[A/S] Paying bills while on vacation

[Terry Tyler <tylerbears@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Oliver,

Whether we're on vacation or not, we pay our bills forward, including 
the balance in our credit card accounts.

Each bill we receive shows the amount of credit in our account. When 
that amount is reduced to what we think will cover the next six months, 
we throw another six month's worth of money into the account. This 
means we write checks at a time when it's convenient for us, usually at 
three to six month intervals.

This system works for us.  We started this style of bill paying bills 
when first married and gradually changed it to paying more than one 
month forward at a time. Over the years, we got it to the 6 month mark. 
As a result, paying bills is rarely on the front burner of our "to do" 
list.

The interest we lose by not having our money earning interest is more 
than made up for by confidence at knowing all the bills are covered. 
That's the best interest for us. It frees us to spend our time as we 
choose, not by organizing our bill paying efforts around the various 
company's monthly billing cycles.

The penalty interest we might be charged for carrying an unpaid balance 
on our credit cards is non-existent. Credit card bills are paid within 
the grace period - automatically - by the credit balance previously 
paid forward. No bank can penalize us for spending our money as we 
choose.

Likewise, if we want to buy a big ticket item, we pay it off within the 
grace period or we budget it as a line item and save until there's 
enough to buy it.

What's important is finding out what works for you and sticking to it.


Terry