Archive for category Checking Bills

Mistakes Happen: Check Your Bills Carefully

Posted by admin in Checking Bills on December 17, 2011

Whether you are an individual making purchases from a store, a manager signing off a vendor bill for payment or a business owner making payment decisions, make sure you check the bills before you pay them because mistakes do happen. This is not a matter of somebody trying to cheat you, but simple mistakes such as hitting a wrong key or forgetting that discount you negotiated when you phoned in your order.

People generally do not try to cheat you, but even if they do they would be relying on you not checking. Many stores have a sign by the cash register: “Please check change before you leave!” That’s not just because some try to claim to be short-changed, but also because some are short-changed because the cashier made a mistake.

If you are in business, you should double-check everything financial because genuine mistakes can be made, and that fact will not likely bother you until it happens to you. Then you have to prove that it was made, or in business it might not be noticed until an audit – and even then it might be missed. So you lose money – or gain money (why is that a lot less common?), depending on the error, but it needn’t be like that!

Check your vendor bills against your order. Computers don’t make errors but the people using them do. Make sure the addition is correct and that you have been charged the agreed price for each item. Also make sure that the items listed have been ordered – it wouldn’t be the first time…

If you run a business and are deciding how to make payments, never pay by cash, no matter what the vendor offers you in the form of a discount. Use a credit card that offers a receipt when paid, and check your receipts against your credit card statement charges – whether you use a credit card or bank debit card, is immaterial. The point is you get a receipt with the payment that can be checked against your monthly statements to make sure that the bank or card issuer has not made a mistake – this is not uncommon! Read the rest of this entry »

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Paying Bills Online – Five Secrets to Paying Your Bills Effortlessly Online With No Mishaps

Posted by admin in Checking Bills on November 17, 2011

I have been paying bills online for about 5 years now and I experienced a few bumps on the way. In fact I make about 20 to 25 online payments per month – all automated so that I am spending like none of my down time paying my bills. What’s more I write no more than 1 to 2 paper checks per month. It’s all dialed in and I have a system to make sure that all of the bills are effortlessly and automatically being paid.

But it was not always smooth sailing when navigating the online bill pay waters. There were a few mess ups that took place but have since been corrected. But from these temporary setbacks I learned these important secrets to making sure that the right bills got paid and got paid on time.

I learned from these mishaps and have since added a five step process to make sure the bills are being paid on time. So here’s the Five Secrets to Paying Your Bills Online:

Create a ” Billpay Audit Chart” of all of your recurring monthly bills. You should set this up in a program like Excel or in a Word table. Even if you get your bills fully automated, you still need a centralized system to know how each of your bills are being paid. What should be on this list? Place your important bills that are paid automatically each month. Some examples of what should be on this list: mortgage payment or rent, car payment, cable TV bill, phone bill, gas bill, electric bill, water bill, credit card, and cell phone bill. Add a few columns to track average amount due, due date, and whether you have set this up on automatic payment.

Track the source and method of the automatic payment for each bill you have. What we mean here is that you need to keep track of whether the bill is paid through your online banking at your bank or is set up as a ACH debit from the creditor themself. ACH bill payment refers to the instance where you send a voided check to your utility provider for example and you ask them to deduct the monthly charges from your checking account. In other cases you will want to note that the monthly expense is being charged to your credit card. You can add a column in your Billpay Audit Chart to note the payment method for each of your bills. Read the rest of this entry »

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Checking Bills Advised To Help Avoid Unnecessary Financial Pressure

Posted by admin in Checking Bills on October 17, 2011

Despite the convenience that paying for bills via direct debit may provide, it is not a reason for Britons to be complacent when it comes to keeping track of their money management, new research suggests.

In a study carried out by moneysupermarket, it was revealed that such a payment system is becoming increasingly popular among many consumers. At present it was revealed that a quarter of credit card bills are paid using direct debit, with this proportion rising to 48 per cent for gas bills. Meanwhile, 63 and 54 per cent of demands for payment on landline telephone and electricity bills respectively are met this way.

Research from the price comparison site also revealed that 17 per cent of consumers have uncovered an error on their bill during the past three months, while over the last year about one in three have discovered that they have been incorrectly charged. Overall, it was indicated that around eight million people were overcharged in the last quarter. Moneysupermarket went on to assert that at “a time when household budgets are being squeezed more than ever, the last thing Brits need is to be landed with an incorrect bill”. In spite of this however, it was shown that half of respondents claim that they do not check every bill that they receive.

Indeed, following on from being charged more money than they should have been for bills, it is possible that consumers could find that they develop greater problems in managing various demands on their spending. Such areas could well include personal loans, credit and store cards and mortgage repayments.

Commenting on the figures, Rob Barnes, head of broadband and mobiles for moneysupermarket, said: “The staggering amount of people who’ve been hit with an incorrect bill only goes to show how inadequate some providers can be. Consumers are already facing increased living costs, the last thing they need is to be charged for something they never had. Worryingly there are millions of people who still don’t check their bills, meaning they could be paying over the odds for a service they have never received. If you don’t check all your bills you’re leaving yourselves open to being taken advantage of.” Read the rest of this entry »

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