I Heart Online Banking

I’ve mentioned online banking before, but I think it’s worth another post because of how handy it is and how helpful it is in reaching our goals.

Handy Because #1
We have several bank accounts, but we operate out of only one. So every night I log on to our checking account and see what transactions hit our account that day. I transfer every single transaction to a spreadsheet, so I always know exactly how much money we have at the end of every day. Also, if Pool Boy made a stupid purchase at some point throughout that day, I can hassle him about it while the purchase is still fresh, rather than wait until he’s forgotten about it.

Handy Because #2
The people in charge of the online bill pay at my bank hate me, I’m pretty sure. If I come across any extra money, I immediately send a check to my car loan. Here’s an example. I sell a lot of books on half.com. As soon as I sell the book, I immediately log in to my bank account and submit a payment to be sent to my car loan. In a month timeframe, I might send up to 10 checks to the loan! If I was writing manual checks, I would never do this because I never have any envelopes at my house, and I also never have any stamps.

Handy Because #3
This is similar to the one above, but still deserves it’s own number. I always HATED sitting down one night a month to write out all the bills. What a depressing way to spend an evening. Then I’d have to hunt down envelopes and stamps (see above). And I was usually low on checks, because I hate ordering checks. And on top of all that, I very rarely remembered to do this before the due date on all the bills because I can be lazy like that. The whole process stunk. Now I pay a bill as soon as it arrives in the mail so I don’t have one big “doomsday” every month. I get the mail, open it up, walk to my laptop, and pay it. Done.

Handy Because #4
Think of all the money I’m saving! No stamps, fewer checks, fewer envelopes, no late fees. I also don’t have to worry as much about a payment not arriving on time. The bank backs me up if there is ever a problem with that.

Sooooo…this means a new poll! See it up there? In the right corner?

P.S. Tonight is a big night for Three! We are all very excited for him, as he’s been given quite an opportunity. I’ll tell you about it and post pictures afterwards.