Benefits of Online Bill Payment Systems

If you have good debt management skills, you will surely be using modern means of debt repayments such as online bill payments. This method not only saves time, but it also saves money in the process. So, what is online bill payment? Basically, online bill payment is a process in which the debtor can issue payment instructions to a creditor by using electronic means. These electronic tools are computers and the electronic medium is the internet. Online bill payment is virtually error free and will help in making your debt management much easy.  

In the past, when money had to be transferred from one state to another, people couriered cheques. These cheques would take three to four days to reach the destination and it would take another week for the outstation cheque to get cleared. If the cheque fell in the wrong hands, a considerable amount could get debited from the sender’s account. These days, sending cheques has become obsolete because electronic transfer has eliminated the threat of fraud. 

There are basically two ways in which you can send money via online means. First, you can use a banking institution to make the desired payment. Second, you can choose a service provider to make an online payment. The design of online bill payment is intuitive, quick and easy to use. Most banks are offering online payment facility free of cost to their existing customers. Customers can manually enter the amount each month or they can opt for automatic withdrawal from their bank accounts.

Automatic withdrawal is very convenient because the customer does not have to spend time on the payment procedure. With the automatic withdrawal feature, customers can set up their payments in advance of their bill due date. Thus, the creditor will directly transfer funds from the customer’s bank account and apply those funds to the customer’s account without the manual intervention of the customer.

There is a lot of time saved with online bill payment facilities and it is devoid of filing piles of paper or writing out cheques. Most banks offer online or internet banking facilities that are also exquisite for bill payments these days. If customers feel the need to review their past bills, they can quickly locate them from a centralized location. Visa bill payment websites are good examples of bill payment facilities.

When customers courier cheques to the creditor, they have to incur some costs such as delivery charges, which appear to be very minuscule. However, when you look it from an annual perspective, the costs can get really high. We all know that if we don’t pay bills on time, there are late charges. When cheques are delayed, the lender will happily charge you with late payment fees and that will reflect in the statement of the subsequent month. To avoid late fees, you will have to make sure that you have the right online bill paying partner who can take good care of your bills.   

Author: Kanchan Shah