saving for your child’s college while on a tight budget

Posted on: 18 February 2019

Paying your bills on time can be challenging if you have to mail in payments or make payments in person. Paying online is the quick and easy solution, and there are options for online bill paying that make it possible to pay just about anyone. Here's a look at why paying bills this way is a good option and some ways you can do it.

Paying Bills Online Creates A History Of Payments

When you pay your bills online, the service you use keeps track of all of your activity. This makes it easy to scan your history of payments. Depending on the service you use, your payments may even be categorized, which can help you create a budget when you see how much of your money is spent for utilities, credit card payments, and other expenses. If you have a hard time staying organized with paper statements and bill receipts, then paying online is a good way to stay in control of the money you spend so you can always check how much you've paid to what company.

You Can Schedule Payments In Advance Online

Online bill paying services usually allow you to schedule payments in advance or to schedule recurring payments so you never have to worry about missing a utility bill or credit card payment. This is a handy feature if you travel a lot or if you're going on vacation since you can schedule your payments in advance. Plus, when you pay online, you can make your payments from anywhere and you can check the progress of your payments from anywhere you have an internet connection.

There Are Different Ways To Pay Online

Many companies provide the ability to pay them on their online websites. This is a convenient option, but it requires logging into multiple sites to pay your bills. The advantage of doing this is that your payment is often credited the same day, which could be important if you need to make a payment before a deadline. Another way to do online bill paying is to use a service that allows you to pay all of your bills from one website. This is possible with many banks and a few bill paying sites. This gives you the ability to pay utilities, credit cards, insurance payments, and routine bills electronically although you usually have to allow a day or two for the payment to be sent and received.

Another good thing about using one of these services is that it's often possible to have paper checks sent to companies that don't accept electronic payments through a bill paying service. The bank or bill paying company creates a paper check and mails it to a person or company of your choice and you can monitor when the check was sent and cashed. This convenient option saves you from buying stamps and envelopes and making last-minute dashes to the post office.