Online Bill Pay: Five Reasons to Adopt the Service

If you’re like most people, there’s never enough time to get everything done between your work and family responsibilities. Paying your monthly bills is probably the last thing you want to do after a long day. Fortunately, you can quickly tick this necessary task off your to-do list by using online Bill Pay, a free service offered to account holders at most financial institutions, including Quorum Federal Credit Union.

How to Set Up Online Bill Pay (It’s Easy!)

Each financial institution’s website is different, but setting up and using online Bill Pay generally involves these steps. We’ve listed Quorum’s steps below, which are similar to most financial institutions:

• Log in to your account either through online or mobile banking.
• Under “Pay” select “Bill Payment.”
• From the Bill Pay Dashboard, click Add Payee.
• Select who you need to pay by choosing a Business or Person then click the Next button.
  • If you are paying a Business:
    • Enter the name of business, zip code, default funding account, and the account number, then click Next.
    • Enter the business’s address and phone number.
  • If you’re paying a Person:
    • Enter the payee’s name, select “check” as the payment method, select a default funding account, then click Next.
    • Enter the payee address and phone number.
• Once you have entered in all information, click “Add Payee,” then “Go to Payee.” (You will be taken to the “Make a Payment” tab of your newly-added payee).
• Select your funding account (if you have multiple funding accounts available) and enter the amount to be paid.
• Designate the frequency (whether you want the payment to be one-time or recurring).
• Set a start date you want the payment to be initiated.
• Click “Submit Payment” and then click “Confirm Payment” after verifying everything is correct.

Once you’ve entered all the necessary information for your first bill, you can add as many more payees to be paid as you like or need. Your financial institution will then electronically transfer the amounts you indicated on the dates you selected for all your bills.

Some businesses don’t accept electronic payments, but you can still pay them through Bill Pay at most financial institutions. In such cases, your bank or credit union sends a paper check for you. 

Five Ways that Bill Pay Simplifies Your Financial Life

Need a little more convincing? Here are the most compelling reasons to use Bill Pay:

1. Saves your hard-earned money.

With Bill Pay eBills, after enrolling with an eligible payee, it automatically sets reminders on your bill payment dashboard when upcoming bills are due, ensuring you pay them on-time to avoid costly late fees. And since your financial institution is handling the payment, either electronically or by check, you don’t need to pay for personal checks or stamps as often or at all. 

2. Saves your valuable time.

Instead of writing multiple checks or even logging into multiple business websites to pay your bills, you can do it all in one place with Bill Pay. Since it lets you choose payment dates in advance, you can also take care of all your monthly bills at one time. And if for some reason, you miss an alert about an upcoming bill until right before it’s due, don’t worry. Just schedule it for the earliest date possible through Bill Pay and your financial institution will remit the payment almost immediately.

3. Streamlines your recordkeeping.

Bill Pay keeps you organized:

• You can view and track all your scheduled payments to help you stay on budget and watch your account’s available balance.
• You can arrange to have businesses send eBills directly to your financial institution, eliminating the chance that your incoming bills are delayed or lost in the mail.
• You can choose the automatic payments option for incoming eBills, further streamlining your bill paying process.
• You can view past eBills and bill payment transaction history, which are stored in Bill Pay for an extended period of time for recordkeeping and tax filing.

4. Reduces your theft threat.

Multiple news reports highlight the growing trend of thieves stealing mail from neighborhood drop boxes. These bad guys look for bill remittances with checks to steal your identity and/or your money. Victims have had thousands of dollars drained from their checking accounts after postal thieves altered the stolen checks by changing the amounts and making themselves the designated payees.

This risk is eliminated when you use Bill Pay, which is safe because it’s password-protected and all your information is encrypted for cybersecurity purposes. To further safeguard your account, opt to use multi-factor authentication at login, one of the 10 rules for staying safe online.

5. Reduces your carbon footprint.

You also eliminate the paper waste of physical checks by choosing to pay everything from your mortgage payment to your utility bills and auto insurance premium with Bill Pay. You’ll save even more trees when you opt to receive eBills instead of mailed statements, which typically include multiple pages, plus the exterior and return envelopes.

Best of all, with the time you gain back by using Bill Pay, you’ll be able to focus on other important financial tasks you perhaps couldn’t get to before. This includes things like conducting routine financial check-ups, making sure your life insurance policy still works for you and creating a home inventory.