What is it?
The age of the internet has created many new efficiencies and conveniences. Perhaps the best internet creation is the ability to pay bills online. Almost every bank, agency, and business now allows customers to pay their bills online. This includes phone bills, electricity bills, gas bills, cable bills, and almost every other type of bill. You can also set up an automatic payment, which is perfect for things like a weekly or monthly rent. You can also set it up to have your invoices come to your email, and they often contain a link that lets you pay the bill immediately.
How to
To begin, you have to decide the method of how you want to pay your bill. Most banks offer a free service through their homepages if you sign in with your account. This is by far the easiest and simplest method. You can also set up an online bill payment with each agency or business account you have, but this is more time consuming and requires you to visit multiple sites every time you have to pay a bill. Select the “pay bill” feature, and choose which account you want to withdraw the payment from. This is usually your main account, although you can also select your savings account or credit card account. You also have the option of determining if the payment is recurring or not. A recurring payment will take the money from your account at a designated time you set. Type in the amount you need to pay, and select okay. You will be asked to confirm, at which point the payment will be sent through. Be sure to check the following business day to make sure the payment has gone through, as you don’t want to be charged a late fee for a bill you thought you had already paid!
Why do it?
Paying bills online is a quick and easy way to pay your weekly or monthly bills. It saves on having to mail a cheque, visit a business in person, or call them on the phone to pay your bill. You can also set up a designated pay period, where the money will be withdrawn from your account at a certain time. This is perfect for a weekly or monthly rent, and saves you in case you get busy and forget that a payment is due. You can also access your bill invoices online, either through your account or by having an email sent to you. This saves you from having to check your mail constantly.
Risks
The biggest risk of paying your bills online is security. That’s why it is recommended that you pay all your bills through your bank’s website rather than a business or agency’s website.
It is also important to have a strong password. A weak password can allow someone else to get into your online bank account, and potentially steal money from you. Other than that, however, there are no real risks to paying bills online, as it is a quick and easy way to ensure your bills get paid on time.
