With the economy in such shambles, now is the time to stay on top of your bills and monitor your credit closely.  So many people loose or forget to pay their bills on time and end up with late fees added to their accumulating debt.  I realize no ones likes paying bills and it seems like we get new bills in the mail everyday.  Many banks now offer free online bill paying or you can set up automatic payments from your account if you have a hard time remembering to pay your bills on time to simplify your life.  I use our bank’s free online bill paying system and I use mycheckfree.com for some of my bills.  I use mycheckfree.com for bills that I can pay through their website for example they email my AEP, Gap Card and Cox bills and all I have to do is put in the date I want it paid and they electronically send the money to them.

Almost every utility, credit card, mortgage company or bank offers an automatic method of payment and some even offer discounts when choosing an automatic pay plan. Here is a list of the most common bills that offer auto pay, banking online bill pay or mycheckfree.com.

Phone/Cell Bill
Cable/Satellite Bill
Mortgage
Home/Car Insurance
Car Payment
Water/Sewer Bill
Alarm Bill
Electric Bill
Gas Bill
Credit Cards
Internet Service

I prefer to pay my bills online rather then having them automatically withdrawn from our account, it is probably a control issue, shocking I know!  To be honest, I just like to make sure there is enough money in our account, nothing is worse then bouncing an automatic payment, not only will you get a late fee from the bill you owe but you will get an overdraft charge from the bank and I always worry about the “what ifs” something happens.  If you have plenty of cushion in your account then I would suggest you try the automatic bill pay, just be sure to pay some of the bills in the first part of the month and rest in the last half to balance out your account.

Author Michelle Lehman of Organizing Solutions “Clear the Clutter” Michelle is a Professional Organizer in the Tulsa area. Her articles have been featured in the Tulsa World, The Oklahoman, Chicago Sun-Times and The Chicago Post-Tribune.  Michelle appears on TheNewsOn 6 KOTV and Fox23 News This Morning giving organizing tips and recommendations.

Tags: bills, late fees, organizing