You probably know someone like me. I'm the kind of person and constantly in need of reminders to do the simplest things. I'm talking about things like sending out the monthly payments for my credit cards, electricity, cable, water, rent, and car loan or I will more or less forget all about the darn things.

I've experimented with numerous approaches to overcome this problem, including such things as posting reminders of my pending bills on my refrigerator so I'll see them each and every day, using a PDA to monitor when the bills are due, and picking out in advance a particular, predetermined day each month to sit down and take care of all my financial matters. But you know what, none of my little methods worked, and it was a problem because I was constantly being bombarded with late fees and and nasty letters from creditors had threatened cancellations. Then a friend told me about an online bill pay service. Since I signed up for it, I haven't been late with a single payment. Not even once. In this day and age many creditors including credit card companies, banks, and other service providers like utilities, support online bill pay options. That means you will more than likely have the option to join an online bill pay program without regard to which companies you have to submit your bills to. This is a wonderful innovation in my estimation, especially if you have as much trouble keeping track of the everyday, mundaney things as I do.

Utilizing a third-party online bill pay program is a simple two-step process. First off, you have to do enroll for online bill pay with the individual companies that will be receiving recurring payment from you. It's impossible to do online bill pay without first completing this step, so it's absolutely critical that you do so as soon as possible.

The next step you have to take is register with a website that specializes in online bill pay programs. This is a completely different and today than the companies you owe your payments to. They simply act as middlemen facilitating payments to your creditors. It's not absolutely essential that you sign up with one of these companies, after all, you could still enter your own electronic payments each month, but how is that different from what your are currently doing and where is the convenience factor?

Put another way, you'd be right back to square one, no doubt missing payments again. Signing up with an online bill pay website, however, would relieve you of this burden. You simply set up regular payments of fixed amounts for things like your car loan and or mortgage or you can have reminders sent to three or e-mail service that will notify you when your payments are due. Once you get the e-mail, you can send your payment with just a couple of clicks of your mouse and be done with it.

The majority of online bill pay services do not make it mandatory that you link your user account with your bank account. That's important because you can keep complete control over the payments (by credit card, checking or savings account) and your private, financial information. The real advantage of it is that online bill pay services give you a convenient, secure method to take care of all your monthly obligations on time. And that's the whole point isn't it?