Automating Finance Payments.

I have made many mistakes in my finances-- because of not understanding when bills need to be paid. If I calculate how much money i have spent on late payments- i would definately have a minor heart attack.

With this post i hope to be able to stop you from making the same mistakes. I will try and share simple things - simple tools which will allow you to become more effective in managing your finances.

Here are a few steps to help you get started.

1. Understand the different bills you need to pay every month. This could be Cellphone bills, Credit card bills, Electricity, mortgage, home phone bills , Insurance payments and others. Ensure you cover all type of bills in each category- for example if you have multiple credit cards.

2. Evaluate which of these bills can be paid by Credit cards and which need actual cash to be paid. Most of the bills can be paid using credit card options nowdays- the only place where you need to pay cash is for your credit card bills ( though i wish i could pay a credit card bill with another credit card -- that would be fun!!!)

3. Understand from your finances which option you want to use to make payments-- Credit card/ debit cards/ direct debits from your savings account and make a list

4. Once you have decided which bill is paid how- there are now two options for you to make the payments.


Paying off your credit card bills
The simplest way to get this done is if you have an account with the same credit card provider-- for example if you have a SB account with SBI and an SBI credit card. You can link up your credit card with your account and have an automated direct debit from your SB account whenever the card becomes due. No worries/ No headaches.

However if you do have other cards where you dont have a SB account-- sometimes the credit card provider does have a direct debit option which you can activate by filling up a form-- takes around an hr to close all things out-- but releases all the tensions of late payment for the rest of your life!!

If the above option is not available, then nowdays there are online payment facilities available-- through providers such as paynet etc- check out if these are available. all that you will need to do is to ensure you go two days before and make the payment!!

Paying All Other Bills
ALL credit cards today have an option where you can schedule your payments with providers and ALL providers have the direct debit option with your credit cards!! Makes life simple right?

So just schedule your payments and live an easy life of no late payments fees and tensions.

Paying through credit cards also has a two big benefits
1. You get a lot of reward points ... which you can redeem for multiple things
2. You have everything in one place... you can understand your spending behaviours.

There are two important pieces of the puzzle you need to ensure before you fully look to automate your bill payments


1. while using credit cards to make your bill payments -- ensure you FIRST close out on the automated payments loop for your credit card bills-- else you could be paying huge amounts of money for delayed payments!
you can read my previous blog on my own experience on delayed credit card payments at

2. Always ensure you have enough funds in your SB account to be able to make these payments-- Read through my post on creating an emergency fund

Take the plunge-- and you will find this very rewarding.