Nearly one-third of U.S. consumers pay their bills online, says Judy Wicks of CheckFree, the leading provider of electronic-billing and payment services.
Probably the easiest way to pay your bills online is to use a safe, encrypted service—offered by banks, credit unions, brokers and companies such as AOL, MSN, Quicken or Yahoo! Arrange for an e-mail reminder that a bill is due.
The service can handle payments entirely electronically or it can generate a paper check, if necessary—to pay the guy who mows your lawn, for example. If a payment is late, many bill-paying services will reimburse you for late fees up to a certain amount (sometimes as much as $50), as long as you have scheduled the payment within their guidelines.
To shed yet more paperwork, arrange to receive bills and statements electronically. Sign up with e-billers on many services or at MyCheckFree.com.
Online bill paying also helps you to keep your finances organized. You have your records right there—what you owe, past payments—and all on one site.
Wells Fargo goes a step further: Its online-banking customers have access to My Spending Report, which they can use as a de facto budget. My Spending Report tracks online bill payments and Wells Fargo debit- and credit-card charges, and plugs them into one of 20 categories so that you can see how much you’ve spent on, say, movies and restaurant meals.
In addition, of course, you can track your spending using Microsoft Money or Quicken. With Quicken 2006, once you pay a bill there’s no need to print and file it. Instead, you can attach the bill electronically to the account from which you made your payment, so it’s always at your fingertips.