I am with Amaroo on this one. Bill comes in, it's correct. Set up auto pay for day before due. File. Forget.
With regular utility bills yes I use the auto DD option which you only set up once - requires no ongoing effort. If no CC fee then CC it, if a CC fee then Cost/benefit to see how it goes.
With irregulars (like rights issues with a built-in free option that has a value) then its the vertical stacker and calendar.
But then I am the sort of person who transfers money from one account to other on the last day of the month to ensure bonus interest is earnt on any new deposits right up until the last day of the month. Compared with do-nothing strategy it has increased interest earnings more than 300 fold from just using transaction account. 3.XY% vs 0.01% at current levels, much better 2 years back.
No cost for phone call (unlimited free local and 13 calls) other than 90 seconds.
Dial number then press 2, 2, 1, #, #, #, 3, 1 and then the amount, #, XYZA, #, 1 and write down the receipt number.
BTW -
have you ever read the full terms and conditions for online CC or banking scheduling. In early 2000s the onus of proof for any losses was shifted onto the customer. Now you have to prove you took adequate security not the banks/issuer proving you did not. Very different to US, UK and EU!
Actual case: Told to me by the lady when I was warning some people about the changes.
English backpacker's parents purchased a prepaid AUD debit card for her ($3,000 from memory) for her 6 month Australian holiday. A friend of hers was already here and had arranged a job for her at the same cafe in Coogee she worked part time at. Trouble is her friend did not belong to AFF. Forgot the date line impact.
So backpacker arrived on Friday with a shift that day a couple of hours after landing. Oops, only discovered by SMS while in transit at Singapore. So she caught a taxi from Syd airport directly to the cafe. Dropped off right outside, paid by the debit card. Then worked rest of Friday, all day Saturday and Sunday (friends like these who needs enemies!).
On Monday afternoon went to buy a few things and her debit card did not work, had no cash so went online to find who was agent in Australia. Turned out to be NAB. Went to local branch, escalated through to branch manager.
"You have a zero balance. It was used up over the week-end for taxi rides in Melbourne."
But I am in Sydney and worked all weekend.
"Sorry it has been used up."
Not by me, it's a fraud.
"Can you prove that?"
Yes, I'll get my boss to.
So she went back to boss, who happened to have a JP working there. He wrote a Stat Dec listing the hours worked - so impossible for her to be in Melbourne. She went back and told this proves nothing, your card is empty.
Goes back to cafe in tears, nice boss explodes. Mentions because Coogee was Top Ten most violent areas he had installed CCTV throughout his cafe. Went and loaded up Friday, Sat & Sun on a flash drive (including showing the taxi pull up outside and her using the eftpos to pay).
Boss goes with her back to the bank and demands to see manager. Runs through info and then says have a look at my security footage. Mgr agrees, up it goes and there is the lady sitting in the front seat of the taxi paying the bill etc.
Triumphantly the bank manager says;
"See, she didn't take adequate security. She should have shielded the eftpos with her hand."
Now as everyone knows the eftpos is a hand held unit - she only has two hands. One to enter the pin with and one to hold it with.
Long story short - she lost $2,957.
She and boss went to:
- the Police - "Sorry but there is no proof that the taxi driver did anything wrong even though you claim to have only used it in the taxi (insult).
- NAB complaints "Not adequate security"
- Fin Ombudsman "Not adhere to terms and conditions of use"
Cafe boss gave her every extra shift possible but the original plan of work 2 months and travel 4 became work 5 months travel 4 weeks - as well as a certain to be repeated story throughout her social media circle and UK University friends etc.
I met her midway through month 5.
.
