Pay Bills Online and Save $155 Per Year

Recently, I realized that I am down to my last checkbook and started to look around the Web to order a new check. Then I remembered that my brokerage firm had merged with (or acquired by) another firm, thus the check information may have changed. So I went online and found that it will cost me $10 for 100 checks…10 cents a check, not bad. Anyway, I am glad that I don’t have write that many checks anymore because this saves me a lot of time and money.

In the past few years, I managed to move most of by bills to automatic online payment. Let’s see:

• One bill that I switched to payroll deduction with automatic payment (saved 1 check & stamp)
  1. Mortgage
• Five bills that are automatically paid via credit card (saved 5 checks & stamps, plus I get cash back reward)
  1. Electricity
  2. Gas
  3. Telephone, Cable TV, and Internet
  4. Cell phone
  5. Car Insurance
• Three credit cards paid via electronic fund transfers (saved 3 checks & stamps)
• Three bills that still uses checks
  1. Home Insurance
  2. Water
  3. Real Estate Tax

Well, not quite as automated as it can be, but here is the breakdown:

• Saving: 9 checks avoided per month equates to 90 cents, plus $3.69 in stamps = $55 per year saved
• Cash Back Reward: approximately $10,000 per year at 1% = $100 per year

I probably could have done better with a better reward card, but $155 is not bad for less money and more convenience.

I hope you like this tip.

Pinyo is the brain behind Moolanomy personal finance blog and a few other web sites. If you like this article, please subscribe for free daily email updates.

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