Your Survival Blog
Auto-da-pay?: keeping your finances in shape for emergencies
We have a friend I’ll call Elaine — because that’s not her name — who is, to put it kindly, somewhat disorganized. While she sometimes gets as far as making neat piles of bills on her kitchen table, actually getting them paid on time can be something of a challenge. From what we’ve heard, she has managed, at varying times, to have her cable modem, telephone (landline) service, and electricity disconnected. That’s in the past six months.
Are you like Elaine?
Under normal circumstances, losing normal utility services is not a huge deal: a major hassle, no doubt, but something not likely to cost more than an afternoon off work while you go drive somewhere to pay a bill. But what if circumstances aren’t normal and you need those services?
- The biggest heat wave in decades comes to your town — and you have no electricity to run an air conditioner or even a cooling fan so you can sleep at night.
- An ice storm just took out your electricity, but you can’t call anyone about it because you forgot to pay the phone bill.
- You’re housebound after a major snowfall — and you discover you have no heat because you let the oil tank run dry.
- You’re trying to keep an eye on the latest hurricane track — except that your Internet and cable TV service were just turned off.
- Your town announces a quarantine — but you’re stuck at home with no incoming water because of unpaid bills. (Some towns simply issue liens, but others will actually cut off service.)
Please don’t find yourself in this position. If you have a pile of bills somewhere in your house, now’s a good time to pull them out, make a list, and try to get up to date on your obligations.
“But I can’t!”
- If it’s simple forgetfulness, consider setting up auto-pay on some or all of the bills you fall behind on. Many banks offer automatic payment options; so do some utilities. You can set up one-time or recurring payments, and even arrange for wildly varying charges (like electric or natural-gas bills) to be smoothed out by paying a prearranged amount each month.
- If it’s an organizational issue, find a buddy who’s willing to sit down with you and help you sort out your paperwork, possibly in exchange for your doing the same or a similar favor for them. (Or, if you can afford it, consider a professional organizer.)
- If it’s a financial issue, call your creditors and work out a payment plan — they’ve heard it all before, really, and would much rather have you offer to pay a bit at a time than to simply disconnect or otherwise stop serving you.
And when push comes to shove, you’ll be glad you paid up.
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