General Question

elbanditoroso's avatar

When do you schedule payment of bills when paying through the internet?

Asked by elbanditoroso (33594points) May 29th, 2013

An example: I received a VISA bill in this morning’s mail – the due date is June 19. I always use the VISA card’s website to pay my bill – I haven’t mailed a check in probably four years, and I don’t use my bank’s Bill pay service for my Visa bill.

Anyway, my routine is to deal with the bill payment as soon as the bill arrives (as in – 10 minutes ago) so I don’t forget to pay it. But I always schedule my payment for one day before the due date (in this case, June 18) – after all, why pay them early?

Is my routine pretty normal?

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8 Answers

Tropical_Willie's avatar

I have a couple of bills I pay on-line, pay on their due date. I also pay off complete or at least 60 %. I also set up payment on day I receive the bill ( by e-mail ).

tedibear's avatar

That’s what I do. Typically one to two days prior to the due date so that the recipient has their money on time, but no earlier than necessary.

Pachy's avatar

With a couple of suggestions, I pay all my bills online and almost always schedule them for payment on the day they arrive. I prefer paying them early because I never want to be late and/or pay interest or finance charges. It’s an old habit.

flutherother's avatar

I pay bills online and right away. Most of my utilities are paid by direct debit and come off my account automatically.

Mariah's avatar

I schedule for right before the due date. My dad has always lectured that the rule of thumb is to hold onto money for as long as you can. If it’s sitting in a bank account, it could be earning interest during that time.

gailcalled's avatar

I pay asap also because the pathetic interest earned by me is negligible. My monthly charge card averages about $1500 (I charge almost everything). The interest I would lose from having that sit in my checking account for another three weeks as, on a good day, 2 cents.

On several occasions I have had $6500 in the checking account for the month. It earned 7 cents.

tedibear's avatar

I should clarify – my billpay system allows me to choose the date of payment, with a two business day restriction. If I want to pay a bill due on May 31, I would have to do so before 6:00PM on May 29th. Typically, I pay bills on Sunday. This Sunday I only had one bill to pay that is due on June 7th. I set the payment date for June 5th. The money will debit from my account on the 5th, assuming it’s an electronic payment. So, while I pay my bills ahead of time, the money doesn’t come out until the date I choose, and I only have to do this once a week.

hearkat's avatar

For bills that are the same every month, we set up automatic debits. For bills that vary, we set reminders and arrange payment the day before it’s due, even for bills where I can select the payment date from a pop up calendar. I do that just in case something unexpected comes up.

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