Include all expenses related to your home. These include expenses like mortgage or rent, property insurance, utilities and lawn care. Account for miscellaneous expenses. For example, you might choose to avoid reconnection fees by keeping your Internet and phone service activated.
If you will be away for several months, marking the bill on the calendar will also help you identify how many months in advance you need to pay or how many signed checks you will need to give to a friend.
The company will likely already have a convenient method in place, or can make different suggestions about how to pay the bill.
You may be able to set it up online, but you can also call these companies to ask if they offer such a service. If so, you will need to provide the date that you are the leaving and the date when you want the service to be turned back on. The company may or may not ask you to pay a reduced fee for your services while you are away. In most cases, you can pay this fee up front or set it up so the amount is debited directly from your account each month. Although you will have to manage to pay the bill, you will still be saving money.
Even if you can’t pay the bill on the company website, the company may have a telephone number you can call to make a payment. If you will be in a foreign country, consider using an internet phone service such as Skype to make your call. This can save you a lot of money if you don’t already have an international calling plan. If you plan to make the calls over an internet phone service, look to see if the company has a 1-800 number you can call. Internet phone services will usually allow you to make these calls for free.
If they don’t offer the service, ask whether you might be able to make payments over the phone.
If you have to call to make the payment, it might be a good idea to make a note of this on the calendar so you don’t forget.
Usually, they will also email you if something unusual occurs. For example, if your credit card company notices unusual activity on your account, they may send you an email to confirm that you made the charges.
Avoid paying bills in a place such as an internet cafe. These connections are not always secure, and you run the risk of getting your computer hacked. If you can’t find a place where the connection will be secure, then it is best to just call and pay your bill over the phone.
You may be able to set up the automatic bill pay over the phone, or they may be able to walk you through an online set up.
On your list of bills, be sure to make a note of when you set up bill pay for that bill, how you set it up, and who you spoke to on the phone (if anyone). A week or so before your trip, take an hour or two to double check each account to make sure that the bill pay is set up correctly.
If your landlord doesn’t like this idea, then you might consider giving post-dated checks for your rent to a friend or family member who can then make the payments for you. Your landlord might also be willing to come check on your apartment every once in a while to make sure that everything is in good running order. You could also ask a friend or neighbor to keep an eye on your home while you are away if you want.
If you can afford to pay the bill far in advance, and the company allows it, you will have the peace of mind that the bill is taken care of.
Doing this in person will make sure that it is set up correctly, and will also give you a chance to ask any questions about how the service works.
Having this list written up in advance will help you make sure that you’ve covered every single bill.
Some banks may offer bill pay through direct debit, but not via paper checks. Other banks may offer to send checks, but not have a direct debit scheme. Be sure to clarify this with your bank.
In some cases, such as with credit cards, paying a bill even a day late can be very harmful to your financial health.
Think about how responsible the person is as well. You may have a friend that you trust with your life, but who tends to be very forgetful. This isn’t the kind of person you want keeping up with your bills. If you have a close relationship with a parent this can often be a good choice as they are likely to be more concerned with your financial health than a friend.
In this case, it is better to provide too much information than not enough. They may not ever need the contact information of the company the bill belongs to, but it is better to have it.
If your friend/family member doesn’t get the bill paid on time it won’t hurt them, but it could harm your credit score. You may also then have to sort out a way to get any late fees taken care of.
Even if you don’t have any bills that you receive via mail it is still a good idea to have your mail checked while you are away. This way, your mailbox won’t get over-full, and the person checking the mail can alert you if you receive any important letters or unexpected bills. Alternatively, you can also sign up for a mail forwarding service through the post office. This will make it easy for your friend to keep an eye on the mail because it can be forwarded directly to them.
If you really trust your friend/family member, you could provide them with access to your email in case they manage to lock themselves out of the account. For many online accounts, it will be possible to reset the password if they have access to your email account.
At a minimum, be sure to sign the check. To make it easier for your friend/family member, you could also write out the name of the company/person receiving the money, as well as a memo for what bill the check is related to.
You can even take this a step further by providing everything your friend/family will need to mail inside the envelope. For example, if you have a payment slip that has to be included, fill it out with as much information as you can and insert it in the envelope along with a signed check. If you will be away for many months you can even write the month that the envelope is for somewhere inconspicuous on the envelope. For example, if your friend will need to send off a check each month from January to July then provide them with 7 stamped and addressed envelopes. On each envelope, write the month that it is for.
