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Bills, bills, bills

There are many ways you can make bill payments easier. Here are five - all of them help bring peace of mind and save you paying late payment fees.

Pay them your way

Example: Pay your electricity bill on time 

Imagine the peace of mind if every time you receive an electricity bill and you know it's under control. Your bill is generally $650 per quarter. 

What’s needed? You need to put $50 per week away towards your bill (13 weeks in each quarter). 

System: You get paid fortnightly, so you arrange to have $100 per pay transferred into a separate bills account. You schedule a regular BPAY from your bills account to the electricity company

1. Automatic transfer and direct debit

A great way to make sure your bills are paid on time is to arrange an automatic transfer through internet banking from your account or have amounts directly debited from your account on your pay day.

NOTE: Make sure you have enough funds in your account to cover the payments, as hefty charges can apply.

Don’t forget to cancel any direct debits if you change providers.

2. BPAY schedule

BPAY is another secure option for bill payment. You can set your payments to go out on a certain date using BPAY bill scheduling from your online banking.

Simply enter:

  • The BPAY Biller Code
  • Your reference number
  • The amount you’d like to pay
  • The payment date.

3. Centrepay deductions

If you receive Centrelink income, you can use the Centrepay Deduction service to have bills deducted from your pay before money is deposited into your bank account.

This is a great way to ensure you don’t miss bill payments and aren’t charged any fees for late payments.

4. Payroll deductions

Talk to the payroll department at your work to set up this option.

They may be able to: 

  • Deduct health insurance payments from your wages.
  • Deposit mortgage repayments directly into your mortgage account.
  • Split your pay into different accounts, like a bills or savings account.

5. Envelope system

Some people find it best to put cash into envelopes to pay their bills. Take care - cash can be tempting to borrow from!

  1. Label one envelope for each budget category.
  2. Work out how much you need for each category (Our section on budgeting on page 36 goes through this).
  3. Each time you get paid, put the planned amount of cash into that envelope. That becomes your spending limit.
  4. When you need to spend some money, such as on groceries, take the cash out.
  5. Record everything you spend on the envelope.

I never knew using cash for groceries could be such a game-changer.

This was such an eye-opening and worthwhile exercise. I love the "You're The Boss" book. For the first time in my life, I feel like I'm in control of my finances.
Community Member
Tamworth, NSW