.), but I pay things like tuition and now orthodontist bills for my daughter as well as my personal credit card bills. Most I still pay by check, though I pay my main credit card through an app (it just pulls from my bank account). I don't really have a system, but I do try to pay bills as soon as I get them, within a day or so, so that I don't forget. I need to remember to set up a reminder for the orthodontist bill, though, because it's due at the middle of the month and I don't get it in the mail -- I have an old-fashioned "coupon" book and have to rip out a slip every month to send in with a check.
ReplyDeleteI was resistant to paperless, auto-pay, bill pay... all of it! It was my mother who nudged me into using some of those services -- she was using them well before me (and she's been gone 7+ years)! We receive very few bills in the mail these days, I pay almost everything online (usually directly on the website rather than my credit union's bill pay), and have quite a few auto-pay accounts (mortgage, car, insurance, gas, electric). I am cheap, too, and don't like paying fees! It seems like the only checks I write lately are to the cleaning ladies.
ReplyDeleteI am chuckling at the check to the cleaning ladies... we pay cash for all those "incidental" things (although no cleaning lady here) and never, ever write any checks! lol
DeleteGreat question, Bonny! And one that was a big part of a "Middle School Budgeting" class I taught with a friend way back in the day. He was a math teacher and discovered that most of his 6th and 7th graders were helping their non-English speaking parents with daily life activities... including paying bills.
ReplyDeleteIn our house... we pay bills as close to when they are due as possible...why give them money before it's due? So almost every bill is paid online... and some have been set up for auto-pay... house payment and insurance are the two that have that luxury. All others are paid online... some with credit card, some debit the bank account. We never, ever, ever carry a balance on the credit card... and because we don't it makes it easy to pay bills that way. In reading what I am typing here, I realize that I am beyond privileged financially... but it was not always so. I can remember many a month when I struggled and sometimes had to make tough choices. (Three kids in college was absolute budget hell...)
I have a daily planner that I write down what I don't want to forget on the day and it is always with me where ever I go. I sign up for paperless billing (notified through email). I used to pay 5 days before due date, now I'm afraid I will forget so I pay as I get them...eep. The only auto pay we have set up is the internet at the new house on our credit card - cannot remember why but I think we save money!
ReplyDeleteThe older I get the worse I get at remembering. I am also in the process of switching banks since the bank at my old location was a local bank. That is a pain in the butt. Direct deposit of various income sources is a challenge to change as well.
My advice is get a notebook/planner...the prettier the better!!
I have everything I can possibly have on auto payment, and the one thing that isn't I can pay online. I review the checking account each month to make sure things aren't out of whack.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like something I should work towards. I'm not sure why I've been so resistant to paperless, auto pay, etc., but I'm gradually relinquishing control. Simplifying sounds good!
DeleteI'm a check writer, usually the day it arrives, I write out the check and mail it the next day. My father and I take turns taking a ride to mail the mail. I think during covid it's been a chance to get out of the house to mail it at the drive through box and the huge USPS sorting facility. I plan to buy a condo and then will have to set up online banking so I can pay the mortgage and other stuff easily.
ReplyDeleteI've loved reading about everyone's different approaches to the mundane task of paying bills, and yours is a very nice way to see it as a way to have a pleasant outing to the post office! Best of luck with your condo purchase.
Delete(first, welcome home! so glad y'all made it safely and I look forward to seeing more of Ryan and his new home!)
ReplyDeleteThis is such an interesting question and I love the varying answers ... I auto-pay our mortgage and insurance because they aren't bills I need to review and cell phone/internet because I get a $40 monthly credit for doing it that way ... everything else (except taxes) I pay through my bank's bill pay function. I do still have a few bills that mail, but most are electronic. The only checks I write are for taxes and that's because I can MAIL the payments the day they're due and when I pay them online they have to PAY that day. I LOVE not having to write checks, find envelopes, and look for stamps!
