Get Organized Mission #3: Organize Your Bill Payment

@MicheleConnolly nice tips on cutting down time on paying your bills. Organize Your Bill Payment http://ow.ly/5V6J

I got domains, but not sure which one will be developed first so leaving no url here.

Just discovered you and read the bill payment one. Working for me still is either online monthly or call in to payment lines for each bill. I’m not ready to switch as it takes only a very short amount of time. Not enough to bother with.

I hope I will see some on email explosion organization or did I miss it? Oh, what about getting those attachments or being on teleseminars and get tons of downloads? Printing them all off or saving them.

It would be nice to go into your organized brain. It sounds like you love organizing as much as I love health/wellness and excellent customer service. Two area I’m exploring to develop. Which one first is question that remains unsolved. Thanks for sharing.

Got there in the end – sorted my filing out – don’t think I’ve done it for a year!
I’m good at paying things but then throw it in a drawer instead of filing – so mission well accomplished!

I went and bought an accordian folder and sorted bills by month and by date due. Once I did that I continued onto my file cabinet. What a mess! Some things are better left untouched. Im still working on the cabinet. Ebill has been signed up for and also mobile billing! So much better than paper trails. Bring on the next task. Mission accomplished!

RT @micheleconnolly Get Organized Mission #3: Organize Your Bill Payment | Get Organized Wizard http://tinyurl.com/q3w3bl

My bills are already paid on line, I’ve got online banking! The only thing left is the shredding and getting rid off papers. No shredder so I may have a little bonfire outside tonight@

I’m happy to get this one out of the way. Dealt with the bills that are solely my responsibility and I’ve pruned my filing to the current year other than tax matters.

Ticking the missions off one by one and will hopefully get up to date by the end of this home vacation! It’s a good feeling.

Done, done and done (it helps that I had online banking before)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mission #2 was completed so I jumped straight into #3. Most were already organised, just needed some fine tuning.

Mission 1, 2, and 3 are complete. On to the next ones…..Bring it!

Okay this was an easy one for me as we have always had all our bills direct debit and most are paperless, so it feels cheating to say i’ve done it!

I have done it!!. IN fact, I got so organized, I am caught up even on payments until September. OOhhhhhh I feel good.
Thank you

This is one area that I do keep organized so this task was a cinch. Thanks though. I am looking forward to the next challenge.

There was nothing much I could do for this one. I have my bill payments set up exactly how I want them. And I’m up to date with my budget and all that.

This turned into a difficult task with one bill. I found that someone had set up a username and password on my account that was not me. I had to contact the company and have their assistance in resetting the username and password. Other than that, this was a great thing to do. I set up every thing from credit cards to the gas bill. I can now pay all of these online when or before they are due.

Done!

This one was easy as already do just finesses a couple of things

Thanks
Still having probs with no. 1

At last an easy task – we did this years ago; all payments (including weekly food shopping) are automated from one bill paying account into which we (husband and self) both pay monthly sums. I just keep an eye on monthly balance to work out if spending is needing cutting back or monthly payments need to be up-dated.

Hi, Sally!

Same here. Being out of work for several months a few years back really made us get efficient. I’m a huge fan of our bank’s online bill-paying system, and use it for all our bills. Any bills that can be delivered electronically, are. Hubby’s paycheck is direct-deposited, and we automatically deposit an amount for savings every month. I’m up to date with all our shredding (though some filing will be attacked tomorrow), and the credit cards are paid off monthly. This task reminded me that I need to order our yearly credit report — thanks!

This one was easy, payments are already organized.

Done!

Done. I am happy to say that my payments were already organized. But I used the time to cear out some paper that have been laying around instead.

Im kinda cheating on this one if you think about it, im too young to have bills. LOL, oh well I cleaned out my closet.

mission 3 is one i was already “on top of” I am pleased to be discovering I’m not as bad an organizer as I thought : )

cheated on this one. It’s my hubby’s job and I let him take care of all that. So I created files for my tax receipts. Now I can file receipts under the tax category and they will be all in one place. Figured this was sort of in line with paying bills.

no need – done this already

Well I got carried away and did this project already. I got tried of missing all the dates and the phone calls. So Now Missions 1,2,3 are all DONE. It feels really good. This works for me.

Get Organized Mission #3: Organize Your Bill Payment – http://bit.ly/GVhQR

Get Organized Mission #3: Organize Your Bill Payment – http://bit.ly/GVhQR

My husband takes care of this. We are always on top of it, meeting once every two weeks to review financial s. We have systematized it so that it doesn’t take over us. Now it’s painless, we can breathe and have fun!
Thanks for your tips, this is an extremely important area that HAS to be organized.

