Did you know there are a couple of easy ways to lower the cost of paying bills?
Here's one that I was guilty of for many years. For just about all of my bills, I'd write the check, stamp the envelope and pay away! I would totally ignore the pamphlet that came every month about online bill pay services. Occasionally I would think about the wasted stamp and the cost of the check, but I'd just dismiss it. It's just a stamp, right? Think about this: at $0.45 per stamp, you're paying an extra $5.40 per monthly bill each year! Now let's consider the cost of the checks used to pay those bills. The average cost of a paper check is between $0.10-$0.20 each! That's another $1.20-$2.40 per bill per year!
So now we're at an additional cost of between $6.60-$7.80 per bill per year. According to ZdNet, the average household paid 11 bills online in 2008. We can only assume that number is closer to 14 or 15 now. With the cost per bill mentioned earlier, paying 15 bills online instead of paper would result in a savings of $99-$117! Just for switching to online payments! That's $100 for a simple change! I'll take it! It's harder to find a company nowadays that doesn't take online payments than it is to find one that does! Just about everyone is taking bill payment online!
So next time you get that pamphlet with your phone bill about online payments, consider the extra $100 or so that you could be missing out on! It's bad enough to have to pay bills, but you might as well try and cut the cost of paying bills as much as you can!
Karma points bonus: you can feel better about using less paper by going to online billpay as well!
Added financial bonus: some companies will give you a small bonus for signing up for online payments! I've seen a 10% bill credit for one month, a $5 credit and more!
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