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5 TIPS FOR PAYING YOUR BILLS ON TIME

Paying your bills on time can be challenging for many people. Keeping up with regular payments when you’re struggling financially or when you’re prone to forgetfulness can be a regular headache. Before you know it, you’re in debt and you’re scrambling to keep up with payments that seem to be continuously mounting up.

Fortunately, there are some simple steps you can take to ensure that your payments are made in full and on time.

1. Organise

The first step in making sure your bills are paid on time is organising your payments. It’s simpler and far less stressful to have everything all in one place. Consider keeping all your bills together, either via a hard copy or digital file. Organising your bills in one file will make it easier to find them when they need to be paid.

If you have a lot of bills every month, it’s easy to let some fall through the cracks. Try to create a checklist of all your payments – credit cards, utilities, subscriptions, internet packages, gym memberships, rent or mortgage bills, loan repayments etc.

You can devise your list on a notepad, a spreadsheet, or through a mobile app; as long as all your bills are in the same place. Having an organised list will enable you to keep track of all your payments and lower the chance of you missing anything out.

2. Create a Timetable

To ensure you pay all your bills in a timely fashion, it’s essential that you know the date that they are due each month. Once you’ve devised your checklist of bills, mark on your calendar – whether that be digitally or paper – when each bill is due for payment. If it helps you to keep track of things easier, you might want to colour-code your timetable. Likewise, you might consider setting up digital alerts to remind you when a payment is due.

Many lenders and creditors allow you to change your payment dates, so if you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed about juggling several bills at once, you can modify this to suit you. For instance, you might find it simpler taking care of all your bills at once; or you might prefer instead to have regular small outgoing payments. If you do decide to pay all your bills at once, however, it’s advisable that you set your due date to soon after payday, just to make sure you have enough money to cover them.

3. Set Up Direct Payments

Remembering to pay your bills every month can be stressful and when unexpected life events pop up, it’s very easy to forget. To prevent yourself from forgetting to pay your bills, consider setting up an automated payment method, such as a direct debit. These can usually be set up via your bank and will remove all the associated stress with trying to remember multiple payments, while helping you to avoid late-payment fees.

As long as you ensure that you always have enough money in your bank account to allow for regular direct debits, they can go towards improving your credit score. Having a decent credit rating is crucial if you want to secure a loan or a mortgage in future, so it’s definitely something you shouldn’t neglect.

Automated transactions help to streamline your bill-paying process and will guarantee that your bills are always paid on time and therefore boost your credit score.

4. Save

It’s always a good idea to have sufficient savings, just in case your bills turn out to be more costly than you anticipated. It might sound obvious, but you’d be amazed at how easy it is to overspend when you’re not focused.

If you can, try to set aside a set amount each month and put it into a savings account. If you’re struggling to do that, then try to limit your spending on unnecessary luxuries. Also, consider making arrangements to set a spending limit on your credit cards. You could look at downloading a budgeting app to help you out.

There are a multitude of techniques and software programs to help you save money, so you should be able to find something that suits your personal needs and preferences.

The great thing about saving is that, if you continue to do it once your debts are paid off, you can treat yourself to something you really want, like new Ford cars or a holiday, and you won’t have to borrow anything else to do it.

5. Be Attentive

It’s easy to overlook your monthly bank statements, especially if all your bills are paid automatically via direct debit. However, it’s essential that you keep track of your payments in order to make sure you always have enough money in your account to cover bills.

It’s also important to pay attention to your statements, so that you can spot any inconsistencies that might arise. These could be anything from accidental charges to potential fraudulent activity.

The sooner you identify any issues and alert your bank, the sooner they can be dealt with and resolved.

Conclusion

Remembering to keep up to date with all your bills can be stressful, but it shouldn’t have to be. Follow our handy tips to make sure you never miss a payment and that your bills are covered in time.

5 Tips for Paying Your Bills On Time