Benefits of Online Bill Pay for Better Money Management 

What is online bill pay?

Online bill pay is a service provided by many banking institutions and prepaid debit card providers. It allows you to log into one app and make all of your online payments from a single place. Types of online payments you can make include:

• Credit card
• Retailer
• Car
• Medical
• Utilities
• Mobile phone

All you have to do is log into the mobile app of your bank or financial services provider, navigate to the bill payment feature, if available, and find your biller by name. You’ll generally see a long list of large, recognizable companies because these are the types of bills people most commonly need to pay.

By paying your bills online through a single app, you can make a payment quickly and efficiently.

What are the benefits of online bill pay?

Life gets busy — and stressful. With online bill payment services, you have the benefit of paying your bills all in one place vs. having to log into multiple websites and accounts. You don’t have to write any checks, stuff any envelopes or buy stamps. And you may find some peace of mind knowing your bill payment information is organized in one location, ready for bills to be paid with a couple of clicks.

Here are some other potential benefits of online bill pay:

Avoid late fees.

Paying your bills online means greater efficiency, ease and timeliness. You can log in and pay a bill you wish to pay right away, or you can schedule a bill payment in advance, so your bill gets paid on a certain future date. Because you’re able to pay your bills quickly online, there’s less risk of missing a payment due date and incurring a late fee.

Skip the lines and hassle.

With online bill pay, you never have to physically visit a store or wait in line to pay a bill. And you can leave the funds at home or right on your card. Using your financial institution’s mobile app to pay bills saves lots of time, plus helps you meet payment due dates easily.

Pay securely from anywhere.

Mobile apps make it easy to log in any time to quickly pay bills online. Mobile access gives you the added benefit of being able to truly pay your bills from anywhere, right from the secure app of your debit card provider. Having just one point of access and login can also help minimize the risk of password exposure on multiple websites.

Track payments.

When you pay your bills all from one platform, such as the mobile app associated with your debit card provider or financial institution, your visible payment history is all in one place, at your fingertips at any time. This makes it easy for you to keep your bill payments organized and helps reduce the amount of effort usually required to manage paper bill payments.

Improve credit score.

Online bill payments may contribute to an improved credit score. By using a mobile app to efficiently pay your bills quickly and on time, you’re less likely to miss a payment due date. Consistently paying your bills on time over a long period to creditors who report to credit agencies can help demonstrate favorable financial behavior. While the potential improvement in your credit score may be minimal, every little bit helps when you’re trying to build credit.

Minimize fraud risk.

At any time, fraudsters may be trying to access your personal information. By paying your bills online all from one place, there may be less chance of someone accessing your information through multiple websites, accounts and logins. And because you’re not sending a traditional check in the mail, there may be less risk of your personal account information being exposed.

How do you set up bill payment online?

Use your financial institution’s app to easily set up online bill payments, if available, for all of your bills. You can pay your credit card bill online as well as medical and dental bills, auto insurance, mortgage, rent, utilities and more. There is generally no limit to how many bills you can include in online bill pay. There is usually no payment minimum either, but there could be a maximum per bill. Be sure to check with your provider regarding bill payment limits.

Just navigate to the bill payment feature and follow the prompts provided. Again, it’s helpful to have a list of all your bills handy with their respective due dates, so you can set up online bill pay efficiently and easily.

Since most people have bills from large companies, such as mobile phone providers, utility companies and credit card service providers, online bill payment services often display a long list of the most common billers. Start by selecting one that applies to you and enter the details requested, like account and/or invoice number, amount and payment due date. Repeat this for each of your bills or enter the details manually if you don’t see your biller.

What to do if your biller isn’t shown

If your biller isn’t shown, there is often a manual option that allows you to provide billing and payment information. You can enter the bill details for payment and even submit a photo of the bill you’d like paid. Even if the biller doesn’t accept online payments, you can still use online bill payment. The bill pay option allows paper check payments (your financial institution handles this on your behalf), meaning you provide your payment via the online payment process and your financial institution or prepaid debit card provider sends out a physical check in the mail to the biller.

With online bill payment services, many financial institutions also guarantee on-time payment as long as you’ve submitted payment well in advance of the due date to provide time for processing.

Keep in mind, when you schedule an online payment, the money may be taken out of your account right away, so you’ll need to make sure there’s money there to cover it.