Bills

[chicklets123]

Do you pay as soon as you get a bill statement or do you wait until the a few days it is due to pay to collect interest?

Also do you pay yourself first or the bills first?

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[Dave1442397]

Most of mine are on automatic debit. The few that aren't, as soon as I get the bill I go to my online bank account and set the payment up for the due date.

Credit cards are different. I like to pay as I go, maybe once a week or so, depending on what goes on the cards.

[Loren Ver]

For non automatic bills I pay as soon as they arrive, that way they don't get forgotten or "delayed" in the mail. 

[kanga1622]

Most of our bills are autopay. Any that aren’t (medical bills mostly) are paid when they arrive or we make a visit to the office. Credit cards are paid weekly.

[Zikoris]

Our bills are all set to auto-pay to a credit card. It doesn't seem worth fussing around so much for such a small amount of interest (our phone bills are less than $30 each, internet around the same).

Twice a month when I get paid we pay off our credit cards in full and put everything left over into investments. So I guess we pay our bills first then ourselves.

[Channel-Z]

I pay immediately. I'm likely to forget about it if I wait too long.

[BicycleB]

Bill? What is bill? I have no bills!

Just kidding. I have them on autopay. If I have a choice, I set the autopay a few days before the due date.

[Wrenchturner]

I've heard it can be a bad idea to set up direct withdrawing in case the company starts billing you incorrectly.  I only have one bill other than my credit cards and that bill is directly paid off my credit card. My cards I pay manually, I like to review the statement.

[yakamashii]

My stance on this is if you're going to delay paying, make it count, and make sure there are no/low penalties for screwing up. I only delay paying local taxes until the due date, or a bit later if it slips my mind. Here, sole proprietors get the entire year's local tax bill at once, with the option to pay in full or in four installments spread over seven months. In the past, I took the former option, mainly to feel free of it. I stopped doing that, and paying social health and national pension premiums up front for a 1% discount, after learning about FIRE.

[Sibley]

I do my banking on the weekends. Any bills that need attention get paid then.

[bluebelle]

I have a spreadsheet that tracks cashflow.....when the bill comes in, I pay it via on-line banking with a post-dated date a few days before it's due.   If I have to remember, I won't.....I also have outlook reminders for the visa payment that can't be post-dated.....most of my bills can't be set up on a credit card without a charge.....any bills I can pay with a credit card (without a fee), I put on my visa, might as well get the points.   I've always been hesitant to set up autopay, I've had a couple of bad experiences with them taking the wrong amount, and I've heard some horror stories, so I manage them myself....

[35andFI]

My IRA is funded at the beginning of each month until maxed for the year, then contributions go to my taxable account on the same schedule.
401k and HSA contributions get invested biweekly from each paycheck.

Any bills that aren’t on autopay are paid immediately with my credit card then that is paid off throughout the month.

[Mellow Mallow]

I look at the bill and then schedule a payment, via BPAY (it's an Aussie thing), for the day before it's due.

[Dicey]

We automate as much as possible. Typically, we shoot for about five days before the due date, but Chase's auto pay on their CC's only pulls the day before it's due, which drives me nuts, especially when our spending is high.

Your question about paying yourself first is tricky. Obviously, if you save so much you run out of money to pay your modest bills, you're doing something wrong. Paying yourself first typically refers to making contributions to your retirement vehicle of choice so you never even see it.

I always paid myself first and last. I did payroll deductions, then ran my budget, then swept anything unspent into a savings account. I always knew I wanted to retire early, so the savings were moved regularly into taxable investment accounts.

[BicycleB]

Chase's auto pay on their CC's only pulls the day before it's due, which drives me nuts

Agreed!!!!!

[PepperPotts]

I was spending way too much time on bills, even with online bill pay.  Since using YNAB for 3 years has me very meticulous about our budget and spending, I stopped balancing the checkbook, since it was redundant.  I put everything that can be paid with a credit card on autopay and everything that must be paid with a check on direct withdrawal.  Then on payday, I pay off whatever the credit card balance is at that moment, rather than wait for the statement. Large annual or quarterly payments such as taxes and tuition I put a reminder in my calendar.  Has freed up much time and stress to do this.  Only caveat is to make sure you have a buffer in the checking account--don't want any accidental overdrafts.

[Fishindude]

No real schedule, once or twice a week I sit down and write checks and pay bills, so they don't sit unpaid for long.
I prefer to go old school, write checks, use stamps and mail bills.   Not a fan of giving my banking of credit card info to anyone I don't have to.

[ElleFiji]

I pay myself once a month, before my auto withdrawals, then I pay the rest of my bilks

[Peach]

The only bills I pay immediately are the odd bills.  That's the ones that come in maybe once or twice a year. 

Most bills are paid on the first of the month.  I try to get as many bills as possible paid on credit cards for the cash back.  A couple are on autopay and a couple I have to manually pay on the cards.  The rest I set up online to pay from checking via the bank's billpay.

