How to pay bills more simply

With current technology, there are many ways to simplify your monthly bill paying. This article will map out some shortcuts to make bill paying less painful and save you time and money!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• A checking account
• Access to the internet

1. Start paying bills online through your bank' s website. Most banks offer online banking that is very easy to set up; many times you can also pay bills by electronic payment directly from the website. This saves you time and postage, and keeps a record of your bill payments right online. Also, it is linked directly to your banking accounts.
2. Another option is to use an online bill paying website. Check out
   www.paytrust.com (approximately $10.00 per month)
   www.mycheckfree.com (free service)
   Some services (like paytrust) actually receive your bills, scan them and do all processing electronically for you. With others (like mycheckfree) you still keep control of all your bills, but use their site to directly issue payments to the proper companies.
3. Set up automatic billing. Many bills, such as utilities, phone and cable bills can be set up to automatically be charged to your credit card monthly. By doing this, not only are these bills taken care of so that you do not have to write checks, but you can gain reward points on your credit card and just pay directly to them. Just be sure to forward that money toward the credit card, or you'll end up in debt, which will defeat the purpose of saving money.

Tips & Warnings

• Always be sure to fully research an option before committing to using it.
• Never submit your financial or personal information to an unknown party either by email or phone unless you are sure of their identity.
• Always read the fine print when signing up for an online service such as those mentioned in this article.