2019年10月29日 • 5分钟
Even though most bills come only once a month, our busy lives mean bills are a hassle. And forgetting to pay a bill on time can have negative consequences – like late fees, your 信用评分 宕机，甚至服务被关闭.
There are some good reasons to automate bills, but there are also reasons not to automate your bills. 往下读，你就会知道什么是最适合你的.
Your payment history is the single most important component of your 信用评分.”
汽车mating your bill payments saves you from having to manually pay them online or by mailing a check or making a phone call.
When your bill payments are automated, you’ll avoid the expense of a stamp or a pay-by-phone fee. 你还可以避免滞纳金. Some billers even offer a discount if you set up autopay, such as $5 off your monthly bill or a small interest rate reduction.
如果你自动支付账单, you can save the paper needed to mail in a check in an envelope. To benefit the environment even more, opt in to electronic statements so no paper is mailed to you. You can even do this for your Patelco monthly statements – just change your preferences in 网上银行.
Did you know that your payment history is the single most important component of your 信用评分? Over time, on-time payments can even help FICO reports with negative marks. 汽车mating your bill payments is a great way to make sure your payments are on time!
If your bill payments are automated, it will be easier for you to 坚持预算 since you don’t have an option of whether to pay these bills or not.
Your information can be compromised if one of your paper bills or your checks is stolen in the mail. 汽车mating your payments helps protect you from this kind of theft. Monthly statements from your credit union could also be stolen from your mail – so opting in to eStatements is also a good idea.
汽车mating bill payments is not for every person or every bill. Consider these reasons not to automate your bill payments.
Although automated bill payments are convenient, you should still keep track of how much bills are by reading your email messages from the biller, 或者登录查看你的账户. Knowing how much bills are helps you 坚持预算. You also want to make sure you’re paying the correct amount. Some bill pay systems won’t change the amount paid even if the amount of the bill changes – so you could end up paying too much or too little.
The bottom line is that if you don’t want to independently keep tabs on amounts, you may be better off paying the bill manually each month so you’ll know how much you’re paying.
If you’re not in the habit of checking your account balances or live paycheck-to-paycheck, automated bill payments may not be right for you. Or, 如果你是一个企业主, 承包商, 或者做一份薪水不固定的工作, you may not have a steady income deposited that would always cover your bills.
租金, mortgage payments and car payments are usually the same each month, so these bills are excellent candidates for automatic billing. Some people will enjoy the convenience of automating utility bills, but not everyone is going to be comfortable automating this category of bill because it can vary widely from month to month. Consider an electricity bill from a hot September versus the bill from a much cooler October.
最后, credit card bills may not be the best bills to automate because they are almost guaranteed to vary from month-to-month. 另外, if you have a fraudulent transaction or end up returning a big ticket item, you’ll be out of the cash you paid when your monthly credit card bill was automatically processed.
每个账单都是不同的. Some offer options – set up the payment directly with the biller or set it up from your credit union account. 其他收费公司只提供一种付款方式.
Setting up automatic payment directly with the biller is ideal for bills that may change each month, 比如水电费账单. Some billers support ACH transfers only (where you provide your routing and account numbers), while others allow credit or debit cards as forms of payment.
然而, when it’s possible to set up an automated bill through your credit union account, you protect yourself because you’re minimizing the number of companies that have your financial information. And if you need to make changes in the future, your credit union’s 网上银行 can a one-stop shop if you have multiple bills set up there.
You don’t have to automate all your bills to 节省时间, 省钱, protect the environment and protect your personal information. Use 账单支付 from Patelco Online™ — where you can pay almost any bill. 查看我们的 缴费指南 了解更多.
我每个月怎么支付我的账单? Follow these 7 tips to better manage your monthly bills.
想知道你的钱都去哪儿了? 了解什么是预算, how to make a budget and get budgeting tips to keep you on track to reach your financial goals.
Read this article to find out how to form good spending habits so you can stay on budget and reach your financial goals.
