I recently read a statistic somewhere saying the average household pays 23 bills per month. This sounds a bit high to me personally, but let’s run with it. It could very well be possible with water bills, homeowner community association bills, cell phone bills, cable television bills, gardener bills, house cleaner bills, internet bills, credit card bills, electricity bills, gas bills, car bills, and all the other bills we get each month. For those who don’t use electronic bill payment or sign up to receive electronic bills, I highly recommend it.
I’ve been using electronic bill payment for years. I’ve never had any problems with electronic bill payment from my bank account. It’s fast, efficient, and it automatically ties in with your bank account records. With electronic bill payment, it’s a no brainer. You don’t have to worry about dropping off your bill into the mail or the Post Office potentially losing it. The biggest benefit is that if you pay anywhere near 23 bills a month, the amount of money you save from not buying stamps is huge. Currently, stamps cost 41 cents each, and it’s increasing to 42 cents in May. At 23 bills per month, you are paying over $113 per year in stamps, and you know the cost of stamps will only rise! Can you think of anything you’d like to do with $113? I sure can!
As for receiving electronic bills, I admit I’ve been a bit slower to adopt them, but I’ve been converting. I receive quite a few electronically already, but to be honest, I’m not sure what my lag is as this is a huge environmental savings, not to mention a huge paper filing and tracking savings for me. In addition, it’s less likely your bill will get lost in the email or be intercepted by a potential ID thief. In fact, when I finish writing this, I’m going to convert a few more of my bills to an electronic format! There are just so many good reasons why you should receive your bills electronically.
One tip – if you sign up to receive electronic bills, make sure you save electronic copies of your bills in case you need access to the statements later. Often, the companies issuing the bills do not save historic copies of the bills past a certain time or they will charge you on a per bill basis to send you a copy. If the company you’re with doesn’t offer electronic bill payment, send them an email or give them a call to let them know you care!
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