Pay Your Bills with a Click

Most of us have joined the world of online banking. The clear, up to date balance and transaction list have a way of relieving stress in an instant. For college kids, Mommy and Daddy can keep track of funds to try and guide their children in the right direction towards responsibility. Whatever your reason, online banking is just plain convenient.

Now, other companies are "going green" (aka saving money) by offering online bill pay as opposed to the old fashioned way of receiving bills in the mail, filling out the paper work, writing a check, addressing an envelope, adding a stamp (who even has stamps anymore?), and finally sending it off to be paid. Weeks later, the payment is cleared, just in time to start the process again for a new bill. I remember seeing my mom pay bills when I was little. It took her hours as she sat there with piles of paper all over the table trying to "organize" them and file them away in a filing cabinet. "You'll have to do this one day too," she used to tell me. Umm, I don't think so.

Times have changed and there is new way to pay bills. Yep, you guessed it: online. The majority of billers accept, if not encourage, online bill pay. I personally pay my rent, utilities, cable and internet, and cell phone bill online -- all to different companies. My bank even offered me a $10 incentive (which I took, of course) to pay my bills online through their online bill pay section of online banking.

So next time you get out that pen to write a check, look for the web address on the bill. It's most likely that particular company is already encouraging you to do so.