Paying Your Bills On Time

How many monthly bills do you get? You may have a mortgage bill,
a car payment, heating, electricity, gas, telephone, television,
and that doesn't even begin with your credit card and store card
payments. The fact of the matter is that people today have more
monthly commitments than ever before. And with all these various
bills it is very easy to forget to pay one on time. 

Then there is the wholly separate issue of whether or not you
can afford all your bills. Sometimes we may simply have over
extended ourselves financially and in such situations we may not
be able to pay all of our bills as they fall due. And what if
you were to lose your job, or become ill or otherwise unable to
work? Even if this is only for a short time, you will have some
very real problems meeting all your monthly bills. 

Penalties

This can be disastrous. First of all most creditors will slap
late payment penalties and other administrative charges to your
account if you are late. Some may recall or try to repossess
assets if they have security over them. This is most serious in
the case of your house but can also apply to your car or any
other purchase you have made by instalments such as a
television, or computer.

How can you provide for such an outcome? Well having some
savings is a very good start. This should be able to cushion you
for a few months should you lose your job. Then there is the
fact that it is perhaps not so wise to rack up so many
commitments that you can't reduce your outgoings at short
notice. 

Insurance Protection

Another option to consider is payment protection insurance. This
can be very helpful and is designed specifically for situations
such as these. How it works is you pay an amount extra on top of
your monthly bill. This is automatically added to your bill and
depends on how much you have outstanding for each bill. For
example, payment protection insurance on a credit card might be
priced at £1 per £100 you have outstanding. What happens then is
should you lose your job through no fault of your own, or should
you become unable to work due to accident or illness, then the
insurance should step in and make your repayments for you so
that you don't fall behind and rack up extra fees. This can be a
great assistance to you financially, at a time when you need it
most.