Paying Bills Online
October 02, 2006
This is a really good idea, but what about doing away with paper bills? And automatic payment of bills online?
I personally pay all of my bills online, thus saving stamps, envelopes and checks.
It is a good idea to be able to look at your bills, it also gives you an incentive to pay them off quicker.
Just for a moment do something for me.
1. Pick up one of your bills.
2. Look at the "Monthly Payment amount", what do you see?
3. How about "Amount Past Due?"
4. "Late Charges?"
5. "Total Payment Due"
6. "Please Pay This Amount By"
7. "Principal Balance"
8. "Interest Balance"
9. "Payment Applied"
10. "Ending Balance"
#1 Currently, I am looking at a client's Credit Card bill.
#2 This month it says they owe nothing, RED FLAG!!! Actually, they still owe $7,160.00. Do you realize how much interest will accrue if they don't make a payment this month? Look at the fine print, here goes: "Please note: Interest will continue to accrue on this loan. "
#3 Fortunately, this client is not past due but if you are, you will need to play catch-up, in other words, try and find even more money that maybe you thought you would have this month. Do you have it this time?
#4 Try never to be late on a payment. These charges add up quickly. Some people actually pay more on late charges than the actual bill.
#5 After all of those "other payments" due here is the grand total. Don't you wonder sometimes, WHY????!!! What have I done???!!!
#6 Are you ready to pay this bill on time, (for a change) this month? Or are you, once again, short on cash?
#7 How much you have left to pay on the loan.
#8 The total amount owed on a loan before any payments are made.
9. This is last months amount you paid, did you pay it? Was it tight?
#10 Your total now.
I calculated this client's bill. If they pay the minimum on this credit card, like they were doing, it will take approximately 183 months (15 years) to pay off this one credit card!
In that time they will have paid $21,045 including interest. That is if they never used the credit card again.
If you have credit card debt, you need to pay it off as soon as possible!
--------------------------------
Post written by Brenda Ludecke from No More Mortgage.
Labels: Finance
