Paying bills on time helps you avoid late fees and extra interest, and it also protects your credit score. And that saves you money on everything from loan and credit card interest to auto insurance. But due dates can catch you unprepared if you don’t have a system for managing them and your money.
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Here are lazy genius ways to pay your bills on time every time.
Let an App Create a Budget for You
Knowing how much money you have coming in, what bills you need to pay and how much to pay is key to avoiding late payments. A budget lets you do that, and a budgeting app is the lazy genius way to create one.
Many of the best budgeting apps have a basic free version that walks you through steps for creating a budget, such as:
- Calculating your monthly income
- Listing mandatory and discretionary expenses
- Determining how much you have left after bills are paid
- Identifying opportunities to cut expenses
Two free apps to consider are:
- EveryDollar Budget App: The free version of this Dave Ramsey app allows you to designate every dollar to a specific use.
- HoneyDue: This free app allows couples to create a budget, set bill reminders, and monitor all their bank and credit accounts.
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Set Up Direct Deposit
If you don’t already have your pay or benefit checks direct-deposited, consider making the switch. Unlike mobile deposits, which might take days to clear unless you pay a fee, direct deposits can hit your account up to two days early with early pay, so you can pay bills sooner.
Put Your Bills on Autopay
Autopay can be dangerous for people who don’t keep track of their money. But now that you’re budgeting income and expenses, and you know exactly when your pay will clear, you can safely put bill-paying on autopilot.
One way to do it is through your bank’s online and mobile bill-pay service. The benefit of using your bank’s bill pay is that it’s integrated with the online and mobile apps you’re already using. The downsides are that you need your payees’ mailing addresses to set up automatic payments, and you’ll have to schedule payments several days before the due dates to ensure they arrive on time.
The other method is to set up autopay on your payees’ own websites. You’ll have to visit each site individually to set it up, but once there, you have some flexibility over how the payments get made. If you pay certain bills by credit card to accumulate points, for example, you can designate the card as your payment method. You also get to specify the exact payment dates, and in the case of credit card accounts, whether to pay the whole balance, the minimum amount due or a custom amount.
Bill paying doesn’t have to be tedious or time-consuming. With a system in place for managing your income and expenses, you can pay all your bills on time every month, while barely lifting a finger.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: The Lazy Genius Guide To Paying Bills on Time (Every Time)
