How to Pay Bills

When bills pile up in your mailbox and you still haven’t paid, you need to deal with the situation as soon as possible. When you’re in financial trouble, you need to learn how to organize, pay on time, and prioritize your bills.

Table of Contents

Invoice tracking

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Open invoices instantly. When you receive payment notices, you need to open them immediately. If you delay, you may not be able to read the incoming bill. There’s no benefit in avoiding bills. ^{[1] X Research Source}

Even those who receive electronic invoices delay opening them. Many people shy away from seeing bills if they don’t appear in front of them. If you are the same, you should convert from electronic invoices to paper invoices.

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Put your bills in one place. This may sound unusual, but not everyone does it. Even people who know they should do it sometimes don’t. You should put all invoices in one place to move invoices from the mailbox to this location. The place for the bill can be a desk, a refrigerator door, or a living room table, as long as it’s a place you see every day that can’t be ignored. ^{[2] X Research Source}

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Pay bills when received. The easiest way to track an invoice is to pay it as soon as it is received. Then you will not have to worry about late payment as well as overspending on unnecessary things. The money that was not enough to pay was spent on practical things. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

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Divide the bill into two categories. Even if you try to pay the entire bill, you still have to leave a few bills unpaid right away. At this point, you should sort your invoices into two categories: invoices that are due at the beginning of the month, and invoices that are due in the middle of the month. You need to settle your bill at the beginning of the month, then the middle of the month. ^{[4] X Research Sources}^{[5] X Research Sources}

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Negotiate payment extension. Ideally, the number of invoices at the beginning of the month should be equal to the number of bills in the middle of the month. Most companies will adjust the payment date if you ask for it. Therefore, if one type of invoice is more than the other, you should call the respective company’s customer service and ask to change the payment date. ^{[6] X Research Source}

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Mark the calendar. To avoid failure, you should mark two days on your calendar to pay your bills. The payment date should be earlier than the invoice due date. For example, on the 1st and 15th of every month, you should spend about an hour reviewing and settling bills. Stay committed on these days.

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Use a bill payment reminder app or website. If you need a reminder tool instead of a calendar, you can install an app or visit a bill payment website. Some of the more popular features include automatic linking of debit and credit cards, late bill reminders, and low bank account alerts. There are many useful apps and websites out there now where you can learn about Mint Bills, Prism Bills and Money, and Evpve Money. ^{[7] X Research Sources}^{[8] X Research Sources}

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Sign up for online bill payment. Online bill payment automatically bundles all your bills into one account. You don’t have to worry about organizing bills or remembering to write and send test letters. You can set up online bill payment using a website or an app available online, or set it up automatically with the invoice issuer.

Calculating bill payment

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Create a separate account to pay your bills and personal expenses. This is one of the easiest calculation methods you should apply. Calculate the total monthly bill payment. Divide the amount by your salary each month to determine how much to spend on paying bills each time you receive your salary. Every time you receive a salary, you should put the money used to pay the bills in a fixed account. ^{[9] X Research Source}

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Decide on a budget for occasional expenses. Certain costs such as vehicle registration, taxes, and insurance are usually paid once or twice a year in lieu of monthly payments. You need to plan for these expenses. Write down the total amount of your occasional bill payment and divide it into 12 parts to determine how much to set aside each month. ^{[10] X Research Source}

To avoid skipping occasional expenses, it’s a good idea to put money into a joint account that pays your monthly bills. Whenever you need to use the money is still there.
Budget for non-monthly items like clothes to use when you need to buy something new. ^{[11] X Research Source}

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Prepare a savings account in case of an emergency. This is important, and many financial experts recommend setting aside emergency savings equal to three to six months of income. After paying the bill, you should prioritize saving this. The amount to save depends on your own needs. For example, if your car insurance claim is 5 million, you should save at least 5 million in an emergency account in case of a car accident. ^{[12] X Trusted Source Financial Industry Regulatory Agency Go to source}

Paying bills when in financial difficulty

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Prioritize paying the most important bills. This may sound easy, but to proceed you should divide your bills into three categories: mandatory, mortgaged, and unsecured. ^{[13] X Research Source}

Mandatory are bills that need to be paid in order to move on with life. Items like mortgage or rent, utilities, food, and expenses that help you work, such as childcare or car maintenance.
Mortgage debt is debt with collateral. This means that if you don’t pay your debt, the creditor who has title to the collateral doesn’t need to take you to court. These liabilities include mortgage and vehicle maintenance costs (also in the mandatory category), alimony (using income as collateral), and taxes owed. After paying the required expenses, you should settle these. ^{[14] X Research Source}
Finally, you pay off the unsecured debt. Creditors that foreclose on unsecured debt must take you to court. The case takes a long time to go to trial, so in the event of a late payment on your unsecured debt, you still have more time to negotiate with the creditor on the mortgage debt and required fees.
Pay irregular bills in large amounts for several months if you can’t afford a one-time payment. You can negotiate with your creditor about installment payments. It is important that you try to pay off the debt instead of doing nothing.

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Cut unnecessary costs. This is not easy, but if you run into a budget deficit each month, you need to reduce the costs incurred. You should cancel your cable TV or smartphone installation (replace with a landline phone), or sell certain items until you get your finances under control. ^{[15] X Research Source}

Advice

When paying bills online, it’s a good idea to create a password-protected profile that includes all website addresses and usernames and passwords. Do not use the same password for all websites.
Set up direct savings against wages. The savings will be transferred directly to the bank account, saving you time and limiting the use of cash when directly depositing money into the account.

Steps

Invoice tracking

Calculating bill payment

Paying bills when in financial difficulty

Advice

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