I'm still a fan of paper bills in the mail. When they arrive I open them and I write the due date and amount due on the envelope and they go into a basket, arranged by due date. (Man, I sound like a librarian.) Every Friday I sit down with the basket and check on what's coming due and I pay it. Most I pay online with bill pay through my bank or through our credit card company. I write checks for the local hardware store and the cleaning lady!
ReplyDeleteI do have a few things on autopay, but I do keep file folders of everything that comes to the house. I try to pay anything not on auto, with a credit card to get cash back. And much to my neighbors horror, I pay the bill when it arrives. I worry that I'll forget and have to pay a penalty. As for my question - How is Ryan doing?
ReplyDeleteYou sound pretty organized, with folders and paying when the bill arrives. Ryan is doing pretty well, just hanging around in NJ waiting to get into his new place. That won't happen until August 15th, so there's not much he can do now. Thanks for asking!
DeleteI love paying bills via my online bank portal - it's like writing a check, but I can set it to pay whatever day I want (I always choose the day before the due date, so I keep the money as long as possible) and I don't need to buy stamps or worry about how fast the mail is running.
ReplyDeleteUntil last week, I had a mix of paper and e-bills. But I was recently a victim of unemployment fraud, so I went ahead and switched the remaining paper bills to ebills. Mail can be weird, and snail mail is more likely to be intercepted or redirected by fraudsters. (My situation is completely fine - I actually froze my credit years ago when the Equifax breach occurred, and it is still frozen ... plus my employer was contacted to verify my unemployment and they denied the claim. But I am still tightening up every potential hole I can find.)
The only times I still write checks are to the local schools (they are soooo behind!) and for local taxes (ditto).
What a great question, Bonny! Fascinating answers, too. :-) I definitely utiliize a hybrid system when it comes to paying bills here. I rarely write a check by hand anymore, and do all my payments via my bank's online bill payment program or directly via online options with various vendors (espcially if - like Mary - I can get a bonus for paying online, which happens with my cell phone bill). My bills, though? I get most of them online, but there are a few that I still receive via snail mail. Fridays are for Finances here, so that's the day I review any bills and payments that I've received/paid that week. It's a system that's evolved over the years, but it seems to work pretty well. (It was easier than expected to get rid of my elaborate paper filing system to keep paper copies of all my payments. I expected the world to turn upside-down, but . . . it didn't!)
ReplyDeleteI use my bank's online bill bill pay. I much prefer to schedule payments myself...I really don't want vendors/companies to have my bank account info on file (yes, I've had money taken without permission...), and my bank will either do an electronic transfer for me, or mail a paper check to places that don't accept electronic payments (like my town's water/sewer/trash bill). Which method has the added benefit of me actually paying attention to the bills and amounts, etc. so I am aware of any changes (I want to know if the utilities go up drastically, or the cell phone, etc.). There are only a few things I pay by check (i.e. church donation, extra school fees for the teenager, chorus dues, property taxes, other oddball things...).
ReplyDeleteUsually I can pay most things the last week of the month (due in the next month.) in one go. Paper bills are okay by me, emailed bills somehow go missing randomly (and the one that goes to dh also goes missing because he 'doesn't see it.').
-- Jean Marie
Now this is something I'm going to have to look into! I know my bank will pay by electronic transfer, but if they will send a paper check to those places that don't accept electronic payments, that would make me so happy! I would never have to write another check, and all my bills could be simplified and I could check them in one place. Thanks so much for explaining your bill-paying, Jean Marie! (And I also have a dh that doesn't see things; my sympathies!)
DeleteVery happy to hear you all made it home from CO. That is quite a drive in a big truck-SO much harder and more exhausting than driving a car.
ReplyDeleteI love the BillPay feature through my bank. Even if something is an occasional bill (like taxes) or a donation, I set it up through BillPay. Any bill that is the same from month to month I set up in autopay. The easier it is the better. My dad was the one who told me how easy it was to use the Billpay feature at the bank, probably 20-25 years ago. He was a computer man and an early adopter of all on-line systems. I'm grateful to this day.