Online Banking, Setting Up Bill-Pay

Recently, I began helping people close to me get a handle on their financial situations, all in the hopes that with the changes that are coming in the next 20 years, that those close to me will not only be prepared, but comfortable and able to look retirement right in the face and not be worried. So, once we get the debt issues mapped out and make sure there is a good plan for the debt, we figure out what method to use to pay off the debts each month: online banking.

Since I’ve had a tremendous amount of success with online banking and bill pay and have nothing but good experiences so far, I wanted to make sure that this setup was also smooth. Personally, my bank offers online bill pay for free. And what beats that? No checks to write, nothing to get lost in the mail, and no need to buy and pay for stamps. Its a time-saver all around. So, with all of that, my mom is sold. But for anyone starting online bill pay, I would give you the same advice as I give when I help set others up with online bill-pay.

1. Plan ahead; Figure out when the bills are due.

This seems obvious, but I find that a simple excel sheet or list will work nicely. Something to help you track what date each month when things are due. This will help you keep track of which payments are pending/in process and which ones are going to be due soon. This is particularly important because you often need 4-5 business days advance notice before executing an online bill payment. For recurring, stable-amount bills, you can simply set them up as recurring, but I personally never do that. I like to be in control of my checking account, and make sure that there are not too many automatic charges/payments.

2. Pick one or two small bills to do first to become comfortable with the process.

It seems simple enough that you could easily be tempted to put all of the bills on billpay at the same time. However, I would advise against this and instead migrate to online payments over a couple of months time. To be really sure that payments are setup and working correctly, I would advise calling your bill companies after the payments are sent electronically to ensure that they are credited to your account correctly. You might also need to make special arrangements if you are paying additional principal payments on loans or credit cards.

3. Call to check.

Call to check that your bills actually got paid and credited to your account once you see the charge go through on your bank account; this saves the irritation of finding out that you are late on a bill that you thought you had paid.

So there you have it; just three simple steps to easy online bill-pay setup.