Penny Seeds

Dec 07

Get your bills together by eliminating them? Go paperless!

Paperwork..

If you’re more than about twenty years old then you remember the days before online banking. When you had to tediously mark out every transaction by hand in your bank register to keep track of your spending. Thank goodness I don’t have to do that! It’s easy to get your act together with paperless billing.

Now a days online banking is a beautiful thing, and it can be a real lifesaver. Especially for those who have aging parents or grandparents that need a little extra help financially.

It’s always a little hard convincing older people to let you lend them a hand. They’re uncomfortable about losing their independence which is very understandable. You do get to a point where you just plain are not as sharp as you used to be though. Paperless billing, and recurring payments may be a good way to help out your family members without stealing their dignity from them.

My mother, and grandmother were not always on top of things their health being what it was. So, I enrolled all of their bills in online banking. I would get an e-mail bill every month, and could keep track of things to make sure they were all paid.

It’s much better than having to sort through somebody else’s desk, and hunt for paperwork! Pretty much every major company has an online payment solution so you can monitor all of these from the comfort of your kitchen even if you live a good few miles away from your parents.

You can even automatically pay a good amount of billers that do not have an online option. Usually any major bank will offer you some type of ‘online bill pay’ technique, and you can send checks electronically to a business by inputting their information.

The only thing to be wary of is to make sure of is that there are funds to cover the bills. An automatic bill will withdraw on time every month even if there’s no money in the account. It won’t wait two days for funds to be available like you do! Make sure your bills don’t post before your checks have cleared.

You may also want to check from time to time to monitor for clerical errors. Make sure you’re getting charged the right amount just like you did with your paper bills. Errors fly under the radar all the time, and they tend to be in the biller’s favor most of the time. Catch them early, and dispute them with the provider.

If you don’t like the idea of money automatically being drained from your account you can also go with an e-mail bill instead of a recurring payment. This will send you your bill online, and you’ll be alerted in your inbox. However, this is not a payment, and will not be removed from your account.

You’ll have to do that manually. I enjoy this method, because I like to look over all of my bills before I hand over any money. If my bill is drastically different than the month before for no reason then my providers can expect to hear from me shortly, and before any payment is rendered.

Related Posts

Have a very merry - Economical Christmas! Lots of people are cutting their budgets this year, and retailers are taking notice. Stores large and small are slashing prices to garner more sales. Some people are even considering buying no presents this year which is a big no for me. Just because you're feeling a little pinched......
Make Off Like A Grocery Store Bandit This Thanksgiving! It's the best time of the year as far as I'm concerned! The holidays are always so much fun, but it can be stressful if you're down on your luck this season. Never fear! there's plenty ways to stretch your budget without sacrificing your holiday festivities. I've compiled some......
Could you see the world through home exchange? I've been thinking so much about travel lately, but it's costly! My two biggest wish list places are England, and Brazil. The airfare is expensive, and so are accommodations especially with currency exchange seeing as GBP are far more valuable than American dollars. The more I watch 'The Holiday'......
Review: Mint.com! Save headaches, and money! This time around I'd like to talk about my favorite finance tool ever - Mint. This is one of those things that people are either for or against; lots of people don't like their information being accessed by another server. However, you're giving your personal data up to the......
How much will it really cost to purchase a home? Even if you've checked your credit, and ran the numbers you may still be under estimating the cost for getting your own home. Here's a few things to look out for that may cost you a pretty penny. The majority of the homes for sale right now are either......

Related Websites

A mortgage is still debt that needs to be reduced Amy of My Debt Free Goal aims to pay off $72,900 in debt by April 2009. By her own admission and hoping to go farther than she would otherwise. Paying off that amount involves throwing over $3,000 per month, every month, at that debt for the next two years --......
Agreement for Deed Explained In today's real estate market, the lending guidelines are so tight that normal blue collar people cannot qualify for a loan to purchase a home. Due to these tight lending guidelines, the market is suffering tremendously and sellers have very few options. One option that is shining enormous light on......
4 Easy Ways to Raise Your Credit Score For many Americans, dealing with a low credit score can be incredibly frustrating. It’s tough to get any loans and in some cases, it may even affect your prospects for employment. If you’re sick of dealing with a low score, it’s time to starting putting into motion some techniques that......
9 Steps for Establishing Credit Credit is the catch all term for the act of lending money. It can take the form of a credit card, in which the lender buys the things you want and you pay them back. Loans are where you have the money given to you with the promise to pay......
Have you planned for your refund and rebate? A good chunk of us will be getting either a tax refund, or a tax rebate, or both. These could run thousands of dollars each. Chump change for some of us, a substantial sum for some of us, a downright windfall for some of us.Whatever the magnitude, it's extra money......