Automate Your Monthly Bills
Do you wake up in the middle of the night asking yourself, “Did I forget to pay <company> ?” Thanks to some past financial mistakes, I have some credit card debt I balance among a number of cards to keep my credit score up.
However, along with a number of credit cards comes a number of bills every month. I have over 10 companies I send money to every month and that can get overwhelming. Thankfully I found an answer, and no, it wasn’t bankruptcy.
I initially tried using billpay at my bank, but they only let you schedule specific amounts of money every month, they don’t let you pay based on what’s actually due. Then I found PayTrust, a service by Intuit, the company behind QuickBooks, and costs $12.95 per month. Now, I must admit I’m not the biggest fan of their Mac software, but the site is pretty functional.
I change my address on all my bills to PayTrust and they notify me when a statement arrives. They scan it and store it on their servers, so I can check my statement from home, or across seas.
They have an ability to set rules on how much to pay, and when. I have most of my bills set to pay the minimum payment as soon as the bill arrives. All in all, it’s a very handy service, though a little clunky at times. I don’t even think about my bills anymore. Not my credit card statements, and not the landscaper who comes to mow my lawn.
One might ask why I don’t just set up auto-pay with the card companies themselves. Well, for one, only about 50% of the companies I deal with have auto-pay functionality. The rest require you to log in to pay. Secondly, I like being able to have all my bills in one place, and not get any financial documents in my mail.
Have you automated your bills? Tried PayTrust? Have any better suggestions? Drop me a line in the comments with your feedback.
(Image by genewolf)
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