If this is your first time visiting, check out the story behind this blog. Otherwise, please join the others by subscribing to my RSS feed or get updates via email so you don't miss any personal finance articles!
Nowadays, we can literally stop our bills from coming to us. Most companies let us receive our bills electronically, which allows us to cut back on the number of mail that we receive. When I first noticed companies advertising this, I was thinking to myself that this is yet another way that companies are trying to cut cost. “How does receiving bills electronically help me” I thought to myself.
As it turns out, getting bills online turns out to be great. It saved me time because I didn’t need to process those pieces of paper, it saved space since I didn’t need to find space to file the bill somewhere, and it helped the environment at the same time!
Time
I used to spend a good amount of time sorting through the bills from other junk mail. Once I processed the mail, I need to fill out the amount, write a check and mail the bill back to the utilities company, all while hoping that the mail won’t get lost. Now that I get the bills electronically, I get an email once a month telling me exactly how much I owe. With this technology, I can just log into my online account, click a few buttons and the bill is paid. Simple, quick and clean.
Space
Bills aren’t considered junk mail but I have a drawer full of them all filed neatly in its own section. With so many of them coming through each month, I was forced to allocate more and more space to keep them. Ever since I started getting the statements electronically, I’ve been able to keep it on my hard drive without increasing any physical space at all!
Organization and Access
It is so much easier to organize the bills when it’s in electronic form. I setup a folder on my computer and save all the statements in there. The great thing about it is that I can access any particular bill very quickly!
Environment
There are so many trees that are cut each year because of our usage of paper. By not having the bills sent to us in paper form, we are really doing our part to save the environment. We are also throwing out less trash too!
How Do I Sign Up?
With the exception of my trash and water bill, every utility company allowed me to opt in to receive my statement electronically. If you missed the chance to opt-in when it was being promoted, chances are you can still do so by logging onto your online account.
The other way is to call the number on your statement and talk to a customer service representative, which I’m sure would be glad to help get this going.
Thoughts
Here’s what I think of electronic bill delivery. It helps us, it helps the utilities company, it helps the environment and it helps the economy. What do you think?
Promote or Save This Article
If you like this article, please consider bookmarking or helping us promote it!Print Post | Email Post | Del.icio.us | Stumble it! | Reddit |
Related Posts
- Money Mailbox Friday – Mail We Love: Free Gas Gift Cards Giveaway
- Money Mailbox Friday - Remember to Watch Your Mail for that Free Gas Card
- Money Mailbox Friday - Never Wait For a Check Again
- How to Plan and Deal With Unexpected Money Drains
- Increasing Your Credit Score
Loading ...
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I do this with every bill that offers it. I wish all the utilities would jump on it, they are the only bills I still receive, even though they are all auto-debited. You would think they could at least quit including the payment envelopes.
I also wish every utility would take advantage of this option! I love being able to just log into my computer and handle all my bills! It’s really quick. This used to take me 1 hour each month but it now takes me 5 minutes each month.
I also agree with needing a place to store everything! It’s just very hard to find the spot with the small house that I have.