Challenge #9: Paying Bills Online

A few years ago I started a bank account at a bank that has an online feature to pay bills. I have found this service to be convenient, secure and timely. The best thing, I save money and paper: on checks, stamps, return address labels and envelopes. Every bill I have gets paid online.

About 8 years ago, I had tried receiving and paying bills online. At this time, I had to go out to each company’s website, download the statement, and pay the bill on their site. It was a terrible system to try to use that was stressful and time-consuming, and I messed up or missed quite a few payments. I gave up and went back to paper bills for everything, although I still paid many bills online.

With the current system, you can actually get the bills downloaded into your bank account. I am going to try this with my utility bills, as I don't worry about unknown charges on these bills.

I am not ready to try this yet with my credit cards, as I like to look at each charge to be sure it is legitimate. But, I will start with the bills that I can and start reducing the amount of paper I receive in my mailbox.


By receiving and paying my bills through the exchange of bytes instead of mail, I will REDUCE the amount of paper that is used by my household.

to anyone who can decrease teh amount fo junk mail that they receive. Try donotmail.org to find some tips and to sign a petition to instate a nation "Do Not Mail" registry.

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