Methods of bill payment

nickbrat

Hello,

I'm thinking of reorganinsing my finances in order to become debt free and one of the things i have been thinking about is making a regular payment into an account to pay my bills.

An example of this would be cancelling my direct debit of £71pm to EON then paying a simliar amount into an account that pays a fairly decent amount of interest. Then simply wait until the quarterly bill comes through the post and paying it in one go.

I would do a similar thing with the other bills as well such as
BT etc....

Is this sensible money management or am i in cloud cuckoo land?



Nick

HappyMJ

With Gas/Electricity it depends on your tariff. Some tariffs can only be paid monthly. Some you can pay quarterly by direct debit and still retain the discounts.

With BT...I'm having a lot of hassle with them. They want the whole amount upfront and then monthly after that so you are always about 4-5 months in advance. If you have online account management you can change the monthly direct debit amount every month to reduce it but then when the bill comes in next they up it again. If you can get them to bill you monthly then only pay one month in advance that would be the best way.

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Helena

Hi nickbrat,

HappyMJ has made a good point, I would also suggesting checking your tariff to make sure you can change the way you pay. Some of the most competitive tariff's request you pay by a monthly Direct Debit (online tariff's etc).

You may also lose a bit of discount if you cancel the Direct Debit as you do get an extra % discount off the bill for this method of payment.

I will be more than happy to help you, if you would like me to

You can contact me at [EMAIL="WebForumAdvisors@eonenergy.com"]WebForumAdvisors@eonenergy.com[/EMAIL] with your details, I can have a look at your account and let you know if cancelling the DD would have an impact on your account.

Just let me know.

Helena

(just to add, I can't comment on the DD's for other utilities, sorry )

dancingfairy

Hi - I would check you are getting the best deals first with everything.
Have you done an SOA? does it show you can manage? If so then great - a bills account might be a good idea.
If not then presumably it will be akin to moving deckchairs on the titanic.
Will you have to manually pay the bills as they become due or will you still have the facilities to pay by DD or Standing Order on this new account? One of the major benefits of DD is you don't forget to pay the bill - a system that relies on you having to pay as and when statements arrive might not work as well - it depends on how organised you are.
df