Credit cards are paid fully twice a month.  I like to pay them off a couple of days before the statement closes then again on the first of the month.

Savings are automatically sent out from checking, also on the first of the month.  I also send whatever is left over in checking on the last day of the month to savings rather than hold it over to the next month.

[Petunia 100]

No real schedule, once or twice a week I sit down and write checks and pay bills, so they don't sit unpaid for long.
I prefer to go old school, write checks, use stamps and mail bills.   Not a fan of giving my banking of credit card info to anyone I don't have to.

Every single person who handles your check has your bank account info at their finger tips.  If you truly don't want this info being given out, you should use your bank's online bill pay.

[BTDretire]

I usually wait until I have 3 or 4 bills to pay and then I do online bill pay through my bank.
Most of my bills I receive at least 3 weeks before due date, but with my cable bill, I usually receive due it 10 days before its due date, so I need to watch that one, even if no other bills show up, I pay that one. I do set the actual pay date about 2 days before they are due.
 My sewer/water bill is screwy because they make the bank send an actual check. so it takes a few extra days. I talked with the city water dept. about that and they did have a change planned to make it an immediate payment. I'm not sure if it happened yet, a lot of things got delayed after hurricane Michael. 11 months after the hurricane, we are still missing a lot of street signs.
But I'm not seeing water leaks into the streets anymore.

[bacchi]

No real schedule, once or twice a week I sit down and write checks and pay bills, so they don't sit unpaid for long.
I prefer to go old school, write checks, use stamps and mail bills.   Not a fan of giving my banking of credit card info to anyone I don't have to.

Every single person who handles your check has your bank account info at their finger tips.  If you truly don't want this info being given out, you should use your bank's online bill pay.

Yep. You can test this by sending a bill pay to yourself. In my case, the check doesn't come from my personal account or even my bank but a 3rd party.

Like Sibley, I check bills each weekend and pay them then. All bills are "pushed" rather than "pulled."

[ice1717]

I pay everything on autopay. I find using personal capital and seeing all charges come through almost real time is a much better way for me to check for over charges or credit card fraud than reviewing statements at the end of the month.

[nancy33]

I use bill pay with my bank. If it is the same amount every month (ie. garbage bill, mortgage)  I set it for autopay. I use two credit cards and have autopay for $50 each set up with my bank bill pay just in case I ever forget a payment, but I pay credit cards in full monthly. One time I somehow paid the credit card amount to the water bill and it was a big mess but the credit card company reversed the fees because it was a one time mess up, but those were some high fees... yikes. I usually set it to pay a week before the due date on all the bills. I keep my balance high enough so I don’t need to worry about overdrawing.

[Dicey]

I forgot about this, because DH pays the bills now. I hated small recurring bills and did my best to eliminate them. The remaining ones I just pre-paid in chunks, so I only wrote one or two checks a year. It was nice seeing statements that said "Do Not Pay".

[Blue Skies]

Pay myself first and last?  Autodraft for savings that is beyond what is automatically deducted from pay, then periodically (not as often as I should) sweep any extra over to longer term savings as well.

Bills are paid manually through online banking.  I usually wait until I get several and then sit down and schedule them to be paid.  Generally schedule payment for 3-4 days prior to due date.  This is not about interest, it is about knowing when things are actually due.  A couple of bills come with short turnarounds (due within 10 days of receipt) and if we are traveling I check to see what might be coming due while we are gone using the last paid dates in the online bill pay.

[GuitarStv]

I pay bills manually through online banking.  If I automated them, I'd only check my bank accounts once a year, which seems like a bad idea.

[MyAlterEgoIsTaller]

I have everything that can be auto-paid by credit card set up to do that, so I get cc points.  I have the credit cards set to be auto-paid a couple days in advance of their due dates.

I don't have my student loan on autopay, because if I do that they make it difficult to pay higher different amounts each month, and they don't let it be paid by cc. 
Usually I pay my mortgage and student loan at the same time, at the end of the month. 

"Pay myself" is mostly automated and comes out before I see it.

Property taxes are only due once a year and my town doesn't take credit cards, so I have to make myself a special calendar reminder. Most other things would get paid when they happen, like pay the firewood guy or the dentist.
I don't have any other medical bills for now because I managed to hit my insurance deductible for the first time ever, early in the year - that's got obvious pros and cons.

[PoutineLover]

I set whatever I can to go on my credit cards, and I pay my cards and any other bills when I get paid. Then I leave myself a cushion in my chequing and move everything else to savings and/or investments. I check the cards a few times a week to keep track of my spending and monitor for unauthorized transactions. I figure I'd probably make a couple extra bucks if I waited until things were almost due to pay them, but I prefer getting it done as soon as possible to avoid forgetting it and to keep balances small.

[PhilB]

I'm confused by all the people paying bits off credit cards twice a month.  Do they work differently than in the UK?  Here you just get a monthly statement and as long as you pay by the due date no interest so I just set them to autopay.
My dilemma is that my American Express card pays off automatically about 2 weeks before the due date.  I'm torn between stopping the direct debit to gain the 2 weeks interest free loan vs leaving it be to avoid the stress and the risk that I would fail to set up a manual payment some month and get hit with charges.  I'm almost certainly going to stay with the low stress option, but it niggles me every month.

