Most of the recurring bills we get are paid automatically either by direct debit to our checking account or by automatic charging of our primary credit card. It's helped us to keep on top of the bill paying.
Our county government, though, hasn't had any such mechanism in place (until this month, we found out). People received bills in the mail, and sent a check back by the due date or stopped by the county offices to pay in person. The old way of doing things.
Well, sure enough, we got a notice in the mail that we had missed paying our water bill on time. This is the second time we've missed paying it. My wife doesn't think the bill arrived in the first place.
So I went to pay the bill this morning in person at the county offices. In the process of finding out when these bills are normally mailed, I found out that I'm still responsible for paying the bills on time even if the bill doesn't arrive at my house — regardless of whose at fault for the mix-up. (Since our county's offices are perfect all the time, they pointed a finger at the post office. 😉 ) All the more reason to get the schedule for billing: if the bill doesn't arrive when it's supposed to, you can follow up with the county before you're socked with late fees, which for real estate taxes, is a huge deal — 10% of what's owed.
Also, we found out that the county had set up online payments for taxes and licensing, even with credit cards! If there's no fee associated with paying online, then that can be a big plus if you have a rebate card like the Chase PerfectCardâ„¢ MasterCard®. (We've had a similar Chase card for years, and it's treated us well; as convenience users of the card we've earned thousands of dollars in rebates.) In any case it's a big step up in convenience to have the online payment option.
To recap, here are some tips to consider if you're still paying your taxes the old-fashioned way like we were:
- Know when the county/city/etc. sends the bills out. So you'll be looking for them and can pay them on time.
- Pay them when you get them. It's strange, but once we've gotten used to having everything taken out automatically we almost forgot about paying bills! The extra fraction of a dollar in interest that we've gained by paying the bills close to the due date is gone because of the late fees we incurred when we forgot to pay the bill on time! So now we don't let them sit around.
- Ask if there are other options for payment. This was how I found out about our county's website.
- If you pay in person, try to pay before the due date. I don't know how I remembered, but I looked for our property tax bill one weekend and it was due the next day! The line was really long that day, because everyone else had waited to the last minute like I had.
My county does allow online credit card payments. But there is a 2.99% (why not 3%) convenience charge. They also offer an echeck option for $1 which isn't so bad since a stamp would cost $.39 anyway.
In my case, I put a check in the mail, but I got my bill in plenty of time. Or I could have downloaded a .pdf of the bill and sent it in.
When it comes to the water bill, the city doesn't offer any electronic payment options. My bill runs a bit under $30/month, and I pay it about 6 months at a time (in advance), whenever I get a bill showing a balance due instead of a credit balance. First time I did this I got a call from the billing office wondering what I meant to do with the extra money, so I write a note "excess payment to account credit".
The cost of the interest I lose is easily made up the cost of the stamps I save — $.39 on a $180 balance for the first month is 2.6% annualized interest, and tax free as well. And every month as the balance drop the effective return increases, to over 12% on the last month. Valuable.
Not having to write a check every month — priceless.