Bills that is.
I am usually very organised but lately, maybe because I moved jobs and all, suddenly, I’ve turned into the most disorganised person ever! I forget to pay my bills, and I don’t even know where my bills are half the time.
I even got a pretty yellow letter from TNB telling me that if I didn’t make payment I would be screwed. Well not in so many words, but words like “suspended” and “cutting off electricity” were used. I did not even remember how long the bill had been unpaid, but I was quick to pay the amount asked for. When did they change it to yellow paper instead of red? I always thought the threat would come on red paper.
The next one to give me a threatening note would likely be my condominium management and Telekom (TM). Oh and streamyx too, even if they have appalling service. They give you intermittant service but expect you to pay on time. Bah! They are efficient when it comes to collecting money and suspending service. But talk about providing proper internet connection and suddenly their efficiency drops to nil.
Then there are the credit cards to account for, and the various loans one accumulates to show you are adult. I have house and car loans ergo I’m adult. Bah!
So tell me, how do you keep yourself organised so all your bills are paid on time, thereby avoiding receiving yellow/red pieces of paper and late payment charges and interests? Or is this yet another thing you need a man around the house for?! 
{ 6 comments }
Er…I am a man. So…er….these things just comes automatically. Want the formula? Simple. Step by step formula:-
No. 1 – Wait for salary
No. 2 – Withdraw salary
No. 3 – Pay all bills till salary almost finish liao (don’t worry, you will find enough bills to pay till your salary almost finish wan. Keep finding bills to pay if you still have too much salary remaining)
No. 4 – Live on whatever that’s left for the rest of the month and repeat no. 1
P/s : If you still have lots of money after no. 3 (and even after you have a headache trying to look for bills to pay), I’ll give you my paypal account and you can transfer some funds over
Hehe…oh well, one option would be to make use of the “Direct Debit” facility…only drawback is that they will just start helping themselves to your bank account, even if you complain about discrepancies in the billing!!
PS: One thing I learned…if you make a huge enough fuss about unwarranted interest accrued (ie. they were late processing/the bill arrived late), they’ll usually reverse the charges – but ONLY if they think they can’t ignore you until you drop it.
Apart from Standing Orders, I guess the only other way is to religiously tie knots on your fingers.. I mean make your ExpenseAcct.xls on Excel Fun/Easy to Use..
I tell myself I’ll set-up my account to do direct debit before next month’s bills, but somehow or other I’d not get around to doing it. I rely on my trusty pocket diary where I’ve got all the amounts written in it each month and a reminder about one week before the due dates.
I pay when the bills come… No need to direct debit (which opens up another can of worms when there is a dispute), or tie knots on fingers (half the time I’ll be wondering which knot is for what).
There was this one time where I refused to pay IndahWater, for a few years I believe. Letter after letter, reminder after reminder, until one day, they actually send a letter threatening legal action and a photocopy of the section of the Sewerage Services Act 1993 which I was violating!! What a riot!!
Tax season does that to me. Instead of paying bills, I work on taxes. Which then become another bill. Haiz…
Comments on this entry are closed.