Done! Looking forward to the next one

Interesting that so many of the comments indicate that they were all ready on top of this. This is not my area of expertise – in fact, this mission almost killed me. But it’s organized. And I feel much better.

I really had a hard time with this. Some of my payments are already automated, but I’m just not very organized with the rest of them. I also have a hard time with paperless statements (they get buried quickly). I’ve set myself up to get email reminders through my bank when certain bills are due, and I’ll keep doing this as other bills come in this month. Now if I only had a proper place to file them….

Having everything set up and scheduled makes my life so much easier. What used to take me at least 2 hours a month, I can now do in less than 10 minutes! Organizaion is the key!

I have been putting this task on the back burner. I am also finding it hard to organize my bills paperless. I have a few done but it is really a chore to get moving . Hanging in there though, have a few done.

This one was pretty easy because my husband pays all of the bills, but I did make some adjustments for myself and I think it will work out great.

I have been working on my tithing, charitable giving and savings. It was a daunting thought, but I got the perfect solution. I have a separate bank account from me and my husbands joint account. I went to payroll to have them deposit a portion of my check to the joint account and a portion to the “Makes you feel good” acount. It’s great. the money is already set aside for my tithing, I have an automatic deduction coming from this account to my savings every month, and because of that, I do not have to limit the money that I give to charity already. The check card on this account is a Susan B. Komen check card so the change is rounded up to the next dollar. The extra change automatically goes to support breast cancer. One of my favorite causes.

I really enjoyed doing this mission
Lydia

Done. Was not super fun. But it needed to be done. I bet I will be happy about it later. Thanks.

Done. My bank offers bill pay so I can control paying bills one on one or at automatic intervals. Makes my life much easier. I just have to be good about shredding paid bills when they don’t need to be kept. I throw all receipts in a basket and sort them by month. They go into a spreadsheet that cuts down time at tax time.

done!

finished this one finally. Scary, also started oprah’s debt diet to go with it!

WHEW what a task..Thank you I had no idea I was so out of control

Not much to do for this task. Bill payments are one area that I am actually on top of. Looking forward to the next task.

On to #4

I have this one under control after almost 40 years of bill paying and money managing in our home. Just needed a little tidying up and tossing a few things, but most is under control. On to number 4.

Done

This was an easy one for me… I have been paying bills by auto withdrawal for years. I have forgotten what the inside of my banking establishment looks like.

Easy one for me to. I’ve gotten rid almost all of my paper bills. Now if could get my husband to do the same!

done

Had been putting this off for a while but now All done. A huge relief

Got it done just today and ready for the next project.

Mission three – done. Redid my budget – and organised a monthly bill paying system and storage for receipts.

This was something I have done for sometime. It is so great to not worry about when most of my bills are due. The only bills I have to keep track of are the yard service (only check I write!), car payment, credit card bill and mortgage payment (which I get reminders for and pay online). Everything else is billed to the credit card or debited from bank. I know people think using a credit card for everything can get you in trouble debtwise but as long as I budget and pay it off every month which I do Im ok plus I get points for free hotel stays. Looking forward to next mission.

Done….decided to use the MS Money that I had bought at least 11/2 years ago. Looked at it several times and this just gave me a push to set it up and use.

I’ve been doing this fo quite some time. I spend 10 minutes (my morning break) at work every 2 weeks to pay myself and my bills. It’s amazing how little mail I get now. And the best thing is I stay ahead of everything and miss nothing. Budgeting became a breeze.

Thanks to online bill payment, I do this anyway. “Check!”

use the online bill pay a lot. thanks for the review.

Our banking and most of the bill paying is already done online and through automatic withdrawl. What’s up next?!

Done!

Done. This was kind of easy for me since my husband does our bills.

Got ‘er done.

done.

Easy to say “done” b/c almost all of my bills are automatically paid and our cc is auto-paid in full each month too. The shredding bit should be fun, looking forward to that!

Another great thing to do is to switch you statements to electronic statements instead of paper ones. Save some trees!

Organized ! Such a time saver….love it.

This one was already done so I’m ready for my next mission!

Already done !!!!!!!!!!!

Step 1 of this Mission is in the hubs’ territory, so I skipped it. Steps 2 & 3 are already implemented, so I’m marking this as DONE! As for the “Extended Organizing Mission” of dealing with “ancient bills and receipts”… unfortunately, I have to face this Paper Giant by force(http://messieconfessions.blogspot.com/), so this will be on ongoing daily mission until completion! I’m also policing the mail to keep the growth rate to a bare minimum! On to Mission #4!

Done,Done, Done…
(Actually I was already 1/2 way done, but spent my 1/2 hour finishing…)

My bills were already set up online so I used this time to look up each one and make a note of the balance, monthly payment and interest rate. This helps give me a better idea what I need to pay off first.

