If you sign up with an online bill-paying service, you’ll still have to pay other bills by writing checks. Those might be non-recurring expenses or payments to companies that are not included on your vendor list. Even for those bills, you can go online to see if the checks have cleared.
The cost for such services is typically only a few dollars per month and the money you’ll save on postage will offset some of those fees. Moreover, the amount you wind up paying probably will be money well spent because of the convenience and time savings. You can pay bills at virtually any time, from your home or your office or from a laptop computer while you travel.
Even more important is the peace of mind you can enjoy. As long as you give yourself enough lead time, you won’t have to worry about forgetting to pay a bill or having it delayed in the mail. If a payment is due on the tenth of each month, for example, and you have an automatic payment scheduled for the seventh, you know it will get there on time. Such punctuality will spare you from paying late fees and have a positive impact on your credit rating.
