When you're going away for more than a week or two, how do you manage paying the household bills?

I can pay practically all bills online, either with the vendor’s web site, automatic payments, or using my credit union’s web site’s feature which will send checks to people. If not, there is also mailing checks, or phoning people and making a payment via bank/credit card. Other options include having friends or neighbors keep an eye on things or make direct payments, or paying in advance, or giving someone a few checks to cover payments in future.

Keep a reminder of when payment is due and call using their automated payment system. You can make a one time payment this way

What @Zaku said. I started using Bill Pay back in 2002 and have never encountered any problems, too, which is a service provided by my now bank. When I started, however, I was with a different bank, so not necessarily tied to your bank. From what I’ve seen you can pretty well access just about any billing site via the web or phone, so look up that info now and store it away so that you don’t have to search around for it when away from home and possibly your familiar computer.

I keep everything in my briefcase that I would need to handle all business and household stuff from wherever I might be.

My bills are billed either to my credit card, which is paid automatically out of my bank account, or they’re paid directly out of my bank account, so I never have to deal with writing checks, mailing checks, forgetting to mail checks, etc. The occasional doctor bill just waits until I get home, and I will write a check for it.

They are all deducted automagically from my bank account.

Just make sure you have a plan for the important ones like utilities, insurance and mortgage/rent etc. For things that don’t automatically deduct and the billing cycle happens while you are away you can usually setup a onetime payment with them on the phone or online. I only use auto pay for things that you cannot afford to have any lapses on like insurance. I still try to get paper copies to keep as records but I pay with a semi-automatic bill payer service through my bank . It allows me to manually approve and send in the amounts but all the paper and expense of postage is removed. Many banks have this a a free option and you just have to set it up. When I’m away I’ll look up my account for certain bills and then just login to the bill payer service and send that amount.

I do online billpay and I pay my bills monthly for the most part through e-Bills. So going away for a couple weeks doesn’t really impact anything. There’s only a few bills I get (county taxes, water & sewer—- mostly govt stuff) that aren’t on e-Billing.

I do something similar to @Blackwater_Park for paying my bills normally. I get paper bills in the mail but then pay them out of my bank’s online bill pay feature and file the paper bill. If I know I’m going to be away when a bill is due, I would either call the provider before the trip and pay or pay from the online bill pay while away through my bank.

When I broke my ankle and was out West for five weeks instead of two, I asked a friend to get my mail and walked her through my bill paying process.

Everything I pay for is transacted online. So even when I go away, I still can pay it on my phone or MAC. I also have only one bill (required) that is set for autopay. I prefer to do my own transactions and not keep bank information saved on websites. I don’t have a single bill that I pay the old fashioned way of letter and stamp.

I usually pay them in advance, but if I really need to pay something while away, they’re all available online anyway. I can pay most from my phone.

I pay beforehand, then I don’t have to worry about having my passwords with me to make a payment with my phone.

I am currently on a 2 week cruise, and before I left, I prepaid several bills, and set up auto payments on others.

We pay online and have scheduled payments to go out a few days ahead. If its payments that fluctuate, like utilities, then we set for the month to pay a little more, but even those now allow you to set a monthly amount, and at the end of the year you either don’t pay anything on your last month if you overpaid or your monthly rate goes up the following year and you pay what is owed. I usually end up getting the last month free.

I pay an agreed amount every month for all my utilities. It comes off automatically wherever I am and I don’t have to think about it. I get a discounted price for paying this way.

You can pay ahead using your usual method. If you don’t know how much the bill will be, pay an estimated amount. They will work out the math. This way they will not send you a delinquent notice and a late fee. I did this successfully a long time ago, before online bill pay service was available thru my bank.