Using Bill Pay Features

Most checking accounts now include a Billpay feature. My account has Pay My Bills and it is free. It works better for me than Automatic Pay. We have a tight budget, and with automatic payments on my bills, I would have to worry about having enough money in the account when the creditor decided to withdraw his payment. With Pay My Bills, I choose the date the payment is made.

We get our Social Security checks deposited to our account on the 3rd of the month, so I schedule the bills that come in during the month to be paid on the 4th of the following month. I schedule them the day they arrive in the mail so that I don't have to spend a lot of time at the last minute paying the bills.

It saves on postage, also. I have a temporary file for payment pending. As soon as the payment shows in my online bank statement, I move the bill, mark it paid and file it into my permanent files.

By Harlean from Arkansas

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By 09/19/2009

I definitely agree with you on the Bank Bill Payer as opposed to the automatic withdrawal by the creditor. Temporary file for payment pending is a fantastic idea. Wish I had thought of that a long time ago. I have projected my bank account showing expected income and expenses for several months with a running balance so that I do not get overdrawn. That way I change the date of payment if necessary. That has also helped.