The worst part about being an adult is the responsibility of paying your bills. Utilities such as water, heat, electrical, and gas are a necessary pain. Insurance premiums for your home and vehicle are also imperative to keep up with.
Staying organized and being punctual with your payments will save you money in the long run and keep you in the good graces of those to whom you owe money. Many banks allow you to use auto-pay options, which take away the hassle of remembering when everything is due.
Even when you know a due date, life can get in the way and make it more convenient to change the due date to a different time. But is every entity that you owe money flexible with due dates? Or do they desire for their customers to be right on the nose?
This article will help answer many of the questions you may have about paying your bills, such as “Can I change my car insurance payment date?” and “Do auto-pay options with my bank have any drawbacks to them?”
Car Insurance Companies and Late Payments
When it comes to car insurance bills, most companies will be flexible with their due dates on payments. Remember, the best insurance companies will treat the relationship between customer and business as a humanistic one. Don’t be afraid to communicate and treat the relationship as one that is on equal footing.
So many customers fret that they need to fear the auto insurance industry as they do the IRS or another federal entity that is going to arrest them and discipline them for a late payment. Your business is valuable and if you find that your current provider is not working with you in a reasonable manner, it may be time to explore your options and make a switch.
It’s easy to take control of your insurance options by shopping online or asking a friend. Remember, though, that if you are switching insurance companies frequently, think about why you are never satisfied with your agency and their policies on things like late payments.
Healthy understanding is a two-way street. Never paying your bills, even when you have asked for multiple late payments, will lead to consequences.
If it feels like manual payments are never going to be right for you, you should take a look at auto-pay options.
The Pros of Auto Payments
Setting your bills on auto payment is super easy and allows people who have a hard time keeping track of all of their expenses to never have to worry about late fees or other repercussions of forgetting to pay up.
Auto payment can be especially helpful if you are on your last limb with your insurance company, you want to stay with them, and you promise to pay up after messing up so many times in the past.
This is also important if you are forgetting to pay bills that are essential to living a suitable life for your family and yourself. Never paying the water bill is going to put you at risk of losing one of nature’s greatest gifts; not paying for electricity is going to send you back to the Renaissance for lighting resources.
The Cons of Auto Payments
This doesn’t mean there aren’t downsides to automatically paying for bills, though. What if the payment changes on a monthly basis? You may find yourself searching for funds or wondering why the auto payment has bounced when there aren’t enough dollars and cents in the piggy bank.
If you decide to put entertainment subscriptions on auto pay, you’ll look back with extreme regret that you didn’t give yourself the opportunity to cancel before paying another 80 bucks for four different streaming services, three of which you never watch anymore.
These problems won’t affect everyone. Many people will look at and evaluate all of their auto payments on a monthly basis to make sure their bank accounts have a sufficient balance and that they aren’t getting overcharged for paying for something they no longer use.
But if you are the type of person who meticulously examines your finances for ways to save money, why would you need auto payments? You would just as well want to manually pay each and every bill so that you can save time worrying about what’s flying out of your account without your knowledge.
The Verdict on Using Auto-Pay for Bills
Whatever is best for you, make sure that you evaluate what types of bills are right for automatic, and which ones are better suited for manual. It’s always nice to find a balance for everything in modern society.
Financial responsibility is actually a very personal and unique experience. Some of us want to earn online, and others are more old school. Even though we all have to worry about paying our expenses, the ways we do it are specific to our lifestyles.
Gather the information you need and go from there. Success should always follow this philosophy.
Shawn Laib writes and researches for the auto insurance comparison site, autoInsurance.org. He enjoys helping people evaluate and maintain their financial situation.