I only have one bill I have to pay manually and I never remember! Couldn’t tell you how many times my water’s been cut off – not because I don’t have the money but because my mail is squirrly and if I don’t see the bill I don’t think about it. I’m getting this set up on autopay tomorrow!

Done! From now on, as soon as I get a bill, the due date goes in my calendar with a reminder set for a few days before its due.

Woohoo! All Done! Nothing feels better than knowing that your bills are being paid on time!!

I’m committed — thank you!

The timing of this one is awesome for me. We are in the process of switching banks so I am having to switch over all of my autopays. This is a huge process and will take a few more weeks to make sure everything has made the switch properly but it is a great exercise.

In addition to getting all of this stuff organized I have also done the following…
* Changed my passwords for anything that involves money (banks, credit cards, utilities, investments, etc.). I now have a different password combination for these critical accounts, with a separate password for newsletters and websites that I have subscriptions. I created a log for these passwords as it seems each site has different requirements for passwords.
* Switched over to paperless bills wherever I can.
* Set up a system for bills that do not offer autopay – when the bill comes, I immediately log in to my bank and schedule the payment with online banking. That way I can file away the bill and not worry that I forgot.
* Set up a separate account in my quicken program to track medical expenses to make tax season easier.
* Updated my 2010 file folders for tax related items

WOW, that is alot! Thanks!

one of the few tasks that took me more than 30 minutes… The last two were done on time. I guess will come back and spend another 30 minutes tomorrow on this task.

Already done.

I’ve been meaning to work on this for a long time. I already had online banking set up with our CU, but I only entered a couple of Payees then gave up. I worked for an hour on it today, setting up what I could, and figuring what to do with a couple other bills that have to pay other ways. I also created a “status list” for our reference, so as each bill comes in, we’ll know what action we needs to be taken: ok to pay online, set up, etc. Even though it could take up to a month before I can call the project complete, I already feel relieved that I got the ball rolling and that we have a solid plan.

Well this was easy as we’ve been doing online banking with the use of a personally created spreadsheet for years!

done

Easy one. I set up on-line banking over a year ago and haven’t looked back. I chose not to use automatic payments, but I’ve set up my credit cards, insurance, and cell phone with on-line statements so I get an e-mail notice whenever there is a new bill to be paid. Love it!

OK. This took far more than 30 minutes, but I did it in 30 minute increments and was certainly less over-whelmed as a result.

I had already started doing this some months back and find it to be the best way to go as long as I remember to write it down in my check book and in my financial software program.

Done already.

Hurrah, I’m done with mission #3!

Already done.

Already had most set up but there were a couple of nagging ones I hadn’t got to. I feel a little relieved now that this is done!

This was easy since 90% of my bills were either done through automatic payment or online banking. Done!

Continue the awesome work!

folks with screwy thoughts think like this:
It is remarkable, rather amusing message

This is something I’ve been doing for awhile. At one time I had them all on auto pay through the company but now most of them go through my bank’s bill pay system.

Mission 3 done

Boy, I'm really on a roll. I just completed Mission #3. My bill-paying was already organized so there wasn't much to do. On to Mission #4…

I went through our bill paying stuff and found that there is nothing to do! It’s all on autopayment already and the ones that aren’t have a reminder in my calendar. Yay!

I prefer to be in control of my bill paying and that means being sure there’s enough money to cover all the bills that come in. I note dates on my calendar to be sure I send payments on time. I’m still doing what I was doing before I spent money on this course. I’m decluttering my house and that includes fifteen to thirty minute sessions, lots and lots of them, going through boxes of old papers and shredding ancient bills/receipts.
Still looking for something I don’t already know about.

My bills can be divided roughly to two different categories:

1. Automatically paid.
2. Manually paid

In category 1, I have some bills that get paid automatically. I have set the due date for most of those very close to my monthly pay day. By that way I can have some of my very important bills paid in time (and I know that I have money for them on my account .

Also, I have an automatic payment that goes to my savings account. I remember earlier when saving money, I never got it done. Now, since the payment is automatic, I don’t have to worry about it

In category 2, I have manually paid bills. However, they are all paid through online banking.

Some of the bills are electronic, so that I get an notification to my email saying, that there is a new bill in your online bank to be paid. Then I have some paper bills coming in as well. I tend to take care of them as soon as I can. Also, I mark my bills with the date when I paid it and put it to my file folder.

I hope that I can cut down the number of paper bills by turning them electronic. Turning them all to electronic may be possible soon, since there are already lot’s of companies which offer this possibility and the amount is increasing all the time.

