This may seem odd to many of you out there since I do many things online, including run this blog, but I haven’t ever used my bank’s online bill pay until just recently. I’ve always seen the link in the sidebar when I log into my account online, but I’ve never done anything with it for a number of reasons I suppose. It was something new to me and I wasn’t really sure that that payments would get to where they needed to be. Mostly, however, I was just content handling things the way I had always handled them.

Just a little while ago though, I was talking with a friend of mine about the whole online bill pay thing. He was pretty surprised that I didn’t use it, and the more I thought about it, I wasn’t sure why I didn’t use it either. I hadn’t given it much thought recently, but I figured now would be as good a time as any to give it a shot.

How It Works

If you’ve never used it either, you may be a little confused about how it works. Once you log into your online banking account you should be able to find a link to the bill pay section. Most banking institutions have a large network in place with many of the places to which you would need to make a payment. For most bills, you’ll just need to search for the company name and then provide your account number on the bill.

If for some reason you’re not able to locate the company by searching, you can still pay the bill online by giving the address of where the bill needs to be sent and some other account information. In this case, your financial institution will end up cutting a check to the company on your behalf and send it to them. You won’t even have to pay for the postage.

Benefits and Advantages

I already mentioned one of the main benefits and that is not to have to pay for any of the postage anymore. With the price of a first class stamp continuing to escalate, having to send out even ten bills a month can add up to quite a bit over time. Even if you don’t think postage is that bad, why wouldn’t you want to save a little money with such a small effort on your part?

That actually brings me to my next point. Paying your bills online is so much simpler than having to write out checks, fill out the return portion of the bill, and remember to put it in the outgoing mail. There aren’t a lot of things that simplify your life and save you money, but this is one of those things.

If you haven’t already signed up for online bill pay at your bank, all I can say is why not? I don’t have a “disadvantages” section for this post since I can’t really think of any. What are your experiences with online bill pay? Would you also recommend it to others?

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