Bill paying while away

ITN reader Dorothy Morris wrote about not being able to mail her bills from New York’s JFK airport (Feb ’06, pg. 11). There is another solution to having your bills handled while you are gone and that is to use a bill-paying service.

Most banks offer this service, but I prefer to use www.paytrust.com. I have been using Paytrust for about five years without any problems. My bills are mailed to Paytrust and I can view them online at any time. This comes in very handy when I am out of the country. I can review my credit card statement while in Albania or Zimbabwe and schedule the appropriate payment. Possibly best of all, I never have to worry about forgetting to pay a bill.

I have the options of automatically having the bill paid in full or having the minimum due paid or, as in the case of my mortgage, having an amount paid automatically each month. I get an e-mail when the bill is received and another one when the payment is sent. The flexibility I have in managing my bills is almost endless.

The monthly fee for this is $10.95, which is a little higher than what my bank would charge, but I like the idea of having an independent company handling it. If I decide to change banks (which I have done), all I have to do is change one entry with Paytrust rather than enter all of my payees with the new bank.

With the higher postal rates now, using a bill-paying service can actually save you money, not to mention time and effort writing those bills.

WAYNE STICKLE
Long Beach, CA