Tips for How to Pay Bills on Time
Paying your bills on time should be a top priority. Paying bills late can negatively affect your life now and in the future. It might get shut off if you don’t cover your electric bill. You can get evicted if you don’t pay your rent on time.
Not paying your bills on time can and will drop your credit score. This makes taking out loans, buying a home or car, or even starting a business difficult. Something as small as a late payment on a phone bill can follow you for years later.
The good news is that there are strategies you can deploy to ensure you pay your bills on time, every time. Here are our top tips to ensure you don’t have to deal with late payments.
Analyze Your Bills
It can be tough to make all your payments by their due dates when you’re inundated with electronic invoices to your email and paper invoices in the mail. Every day, you’re reminded of a bill. Some may need to be paid weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly, like subscriptions.
How can you track them to ensure you’re paying them on time? First, take stock of all your bills and make a list. Write down every bill you must pay, how much you will have to pay, and when payments are due. You’ll likely see some bills you can eliminate, like that magazine or TV subscription you’ve paid for years but never used.
Schedule Your Bill Payments
As you analyze your bills, you’ll also start to see patterns in payment dates that you can wrap your head around – rent on the first of the month, phone bill in the first week of the month, utilities on the 15th, etc. This can help ensure you always have enough money in your account on the right days for bill payments.
Taking stock of several months’ bills is key to get an accurate picture. While some bills, like insurance and rent, are the same each month, others, like utilities, vary widely throughout the year. You’ll want to identify and understand these trends so you’re not surprised.
Payday Loans
How can you avoid late payments on your bills if your bank account is nearly depleted and your credit card is maxed out? A payday loan may be the right choice if you need money between paychecks to meet payment deadlines.
With payday loans, you can quickly access thousands of dollars to pay your bills on time. It’s fast cash, hassle-free, and you can pay it back later. The application process is easy, and you don’t need perfect credit to be approved. It can get you through those tricky stages in your life when you can’t stretch your dollars further.
Set up Automatic Payments
One of the easiest ways to pay your bills on time is to set up autopay. It’s quick and easy to set up, and most providers enable you to do it on their website or by filling out and sending in a form.
You can authorize your utility company to debit the full amount of your bill. However, you must ensure your bank account has enough money on the day of withdrawal. Alternatively, you can set up providers like your phone or internet company with an autopay option to pay the statement balance using your credit card every month.
Even if you’re short on funds that month, the payment can still go through on your credit card. This will ensure you don’t miss a payment due to forgetfulness or an empty bank account. Autopay is a great option for most bills. You can set it up once and never miss a payment again.
Calendar Reminders
If you intend to pay your bills but forget to do so by the deadline, something as simple as a calendar reminder may be all you need. This is an excellent alternative to autopay if your bills are large. You’re worried about going into an overdraft if an automatic payment is taken out of your account at the wrong time.
You can set up recurring reminders in your phone calendar and get alerted at the right time every month when it’s time to pay your bills. Just make sure you stop what you’re doing and make the payment before removing the notification and forget to do it later.
Ditch Paper Bills
Paper bills can get lost or tossed aside as you rush home and throw them in a drawer, envelopes never to be opened. This is a high-risk habit that almost guarantees late payments. Instead, opt for electronic invoices.
Pay Bills Right Away
This might seem like a silly tip, but more often than not, people miss their bill payments simply because life gets in the way. They forgot to complete the payment.
Whenever you get an email notification that you have a new bill to pay, go ahead and make that payment at that very second. This ensures you don’t forget. Trusting your memory to return to that bill payment later in the day or week is not worth the risk of late payments, fees, interest, and poor credit.
