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online bills + gmail = closed loop
sabreuse | Nov 2 2005
I've never signed up for an all-in-one bill paying service (yeah, yeah, I know), but I do prefer to pay online, which means "your statement is ready" emails from different vendors scattered throughout the month. Some of them are very good at following up with "we have scheduled your payment" and "we have received your payment" emails; others -- not so much. And while I've tried to make a habit of scheduling the payments right away, I'm much less good at remembering a couple of weeks later whether I really did or not. And sure, in theory, I don't archive the statements until I've scheduled a payment, but in reality, the ADD demons archive the unpaid ones for me every now and again... So this morning, it finally struck me in that "why didn't I think of this ages ago" way -- having set up the payment, I forward it to myself with a quick note at the top (e.g. "scheduled payment for 11/25 for full amt") before archiving as usual. Since it's Gmail, the annotation becomes part of the same conversation when it comes to tags, searches, etc. It still feels like more steps than I'd like, and I'd love to automate parts of it. But as a start, it beats banging my head against "but I was sure I did pay that one!" 2 Comments
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 You have a point, although...Submitted by sabreuse on November 2, 2005 - 4:34pm.
You have a point, although it sounds like things are a bit easier for you. I don't know if it's a Brit thing, or just the fact that the people who send me bills don't make things easier -- I do have some things set up to go out automatically every month. However, I also have several bills from companies that don't offer the option, and that's where I need to keep track of whether I've already paid the bill they sent me. (Especially since my electric bills are closer to $200 than ?25!) When I paid bills in paper form, there are all kinds of built-in signals to tell me "don't worry about it" -- the payment coupon has been removed and the return envelope is gone, for instance -- but with email, I have read vs. unread, and often no response from the creditor. Hence the desire to have some kind of annotation. (and c'mon, someone had to post in life hacks eventually) » POSTED IN:
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