Comments on: Eight Minutes to Financial Success – Minute #8: Bank on Autopilot

By: Andrea

Andrea — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 21:12:05 +0000

I did automate my electric bill as well. I took the last year of bills, added them up and divided by 12. Starting with the winter months (lower bills in Texas) I began paying this 1/12 amount and built up a credit so that in the summer months my credit was consumed, but my cash outlay didnt change. I do watch the bill to be sure that my credit + planned payment will cover the current charges, but once that is verified I can file the bill without another thought or step. If it won’t, then I do send in the difference, which is usually only 1-2 times per year.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:37:40 +0000

I’m another that has all my accounts set up to pay online, but I have to manually go in and review each one each month. It helps me pay attention to if any of my utilities are going up – either because if increased pricing or increased usage, and I like feeling like I’m regularly checking in. I have one set of bills I check during the first half of the month and one I check in the second half, so it really only takes a few minutes two days a month.

I do, however, have regular transfers from my checking account to my savings.

I think this tip and the one before it were really good.

By: valleycat1

valleycat1 — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:14:04 +0000

The automatic payments we have set up give us ample notice ahead of the due date to review the statement & confirm the billing amount. We’ve been doing this for almost 10 years now with no problems. No double billing & no missed paymentes, and as far as I recall, no need to correct the payment amount.

By: Leah

Leah — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 03:26:38 +0000

I agree with Kristine — I have my bills set up to be paid online, but I’m the one who pushes the button. I too have had more than one occasion where a billing error was made, and I was always glad I could fix before the money left my account.

Automating savings is brilliant. I do whisk away 10% of my income each month, and I totally don’t miss it. Nice to click over to ING every once in awhile and see the total building.

By: kristine

kristine — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 23:56:20 +0000

3. Rather than set to auto-payments, just have one day each month, after all bills are received, where you go online and OK the payments. It is far, far harder to get money back once gone, than to not pay an incorrect bill. This way you are never out the erroneous higher sum. Several of my friends have horror stories regarding double-billing that lead to bounce, bounce, bounce!

In any case- I do not hand over direct access to my account to any company- I have not had a single utility or phone company that has not made the occasional billing mistake. By paying online yourself once a month, instead of automating, you retain control of approving, or not, what you are being charged, before your bank account is drained.

I feel it is better to develop the habit and discipline of regular bill paying than to hand over the keys to the kingdom. My concerns may seem far-fetched, but no one ever expects a flood or a fire either.

By: kristine

kristine — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 23:55:24 +0000

Hmmm,. my one character comment went through. My longer one did not. I suspect a character count bounce to moderation!

By: kristine

kristine — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 23:54:26 +0000

By: valleycat1

valleycat1 — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 15:13:52 +0000

I too have automated all the bills that we pay in full each month, if the entity allows it. I get an emailed reminder or statement at least a week beforehand so I can account for the amount. I also have gone paperless for credit cards, signing up for spending alerts, payment due date warning, statement available notices & payment processed confirmations. I also check the bank account history at least once a week to be doubly sure all the automated payments are being processed by the bank.

With online CC payments (automatic transfers from bank to CC) you just have to be sure to schedule it ahead of the due date because both your bank and the CC company have a window of several days to process the request.

By: Andi

Andi — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 14:59:39 +0000

I would like to add one caveat. If you are on an irregular income, this may be a poor option. Ideally, you will have planned and budgeted so that there are no shortcomings. . . however, we are in agriculture and the rules are a little different. When I had a “regular” job, and received my paycheck every month, this would have been a great option. Now, with many variables in our income and outgo, I prefer to take care of bills when I’m confident the cash is there.

By: Brad

Brad — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 14:57:58 +0000

Great advice – but what we found works even better is to have my paychecks directly deposited into our SAVINGS account and than making one transfer at the beginning of each month from savings to checking – that is what we live off of for the month. I use Quicken to manage our checking account and watch our balance as the month goes on. If it looks like we’re going to run out, we need to cut back on things for the remainder of that month.