[35andFI]

I'm confused by all the people paying bits off credit cards twice a month.

I do it to keep utilization low (for my credit score) and to make sure that the cards are paid off before throwing any extra into investments.

[Sugaree]

On payday, I pay everything that's due before the next payday. 

[PhilB]

I'm confused by all the people paying bits off credit cards twice a month.

I do it to keep utilization low (for my credit score) and to make sure that the cards are paid off before throwing any extra into investments.

Thanks, I didn't think about possible impacts on credit score - probably because at 53 I'm old enough that credit scores have never been a 'thing' for me!

[Zamboni]

On payday, I pay everything that's due before the next payday.

This is what I do as well.

I also pay myself first in the form of retirement planning and a large cash withdrawal.

[35andFI]

I do it to keep utilization low (for my credit score) and to make sure that the cards are paid off before throwing any extra into investments.

Thanks, I didn't think about possible impacts on credit score - probably because at 53 I'm old enough that credit scores have never been a 'thing' for me!

Yea utilization has a decent impact on credit score, but it has no memory, meaning that you could have a 100% utilization one month (and your score would temporarily drop) then have 0% the next month and your score would go right back up to where it was before.

So it really doesn't matter if you're not planning on getting credit in the near future but I like to keep mine low all the time.

To put things into perspective, I am 28, in the US, and will likely be buying a house (with debt) in the next 5 or so years.

[x02947]

I've heard it can be a bad idea to set up direct withdrawing in case the company starts billing you incorrectly.  ...

Incorrectly, or the one year deal you signed up for has snuck up on you so the bill increases.  Both have happened to me.  Bills get paid (mostly) from my checking account, so I plug them into the websites "future expenses" feature with very narrow guard bands.  That way when I check my accounts at the end of the month I'll see (for example) that my future expense of internet hasn't been matched to an actual expense and I can track down the discrepancy.  I figure this way I'm only out one month's error. 

[GuitarStv]

I'm confused by all the people paying bits off credit cards twice a month.

I do it to keep utilization low (for my credit score) and to make sure that the cards are paid off before throwing any extra into investments.

Thanks, I didn't think about possible impacts on credit score - probably because at 53 I'm old enough that credit scores have never been a 'thing' for me!

I'm 38 and credit scores have never been a 'thing' for me either.  :P

I think that unless you're regularly applying for loans/credit cards it's pretty low on importance.

[Wrenchturner]

I'm confused by all the people paying bits off credit cards twice a month.

I do it to keep utilization low (for my credit score) and to make sure that the cards are paid off before throwing any extra into investments.

Thanks, I didn't think about possible impacts on credit score - probably because at 53 I'm old enough that credit scores have never been a 'thing' for me!

I'm 38 and credit scores have never been a 'thing' for me either.  :P

I think that unless you're regularly applying for loans/credit cards it's pretty low on importance.

There's a post on the credit card churning Reddit for Canadians where a guy's security clearance is being jeopardized by his "credit seeking behaviour".

But I've found my utilization to be low anyway despite the churning, but at some point my access to credit vs my income might be a concern on my credit rating.  I keep an eye on it with credit karma anyway.

[Samuel]

Autobill everything I can to credit cards and pay them to zero every few weeks (with a scheduled minimum payment in place as a backup).

For the few adhoc bills that can't be automated I've made it a game to pay them within 24 hours of receiving them. Makes me feel on top of things. My entire early adulthood I was underemployed and struggling with the bill whack a mole game and it really stressed me out. Knowing I can completely ignore finances for weeks at a time is one of my key measures for contentment.   

[Peach]

I'm confused by all the people paying bits off credit cards twice a month.  Do they work differently than in the UK?  Here you just get a monthly statement and as long as you pay by the due date no interest so I just set them to autopay.

I pay credit cards twice a month because I'm sort of a control freak about our finances.  Looking at the charges frequently allows me to make sure that no bogus charges show up.  Also, we never used to charge everything but do now for the cash back.  I guess I've never become used to having large balances and feel more comfortable paying them fully on the 1st and the 15th of every month.

[kanga1622]

I'm confused by all the people paying bits off credit cards twice a month.  Do they work differently than in the UK?  Here you just get a monthly statement and as long as you pay by the due date no interest so I just set them to autopay.
My dilemma is that my American Express card pays off automatically about 2 weeks before the due date.  I'm torn between stopping the direct debit to gain the 2 weeks interest free loan vs leaving it be to avoid the stress and the risk that I would fail to set up a manual payment some month and get hit with charges.  I'm almost certainly going to stay with the low stress option, but it niggles me every month.

I just don't like seeing a $1500 bill at the end of the month. I only use the cc to get the rewards so settling up once a week is a nice way to catch any concerns and make sure the budget spreadsheets are up to date.