I just used my Electric Orange account to set up a number of online bills. I will be using the account to pay off the credit cards and one of the loans because that is just an easier way to manage my finances. I first used the account to send out a paper check to each creditor to see about how long the payments would take and I was very satisfied with the results.
I set up the online bill pay for the few creditors that I tested because I just realized that the money can stay in Electric Orange and generate some interest before it goes out. If the creditor needs a paper check then that is also available from the account so I do not need to have my Wells Fargo account except to run to get quarters for doing laundry.
I will also need to keep Welly because I do have some people that I deal with who seem to be afraid of all the online banking. I have sent out invites to get the ING account and if you need one just say so in the comments and I will email you the link where you can get the extra little bonus for signing up to ING with someone who already has an account. Then you can also get your Electric Orange account and begin to enjoy the benefits of that too!
Anyway, back to my bill pay story. The bill pay feature is FREE with Electric Orange so that helps me to save money, not only from not paying for stamps to pay bills, but also because some other places charge for the service. I have the bill pay dates set up a few days before the actual due dates to give me time to make sure they go through. The dates set up in Electric Orange are also two to three days ahead of the dates set up in Money so that by the time I check Money and see that I have a bill coming up soon it should already have been sent out from Electric Orange. If I check Orange and see that the payment has not been sent (for whatever reason) then I still have enough time to do it manually because I have catered for the time difference.
I still receive paper statements (bad for the environment I know) but I am just doing this for now so that I can stay on top of every bill as it comes due. If I have computer problems then I would not know when something was due so I need that paper statement just as a backup to make sure I do not have any late payments going out.
Don’t forget to let me know if you need that referral link to ING so that you can get the bonus and set up your accounts. Just post a comment and I will get your email address from that and send you the link.
I do the exact same thing with my bills (paper), MS Money and ING (spreading out the dates).
Oh how I heart ING!
I don’t know why I did not think of doing this before. I am so silly.