Birddogman
Pennsylvania
Senior Member
Joined: 08/02/2005
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Good Sam RV Club
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I just recently went through this whole process, so maybe relating my experiences will help you.
. Two factors coincided to push me to move to electronic banking which I have been resisting for a long time (partly because I had concerns about security; and partly because I didn’t want to have to change the way I’ve handling our finances all my whole life) One factor is that we have been taking longer trips as I gradually spend less time managing my firm and more time hunting/traveling. Another is that the bad economy seems to have caused creditors to shorten the time between sending a bill and its due date to less than a month.
The clincher was when we took a three week upland hunting trip out west. I paid every bill I could get my hands on and figured we’d be fine. When we returned, I found I was already late on a bunch of bills that had come in that three week period. GRRRR! Also, we purchase nearly everything through a credit card (to get the cash back deal) and pay it off every month so there are never any finance charges – miss making timely payment on that even once and the finance charges will wipe out all of your gains.
I did NOT want to give creditors direct access to my accounts. Since we have no debt, all of the bills are for variable amounts (electric, phone, credit card, etc), therefore scheduling fixed automatic payments is not an option. If you have a fixed payment, like a mortgage payment, you can easily set up your account to simply pay the same amount each month to the same creditor.
So, the first thing I did was set up electronic banking through my regular bank. It’s very easy (just talk to your banker), secure, convenient and free (did I mention free??). I can now very easily have checks “written” out of my account, shift monies among accounts, monitor accounts, etc, from anywhere in the country using the regular laptop and aircard I use to telecommute to work when we are traveling. Plus, once you have made a payment to a certain creditor (say, the electric company), paying that creditor again can be done with just a couple keystrokes. The creditor actually gets the money via a paper check that the bank makes sure arrives on the exact due date you specify, so you don’t have to pay ahead of time to avoid late charges and you get the time-value of your money up to the last minute. Setting up such an account is easy (if I can do it, anyone can) and you’ll be glad you have it even if you never travel. Security is a non-issue. Wish I had done it long ago!
Then, I contacted each creditor and had them send electronic bills to me by email instead of paper bills to the house. Since I check my work email every day about 1,000 times, I see the bills there and pay them electronically as described above. No creditor has access to my accounts or can pull money out of my accounts and nothing is paid until I “write” the check, so I can dispute a bill if I want to.
The only downside to all of that was that, in the beginning, I accidently deleted some electronic bills thinking they were spam (I get tons of spam). Now, I’m a more careful about deleting spam.
Some bills cannot be had electronically, but they are usually bills with a long lead time – like real estate taxes, so they have not been a problem for me as our trips currently last about one month. However, I’m hoping to spend three, four or more months at a time out in the MH in the next few years and then we will need to do something about bills like that.
2008 Winnebago Journey 39z DP
2004 Jeep Liberty toad
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KHJPHOTO
San Luis Obispo, CA & Lancaster, PA
Senior Member
Joined: 11/21/2004
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Me? Pay bills? Well I send 'em on to the White House - Obama gonna pay allllll
our bills!
We can just RV!!!
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LindsayRichards
Tavares, FL
Senior Member
Joined: 01/22/2007
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We do electronic billing as described about and have our mail forwarded to our daughter who opens anything that might be a bill. This catches the oddball stuff. Electronic billing is getting to be the norm now and I see a time when the paper bill and check will probably carry an extra charge.
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TexasH
Katy, TX
Full Member
Joined: 02/24/2006
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We have almost everyone on electronic statements and auto pay to our credit card. I check the credit card account on line regularly to check what is posted (both the bills and travel expenses) When the credit card statement comes electronically, I pay it on line from my checking account. The only bills I can't get on electronic statements are my garbage bill and my lawn care guy. We prepay the garbage bill several months at a time and the lawn care is the same each month, so we just mail the guy a check.
Having the autopays go to the credit card rather than the checking account gives me the opportunity to check them before they get their hands into my checking account. Plus, it's much easier to dispute a credit card charge than a debit to your account.
The only other thing is the one time bills, like doctor bills, that you never know when they come. If we are on the road less than a month or so, we just wait til we get home and take care of it. If we are gone longer than a month, we forward our mail to our daughter, who can open the stuff and let us know if something needs attention. She can e mail copies of the bills to us for payment.
We travel half of the time and so far, this has worked well for us.
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