{"id":5686,"date":"2009-05-28T22:08:49","date_gmt":"2009-05-29T02:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/?p=5686"},"modified":"2018-12-08T20:34:11","modified_gmt":"2018-12-09T01:34:11","slug":"save-money-by-paying-bills-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/save-money-by-paying-bills-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Save Money by Paying Bills Online"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have used online bill pay since we were stationed in Cuba 13 years ago. Back then it was purely for convenience reasons as the mail was incredibly slow at times and I didn&#8217;t want to make a late payment. After we returned to the states I continued pay bills online and over time I realized this habit has saved our family a significant amount of money.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/files\/2009\/05\/save-money-by-paying-bills-online.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-21776\" src=\"\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/files\/2009\/05\/save-money-by-paying-bills-online-682x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Paying bills online is an easy way to save money and it really adds up over time. \" width=\"600\" height=\"901\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/files\/2009\/05\/save-money-by-paying-bills-online-682x1024.jpg 682w, https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/files\/2009\/05\/save-money-by-paying-bills-online-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/files\/2009\/05\/save-money-by-paying-bills-online-400x600.jpg 400w, https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/files\/2009\/05\/save-money-by-paying-bills-online.jpg 1125w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I broke it down to see how much money I have saved over the past 13 years.<\/p>\n<p>I am only figuring basic bills because we have not paid a credit card bill in several years. Obviously if you have more bills you will save more money.<\/p>\n<p>Bills I pay every month:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cell phone<\/li>\n<li>Electric<\/li>\n<li>Water<\/li>\n<li>Home phone<\/li>\n<li>Internet<\/li>\n<li>Auto Insurance<\/li>\n<li>Life Insurance<\/li>\n<li>Rent\/Mortgage<\/li>\n<li>Orthodontist<\/li>\n<li>Tuition<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Bills I pay every year:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Insurance<\/li>\n<li>Auto Registration<\/li>\n<li>HSLDA Membership<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Cost of Stamps (since postage has gone up over the years I calculated the amount using $0.44 per stamp.)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>$566.28 over the past 13 years.<\/p>\n<p>This amount might not seem significant, but to me every penny I save is a penny I don&#8217;t need to earn. For many people this number will be significantly higher since I did not include car payments, student loan payments, or multiple credit card payments in my calculation. I was looking at my checkbook the other day and realized I have been using the same box of checks for seven years!<\/p>\n<p>Even though a check only costs about 6 cents, that is an additional savings of about $100 over 13 years!<\/p>\n<p>The other benefit of paying bills online is that you can schedule the bills at the beginning of the month and avoid late fees! I have not paid a late fee since I started paying bills online. You don&#8217;t need to worry about slow mail or driving down to the office to pay your bill, usually online transactions are processed within a day.<\/p>\n<p>If your bank charges for online bill pay find a new bank. Banks need your business and there are many large reputable banks that offer free online bill pay.<\/p>\n<p>Personally, I bank with USAA and have been very pleased with their online bill pay service. You can set up automatic payments for a specific amount and if the bill is larger than your specified amount you receive an email, the payment does not get processed until you approve the larger amount.<\/p>\n<p>You can also cut your paper waste by having your bills delivered electronically. I save my bills on my hard drive just as I would a paper bill. Almost all large companies offer ebills and it is a great way to keep bills from getting lost in a pile on your desk.<\/p>\n<p>Do you use online bill pay? Have you been happy with your bank&#8217;s service. If so leave a comment and tell us about your bank. If you have had a bad experience with online bill pay we want to hear about it too!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have used online bill pay since we were stationed in Cuba 13 years ago. Back then it was purely for convenience reasons as the mail was incredibly slow at times and I didn&#8217;t want to make a late payment. After we returned to the states I continued pay bills online and over time I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3358],"class_list":{"0":"post-5686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-frugal-living","7":"tag-redo","8":"entry","9":"has-post-thumbnail"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v15.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Save Money by Paying Bills Online - The Happy Housewife\u2122 :: Frugal Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/save-money-by-paying-bills-online\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Save Money by Paying Bills Online - The Happy Housewife\u2122 :: Frugal Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have used online bill pay since we were stationed in Cuba 13 years ago. Back then it was purely for convenience reasons as the mail was incredibly slow at times and I didn&#8217;t want to make a late payment. After we returned to the states I continued pay bills online and over time I [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/save-money-by-paying-bills-online\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Happy Housewife\u2122 :: Frugal Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheHappyHousewife\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-05-29T02:08:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-12-09T01:34:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/files\/2009\/05\/save-money-by-paying-bills-online-682x1024.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@tonihanderson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@tonihanderson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Toni Herrbach\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/\",\"name\":\"The Happy Housewife\\u2122 :: Frugal Living\",\"description\":\"Where Martha Meets Real Life\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/save-money-by-paying-bills-online\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/files\/2009\/05\/save-money-by-paying-bills-online-682x1024.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/save-money-by-paying-bills-online\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/save-money-by-paying-bills-online\/\",\"name\":\"Save Money by Paying Bills Online - The Happy Housewife\\u2122 :: Frugal Living\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/save-money-by-paying-bills-online\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-05-29T02:08:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-09T01:34:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/#\/schema\/person\/4e0cc17af167f72194b9d40ffb066454\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/save-money-by-paying-bills-online\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/#\/schema\/person\/4e0cc17af167f72194b9d40ffb066454\",\"name\":\"Toni Herrbach\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5686"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21777,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5686\/revisions\/21777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/frugal-living\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}