bills
Money
10:30AM Angus Kidman | If you pay your Telstra bill by wandering into the local post office, here’s a pretty powerful reason to dump that practice: from September 14, you’ll have to pay $2.20 for the privilege.
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Telstra Ups Fees For Bill Payment
10:30AM Angus Kidman | If you pay your Telstra bill by wandering into the local post office, here’s a pretty powerful reason to dump that practice: from September 14, you’ll have to pay $2.20 for the privilege.
More » 
Money
10:30AM Angus Kidman | Telstra’s never had much of a reputation for billing efficiency (it took the better part of this millennium for it to offer single bills to customers), but despite investing billions in the process, it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. More »
Telstra Bill Glitches Drive Dealers, Customers To Despair
10:30AM Angus Kidman | Telstra’s never had much of a reputation for billing efficiency (it took the better part of this millennium for it to offer single bills to customers), but despite investing billions in the process, it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. More »
Money
De-Bee Tracks Shared Group Expenses
5:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | De-Bee is a simple and free web-based expense tracker. Sign up, invite friends, and share expenses more easily. You don’t even need to go through the hassle of having your friends sign up if they’ve already got Google Accounts. Once you and your friends are set up in a group, you can monitor transactions and money owed between friends/roommates/partners. While De-Bee is by no means a legally binding contract, and not a place to actually transfer money, it does provide an extremely simple interface for keeping tabs on group financial obligations. Thanks Jaron! De-Bee More »
Organise
Pay Bills Quickly To Manage A Two-Week Pay Schedule
1:06AM Kevin Purdy | Personal finance blogger Trent Hamm used to have one of those jobs that paid every two weeks, and he found himself treating the occasional “third check of the month” as a bonus. Looking back, he recommends anyone with similarly non-rigorous discipline to treat those paydays like a trigger: I adopted a routine of paying the bills every other Monday like clockwork. I’d collect all the bills in a consistent spot as they came in, then I’d sit down on bill paying day and go through them, knocking all of them out. If I had more bills than cash, then I tapped my emergency fund a bit, but with the further tactics below, it wasn’t long before that wasn’t a problem. To our paid-every-other readers: What tactics or routines did you adopt to avoid having your paychecks be spent upon arrival? Photo by RichieC. Personal Finance Management on a Biweekly Pay Schedule [The Simple Dollar] More »
Find the Perfect Cell Phone Plan at BillShrink
10:05AM Adam Pash | US-centric: Compare mobile phone plans and find the perfect plan to fit your usage needs at web site BillShrink. Just enter some information about how you use your phone along with your current monthly bills, and BillShrink will offer you an alternative plan that could save you a tonne of cash. Currently BillShrink is focused on mobile plans only, but they appear to be working towards offering more comparisons for cable and internet bills in the future. BillShrink doesn’t take phone availability into account, so if you want an iPhone, for example, you’re stuck with AT&T (unless you unlock it). