When Ben Franklin first declared that “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” he missed another inescapable aspect of life: bills. Everyone has their share of bills to pay, and we can’t escape all of them even through death. Some bills are local, while others are distant; some bills are one-time payments, while others are recurring. Paying your bills on time and in full will keep your teeth intact, your standard of living intact, and your credit score intact.
Paying Physically
Although most bills are now paid online, and experts are prophesizing that paper checks are nearly obsolete, its good to stay versatile by maintaining multiple bill payment methods. Versatility is a valuable general principle, and especially valuable when it comes to paying bills and other financial matters. For that reason, it’s still wise to keep a few thousand dollars in your local bank and a checkbook in the home for unusual payment situations. You never know when you might have a personal emergency that requires placing a few thousand dollars in your hands, or the account of an auto mechanic, or hospital in 15 minutes. You can purchase paper checks much cheaper than your bank at either Carousel Checks or Costco Checks. For paper check payments, continue to record each payment for your own records; however, you can log into your bank’s web site and review your payment history.
I also recommend keeping a few hundred dollars hidden safely in the home to pay that home handyman who demands cash. Actually, your freezer is a great place to store your cold, hard cash (in a plastic, zip-lock bag), along with your dormant credit cards that you rarely use. If you were stupid enough to be a burglar, you might ransack the frig, but the freezer? I doubt it! There are also fireproof money bags available today at reasonable prices.
I also recommend keeping about $30 in your wallet for other unusual, unforeseeable purchasing opportunities such as buying that neat knickknack at your neighbor’s yard sale or betting the Tampa Bay Buccaneer’s will win the next Superbowl. You never know when or where an opportunity may strike, but when it does, you want to be ready! Stay financially versatile and stocked with some cash in your wallet, in your home and in your local bank!
Speaking of wallets, you should be aware that smart crooks are now able to steal your credit card information simply by waving a device near your card as you walk by them in a public place, even when the card seems safely tucked away in your wallet! For this reason and others, I recommend a wallet that has RFID security. Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) “readers” transmit signals that power the microchip in your credit card; the microchip in the card then powers up and sends your card data to the crooks reader! A wallet with RFID protection will prevent such theft from occurring! Many wallets now have RFID protection. One wallet that I like and use is the leather Suavell Odyssey wallet
, available in 6 colors, and available on Amazon for $23. It’s thin, 1/2″ minimalist design allows it to fit easily in a small pocket. It has 4 card slots inside and 3 outside and a money clip inside. Another, extreme minimalist RFID wallet for men is the Serman wallet, but has less card slots.
I also recommend keeping a few quarters hidden in your car for those times when you must vacuum your car or park downtown and pay for parking using a parking meter.
Paying Virtually
Today, you can pay most bills online using either your bank or credit unions or investment broker’s web site or mobile bill payment app. You can also have your money conveniently withdrawn from your bank account by the payee using ACH (the Automated Clearing House network).
First, let me inform you that it is foolish to give businesses the keys (account number and routing number) to your financial account to enable them to make ACH withdrawals at their will. You are trusting they will only take what is due them. You are also trusting that your account number (that is now stored outside of your control) will not be stolen either by a hacker or by an internal employee of the business. It is also much harder to turn off the ACH spigot when you want to terminate your subscription with them, enabling them to continue withdrawing undue funds from your account. If you don’t recognize the risk of doing this, you’re naivativity is going to get you one day. As a general principle, never give you financial account numbers to anyone.
However, if you are interested in establishing a financial relationship with a business for their recurring services, and they require recurring payment by ACH withdrawals, then what you should do is open a new “dummy” bank account that will be dedicated to making your ACH payments, then maintain only enough cash there to make those payments. Then setup a recurring ACH transfer from your main bank account to your dummy bank account and transfer just the right amount of cash to it to pay your bill.
It is also foolish to use mobile cash payment apps to conveniently pay cash to your friends. These apps are completely unregulated and have absolutely NO security applied to them! Hackers can access your bank account and clean out, not just your account that you have linked to your app, but all accounts you have with the same bank! Not only that, but hackers can also access your bank accounts even if you haven’t installed their app on your phone, if your bank has activated the app from their end! Contact your bank’s tech support team and ask them if they have activated any mobile apps, installed or uninstalled.
The best way to pay your online bills is by using the web site of your bank or brokerage company, so long as it is secure and requires sufficient security protocols to access it. You can setup each payee once, along with the options of how you prefer to receive billing statements and payment notifications. Then each month, when you learn the amount due for the month, login, enter the due amount and click to submit the payment. Then record the date you made the payment. I record the date on my paper old-school paper statement. Then, when you receive notification that they received your payment, make a note of this. I simply place a checkmark on my paper statement. For recurring payments that are the same each month, setup the payment to recur periodically.
Remember to remain versatile by keeping multiple payment methods open: cash, check and online, and remember my “few” rule: A few thousand bucks in the local, physical bank, a few hundred bucks in the home, a few ten-dollar bills in the wallet and a few quarters in the car. Finally, remember to bet on the Buccaneer’s to win at least the next few year’s Superbowls!