Paytrust: Quit Handling Bills
Our first “Favorite Thing” is Paytrust. We have been using this on-line bill pay service for 5 years and love it. I know what you’re thinking: “But I get free BillPay from my bank. Why would I want to pay some other service?”
Because, Paytrust not only sends payments for you, they receive them as well. Here’s how it works:
- You tell your power company that your billing address is at Paytrust (they assign you a PO Box in South Dakota)
- Paytrust receives the bill, scans it in, and sends you an email that it has arrived. (They’ll also send you a reminder email a few days before the bill is due)
- You log into Paytrust, look at the scanned in images of all your pending bills and decide which ones to pay
- Paytrust cuts a check (or an Electronic Funds Transfer) to your power company
You can also setup rules like “Automatically pay a bill from my power company if it’s under $100.”
It’s great — we almost never write checks or buy stamps. We rarely lose bills any more. At the end of the year they will send you a CD of all your bills for your records.
It cost $5-$15/month (the CD at the end of the year cost extra), but we figure it’s worth it not having dings against our credit report for having late bills.
And yes, it’s secure. It’s what I do, remember.
Well, that’s all for now. More favorite things to come soon.
