Paying Bills Customs

[Perry]

Have PT Forumites changed their bill-paying customs in recent times?

E.g. given the low interest rates on 'savings' deposits, are you paying bills as you receive them, as opposed to waiting till the due date?

One obvious benefit of paying on receipt is that the process is completed in one go - nothing put off until the twentieth.

If you're lucky, maybe it gets filed at the same time, too?

[Learning]

I dont have savings just a fat offset mortgage so the longer I can leave paying a bill the more interest I save.

[Perry]

Does a few days at whatever per cent per year amount to anything significant, really?

[Learning]

If you can get it all on the CC after it's clicked over to a fresh month that gives you another 60 days interest free and what ever rewards you're on. I get a good amount in Countdown vouchers each year. It all adds up.

[Keys]

If you can get it all on the CC after it's clicked over to a fresh month that gives you another 60 days interest free and what ever rewards you're on. I get a good amount in Countdown vouchers each year. It all adds up.

A total fallacy.

You get the "extra" 60 days (as you put it) just once. After that, you are merely playing catch up every month.

[Learning]

A total fallacy.

You get the "extra" 60 days (as you put it) just once. After that, you are merely playing catch up every month.

If the bill has 30 days to pay and the money is sitting on an offset mortgage, if you're lucky, you can get upto 90 days of that "spent" money saving mortgage interest. Always, ALWAYS, pay credit cards in full by/on their due date otherwise they'll take double what you saved.

[Nick G]

I pay as soon as I can. It's a good karmic cycle. Sometimes I get behind on big deals when the bank is funding but I still try to pay ASAP.

[Keys]

If the bill has 30 days to pay and the money is sitting on an offset mortgage

Lets take the power bill for example.

Pay in 60 days fine. However, in 30 days the next months' power bill is in the mail. What to do? Pop it on the credit card as well? OOOOOoooooo

Then roll on day 60. The third power bill comes in. Flagellation begins and angst forsooth. What to do? What to do?

[Learning]

Next months power bill (and the one after that and the one after that....) are coming weather you pay this months bill now or in 3 months time. As long as you dont spend the spent and the money is ready to pay the bill that it's earmarked for then it doesn't matter.

Interest saved on the offset mortgage and cc rewards add up. As long as you avoid late penalties and cc interest.

[Keys]

True Learning. That is my point. With the CC system you have taken the money out of your RC facility to pay for last months bill while leaving the money in the RC system for this months bill to be paid next month. You get only one month worth of interest saving. The first month. All following months you are simply paying last months bill. Extrapolate this out to all of your bills and, while some months may be larger than others, you still only get savings on the first months bill.

CC rewards, now that is different. I have a $250 limit and push through many thousands of dollars each month. Put it in first then pay the bill.

[Aston]

What the heck has happened to this site? I remember the days when threads like this would be closed because they were not property related.

I might start a thread to see how long people leave their curlers in for.


Another thing I have been wondering is whether people are still in their dressing gowns as they post on the site.


Or maybe how many butts do you allow to build up in the ashtray before emptying it, 10 - 20? or maybe just empty it once a week.


This is becoming as bad as the TM message boards.

[Keys]

What the heck has happened to this site? I remember the days when threads like this would be closed because they were not property related.

Have you complained to the mods about this thread Aston?

For me, this is money management 101.

Maybe not property related as such but Property Talk has grown since you joined in 2005.

[Meehole]

I pay the bills when they are due on my credit card but at the same time offset that charge with a payment onto the credit card for the same amount.
That way the bill is paid on time, I get points and know that I don't have to play catch up next month.

[Peter Griffin]

Alot of places charge a fee for using a credit card. Any ideas around that? Because the fee out weighs any points/voucher benefit.

[Meehole]

Alot of places charge a fee for using a credit card. Any ideas around that? Because the fee out weighs any points/voucher benefit.

It depends who it is that is charging the fee. Council adds 1.75% to consent fees, if we are doing the admin work on behalf of the client and charging for it then we include it in our cost to the client.