Online Bill Payment

A Primer

It’s a chore to sit down each month and pay all of your bills by check.  It takes a great deal of time, postage can add up and writing checks can be a pain, besides, it’s a thing of the past.  Modern technology and the internet have made checks, pardon the pun, virtually obsolete.  The majority of utilities, credit card providers and other merchants allow for either online bill payment or even monthly automatic debiting of your checking account.  Many banks have bill paying services for reoccurring bills and a number of third party bill paying services are appearing.  The point is, with all that is available there is no need to waste a day or two of your month writing checks and mailing them to pay bills.  However, before you jump into the water, there are a few basic points of which you should be aware.  You will find that a bit of knowledge will save you tremendously down the road. 

The first thing to do is to make sure you have a handle on your monthly bills.  You should know what is due and when.  Know what bills are reoccurring, like phone bill or cable.  Then determine if you will use your bank’s service, the merchant’s system or a third party. 

The process is simple.  You tell your bank or the bill paying service what bills to pay and they handle the transfer of the funds electronically.