Yeah, I’m really a procrastinator and this is where I am seeing it! I’ve got Mission 26 in my e-mail and I’m barely getting to Mission #3. Well, seeing that I don’t always have time/internet connection at the right time, I guess it’s ok. I really loved mission #1, I’ve stuck to it, and continuously stick to it, I even suggested it to family members, and they have all taken a liking to it. 15 minutes once a day…we all don’t pick up at the same time, but we’ve all managed to pitch in here and there on one day and it makes for one clean home Thank you very much for that!!

Bill organization is going 2 b hard tho…I just can’t trust companies with my accounts. I did try it b4 & had problems. But I’m going 2 try paying them all at one time…that might work 4 me & record the confirmation #s.

pretty organised with this and completely agree with kana re companies one can trust

already done. I autopay all that I can, and anything else I pay as it comes in.

I pay all of my bills by direct debit already so I took this half an hour to make a spreadsheet to show me exactly how much money goes out of my account each month, I subtracted this from my monthly wages to show me how much I have to live on each month (not much!)

I am determined to be more in control of my finances this year so now I know how much I have to live on I will take out £25 a week LESS THAN THIS and just try and make the cash last rather than spending willy nilly. If I can do this then I’ll gradually reduce my debt and will be in a better financial position by January 2012.

Mission #3 has come at a good time as I was only saying to my husband two nights ago how we need to go through our bills and make sure that the money we put aside each pay is still covering our bills, (what with the rising costs that have been sneeking up on each bill). When we first started out with our “system” we struggled a bit, but now we never stress about paying the bills, as we know that the money is in the bank. I am thinking if I do one of the bills each night – ie Monday – electricity, Tuesday – phone/internet etc, then I will have done them all by the end of the week, and my mission will be complete!

Nice to be able to read any tips people add here. It all helps. My bills are organised, you have given me the incentive though to go and rid more old bills and clutter from years ago.
Thank you

I done this last beginning of the month because by financial stuff got out of hand . but i have been following my monthly and weekly budget and it making a difference. I am not trying to save for out family hoilday thank you so much. i have been using your Life & organizer. Now i am using you design your life and 52 mission im now so motived and inspire to do more

Mission #3 is completed. I have all my bills on online banking and I have managed to reduce the bills by stopping subcriptions and paying with visa if ordering something off the internet. I have also finally mananged to find out how I can pay off the credit card bill more often than the monthly bills.( this is a relief). In conclusion I now feel in control of my economy.

Finances are not my strong suit. But because I already have online bill pay set up for all of my bills, it was easy. Now I plan to log on once at the end of each week, and schedule payment for the bills that came in throughout the week. If they’re not due for several weeks, I can schedule the payment for the due date, and don’t have to worry about going online to make the payment closer to when it’s due.

I divided my bills into those that need to be paid by the 1st of each month and those that need to be paid by the 15th of each month. On or a little before the 1st and 15th I go though my bills and pay them. Most of mine are automatically deducted so I just have to document in my checkbook what they are. I tried to even up the amount due on the 1st and 15th that way my paycheck covers my bills and I have the same amount due. A bonus of paying bills this way is that the months when I get 3 paychecks (because I get paid every other Friday) I feel like I get an extra check to do with what I please- no bills coming out of it. That happens twice a year for me, BONUS!!

This we already had organised!

I set up my car payment online, which will make things easier. I’m not able to do everything by draft just yet, but I will get there. However, I did get a large calender to write down bills as they come in and circle them as I pay them. I also have a bill organizer where I put the bills for safekeeping until I can pay them. I know it’s a bit old fashioned, but it works for me right now. I will definitely revisit this mission in the future.

Spent the time to sort out online access to my credit card account, a task I’ve been avoiding for some time. Would’t have gotten around to it without this impetus.

done

This one was already DONE!

I learnt along time ago that I forget to pay bills on time and so when ever I received a “reminder” notice I set up auto payment.

We now only have to pay rates, regos (including the dog’s) and insurances. Everything else pays it’s self.

Well I have spent the last couple months overhauling the way I track our expenses and pay our bills…. all in the name of simplification, so this came at a good time. So this week I am going to put the last of my bills (all the docs and kid related stuff) into the bill pay on my bank site so I can sit down once a month and pay everything. I have already worked out the direct deposits and transfers to ensure money to cover the bills come the end of each month. Now to stop using my credit cards!!!! Hoping all the organizing helps me cut down on the need for stuff.

Done, there was just one last bit to do and a nudge in the right direction was what I needed.

Done!

I’m a couple weeks behind but I got this one done this week

Already have a good handle on the bills which can be delivered electronically. Set up a toll card even though I don’t travel on toll roads much – I was forgetting to pay the toll notices I was getting in the mail, and getting hit with admin fees to boot!