Free Bill Pay
Your bills are already high enough -- why should you pay more than you already owe? You can avoid those costs with free bill pay.
Depending on your bill payment method you may be spending way more money paying your bills than is necessary. Paying bills through the mail has a hidden cost -- all those stamps and envelopes add up. Even paying a bill in person at certain payment centers adds a little bit of money to your bill, usually disguised as a "convenience fee" or something like that. Don't forget that paying at a bill payment center uses gas and often a half hour or more waiting in line.
Paying bills doesn't have to cost you a thing. There are a few ways to pay your bills for free.
Shop Around
Sometimes simply changing a utility from one company to another will change the way you pay your bills. I recently switched to a "green" electric company and found out from the guy who came to read the meter that not only does my new company not charge a fee for meter reading they also don't charge for bill payment -- anywhere. Not online, not by phone, and not at a handful of payment centers within a few miles of my house. Pretty sweet, right?
It turns out that there's plenty of competition in the utilities market. Some companies will try to attract business by offering more personalized service or "better" service, such as free bill pay. You may only be saving a few bucks a month but all that money really adds up.
Automatic Bill Pay
Depending on the bill you're paying, you may have the option of signing up for "automatic bill payment" -- a method of paying your bills without really paying them at all. The company that you owe money to draws their monthly amount due directly from your bank account each month. No envelopes to stamp or lick, no driving to a payment center, just have the bill drafted from your account. Automatic billing is always free. Bill pay centers can't make the same boast.
The downside of automatically drafted bills is that you may not keep as close a watch on your consumption, or for errors on the bill. If you use automatic bill payment you need to make sure and check the bill each month.
Free Online Bill Pay Service
Most of the big national banks offer free online bill pay service through their online banking systems, though it is possible that some bills you pay may end up adding a dollar fee for this service. Check with the companies that bill you to see if they charge.
This is a little bit more time consuming than automatic bill pay, but you will pay more attention to your monthly bills when you have to manually enter them and click "pay" each month. This is a better system for people with problems paying their bills.
Want to pay bills for free? You can do it -- you just need to spend a little bit of time reseraching the best method for you.