Try Online Bill Pay to Save Money

Part of being The Thrifty Couple is learning how to save money in every area of life.  One way to save a bit of money (more than you think) is through the use of bill pay.  Face it, no matter how frugal or debt free you are, you still need to pay bills.  The last I checked, you still need to pay the electric bill, the gas bill, the phone bill amongst others.

Using bill pay will not only help you save the cost of stamps but help you save even more!  How can you save more??

• Use bill pay to save on postage – The cost of a stamp ($0.44 last I checked) is still the cost of a stamp.  If you have five bills then you are saving at least $2.20 a month.  But when you start adding a lot of other bills you just might see the savings add up!
• Save on the cost of checks – If you are currently sending checks in the mail, not having to send a check means not having to pay for that check!  Though there are cheap ways to purchase checks, they can still be expensive.  Using bill pay on just five checks a month will now save you from using three checkbooks per year.
• Never pay late fees again – Every time you pay a late fee you are just adding to the money you throw away!  When you use a good bill pay system that most banks offer (for FREE) they can either remind you that a bill is due or you can “set it and forget it”!  Either way, you save money by paying on time.
• Paying credit cards early can help save some interest – We learned when we were paying off our credit cards that paying early (and often! :)) helps decrease the total amount of interest.  Why do I mention this on an article on bill pay?!  Because if you make your payment as soon as you receive your bill your total balance decreases (even if its small) and you have that much less balance to pay interest on.  Depending on the size of the biller, some bill pay systems will even electronically pay your bill so its paid the very next day.  We don’t like to pay any more than we need to and less interest means more money in our wallets!
• Decrease your stress – Not having to worry about getting your bills in the mail, worrying about buying stamps, or wondering if your payment is late helps to decrease the total amount of stress in your life.  This might sound petty, but knowing all your bills are paid (in just a few minutes of time) really does help take that extra load off!
• Save paper and be a good steward of the environment – Yes, we as The Thrifty Couple believe we should be good stewards of this amazing creation.  And either having your bank receive your bills (which is possible with some billers) or just viewing your bills online will help decrease the amount of paper we all use.

We love our bill pay.  We really do.  We love the fact that is simple, quick, and painless to use…oh yes, and FREE!  And its nice to know that your payment gets to the biller on time and without a worry.  Let us know of your experience and how you have saved money as well!!