Personal Finance

How do you manage all your online bills?

  • Last Updated:
  • Feb 19th, 2015 8:00 pm
Tags:
None
Deal Addict
Apr 5, 2003
1005 posts
407 upvotes
White Rock, BC

How do you manage all your online bills?

Hi all,

I did a search but couldn't really find answers to what I was looking for, or they were really old.

Due to a rather large increase in mail theft in my area I've finally decided that I'm going to start getting all of my bills online. I've always paid my bills online, but I would have my bills delivered in the mail. I'd put everything into a pile and then around the 20th to 23rd of every month I'd sit down on the laptop and schedule their payments. This worked for me because I always knew where the bills were, if I had an extra bill to pay this month (city water for example) it was just in the pile and I wouldn't forget about it. I never missed a payment in the last ten years, except when I went to pay my Scotia VISA but paid the unused CIBC VISA instead. Oops! :o :o :o

So now I've signed up to have all my bills delivered online but it's pretty much a mess of one or two bills being emailed to me directly, one or two bills being available on Epost and one or two bills that send me an alert (email/sms) that my bill is ready and for me to log into their website to go get it. So to me this is just a bit of a nightmare, instead of my paper bills being in one nice pile I've got these electronic bills all over the place with different due dates that are hard to quickly see when the first one needs payment.

I went through my first payment cycle this month and downloaded all the bills in PDF so I have them since they will probably disappear from the websites within 12 months or so. I'm thinking next month, I just download all the bills as soon as I get them and then change the file names or something like that to note that they are paid. I'm not sure.

What do you do to organize these bills and make sure you pay them all on time?
14 replies
Deal Expert
Mar 25, 2005
22706 posts
3697 upvotes
Payments: Book a recurring appointment in my calendar reminding me, 3-5 days before the payment is due
Record keeping: Log into all sites every January and save the past 12 months worth
Deal Addict
Aug 13, 2008
3401 posts
426 upvotes
Mississauga
enbridge/enersource send me email notifications, that i don't archive until i've paid the bill.
peel region water bill is paper bill i believe.
internet/cellphone send me email notifications, that i don't archive until i've paid the bill.
netflix/407 charges to my CC directly.

credit card bills (MBNA, TD VISA) come to me via email notifications that i dont archive until i've paid the bill.

in parallel i'll download a PDF copy of the bill and save it to my dropbox and label it something like "Enbridge-2015-02"
Sr. Member
Jun 9, 2006
836 posts
85 upvotes
Thornhill
When I keep track of things, I have a record line on my spreadsheet that tells me the following:

- account
- bill date
- bill balance
- bill owing
- due date
- current balance

So, for example:

- American Express
- Bill Date January 20, 2015
- Bill Balance $200.00
- Bill Owing $0.00
- Due Date February 9, 2015
- Current Balance $100.00

This way, I know to check for a new bill on roughly the 20th of the month for American Express (day varies by bill). I apply this to all my bills. Luckily, most of mine are online, and I check every 2 weeks to see where I stand.

I then have calculations to total up what I owe now vs what I have in my bank, etc.
Deal Addict
Aug 13, 2008
3401 posts
426 upvotes
Mississauga
to add to my earlier post, i also have mint set up with several monthly budgets. i check mint more frequently than logging into each of my accounts individually. so whenever i log into mint, i check my budgets for the month to see if payment/transfer has been made for each budget item.
Sr. Member
User avatar
Feb 12, 2013
837 posts
96 upvotes
Like @Kasakato, I have recurring calendar events scheduled about 6 days prior to due date. If you use Mint, I also noticed that they send useful reminders for bill payments as well.
Deal Addict
Apr 5, 2003
1005 posts
407 upvotes
White Rock, BC
Thanks for the input. I also did put my paid PDF bills into dropbox. It seems like most are setting up some sort of manual calender reminder every month or just the fact that the email is still there is a reminder. I don't use mint.com today but will have a look at it.

Would love to hear from anyone else with other ideas.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Feb 22, 2013
2028 posts
173 upvotes
Ottawa, ON
1. I signed up for online billing.

2. I don't do automatic withdrawals/payments because I don't trust the companys (e.g. Rogers) to not overcharge and then me have to fight them to get my money back.

3. I get an email saying Bill X is due on February 28 (for example).

4. On February 15 (for example, but always the mid-month pay), I log in and manually pay my bills through online banking. When the bill is paid I delete the email saying Bill X is due.

Simple :)
Deal Addict
Apr 5, 2003
1005 posts
407 upvotes
White Rock, BC
CWatson87 wrote:
2. I don't do automatic withdrawals/payments because I don't trust the companys (e.g. Rogers) to not overcharge and then me have to fight them to get my money back.
I too subscribe to this theory, especially if they will only withdraw from my bank account. However, if they will let me auto-pay with my VISA (Wind Mobile, Vonage, Shaw) then I've allowed it just to make things a little easier.

I'm thinking I may just create an unpaid folder and download bills into it, kind of like my old pile of paper bills I got in the mail. If something is in there then I know it has to be paid. My only worry is that I forget to download a bill when I receive the email/sms and then I would just forget to pay it at the end of the month.
Member
User avatar
Oct 13, 2004
279 posts
10 upvotes
mbk.2k3 wrote: enbridge/enersource send me email notifications, that i don't archive until i've paid the bill.
peel region water bill is paper bill i believe.
internet/cellphone send me email notifications, that i don't archive until i've paid the bill.
netflix/407 charges to my CC directly.

credit card bills (MBNA, TD VISA) come to me via email notifications that i dont archive until i've paid the bill.
All those bills except Enbridge, I get on Epost.
So that's Peel Water, Koodo cellphone, 407, TD Visa etc.

Then I go to my banking app or website and set the bill payment for about 5 days or so before the due date.
Member
May 2, 2008
290 posts
62 upvotes
For those companies I trust enough I have the amount taken automatically. For the others, I pay every bill immediately on reception. Any theoretical (and tiny) monetary advantage of waiting before paying is negated by the waste of time and energy trying to keep tabs on payment dates.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Aug 16, 2004
2513 posts
1553 upvotes
Toronto
I don't do business with companies I don't trust.
Everything else gets funnelled to my credit card (collects rewards)
The credit card is on auto payment to pay off the full balance on the due date.

All I do is verify the charges on the card and know I have 25 days or so to file a dispute.
In the 15+ years I've been doing this I've never had a single problem (fingers crossed).
LRT: Let's Ruin Toronto
Newbie
Feb 1, 2015
34 posts
12 upvotes
Vancouver, BC
Credit card autopay (or automatic bank debit if credit card not accepted).

I do a monthly reconciliation of all accounts on YNAB. If a bill seems unusually high I'll look into it (usually by calling the company because I can never remember my logins for various accounts - seriously who knows their Fido account login?) otherwise if it's in line with previous months then I just move on. Life's too short.

I can't believe the amount of work some of you guys do to make sure bills get paid on time.
Sr. Member
May 29, 2006
691 posts
225 upvotes
I just setup all my bills to debit my bank account in full.... Never worry about missing a bill that way.... Makes life WAaaaaaayy easier
Deal Addict
User avatar
Mar 31, 2009
1219 posts
884 upvotes
I download them and print them. I have a tack board that I tack unpaid bills to. I look enough at the tack board that I remind myself what I haven't paid and I know approximately when each bill is due anyway. Pay bills online a few days before payments are due.

I purposely don't pay bills until they're due because I keep all my money in investments and savings accounts, so I don't leave excess cash in a checking account.

Top