How to align your bill payment dates

Bills, the number one thing that zaps all your hard earned money out of your bank account. You’ve got to pay them so you might as well make the task a little bit easier on yourself. Getting all your bill payment dates in line with each other is one of the ways you can get a good handle on your finances and clearly see what you have left for the month. 

Where you can I always recommend paying bills up front, not only does it often save you money but you can then forget about that bill for a year which is always a win.

When you first have to start paying your bills you should set it up so they all go out on or around the same date, usually just a couple of days after you’re paid. Everything will be nicely in line and all the things you have to pay for will go out together rather than in dribs and drabs. This is great for keeping track of what you have left for the month. Set up your bill payment dates for just after you’re paid as you don’t want a big gap. This all works out well until it comes to switching providers, which by the way you should do regularly to get the best deal! This is when pay dates fall out of line and you end up with bills going out of your bank account all throughout the month. Switching jobs and getting paid on a different date can also mean your finances go out of whack as everything will be set up to go out just after your old payment date. Again if this happens you should be looking at changing your bill payment dates to fall in line with your new wage payment date.

I know it’s a pain having to rearrange things but it’s actually pretty easy to do and something I highly recommend spending a bit of time doing. A lot of things such as your internet and utilities will be able to be amended online via your account. When you go into your account there will often be a section around your billing information where you can select to change the payment date. Things such as your mortgage and council tax can also be changed but they’ll more than likely require a phone call to do so. Again though it’s a five minute job at the max as your provider will take care of everything, you’re just notifying them of when you’d like to change your payment date to.

It’s simple really, having all your bills go out at once just after you’ve been paid gives you a much clearer idea of what you have left for the month. If bills are going out constantly throughout the month it’s harder to keep track of your finances and your disposable income. Ideally you want all your bills to come out no later than 2-3 days after you’ve been paid as again allowing a big gap between your wage payment date and your bill payments won’t give you there clearest look at your finances. We all have to pay bills so you might as well make it a little bit easier on yourself. By getting all your bills out of the way at the same time you have paid off everything that your money has to be spent on, anything you have left is yours to do with as you please from adding to your savings to treating yourself.

For someone who loves to have their finances organised I personally think having all your bill payment dates aligned is one of the most important yet simplest tasks you can do to gain clarity on your outgoings.

Do you like to make sure all your bill payments are aligned and in order? Let me know in the comments.

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