Electronic bill payment

Electronic bill payment. If you have an electronic bill payment arrangement with your bank, your bills are sent to an account you designate and the bank pays them automatically each month by deducting the money from that account and transferring it to your payees, either electronically or by check.

The advantage of using electronic payment is that your bills will be paid on time, though it is your responsibility to ensure that there is enough money on deposit to cover what's due.

When the payments are made to credit accounts with the same bank, you may be offered a slightly reduced interest rate for using the service.

However, you'll want to investigate whether there's an added fee for automatic payment and how much flexibility you have in determining how much of a bill's balance due is paid each month on credit accounts where you have the option to pay less than the full amount owed.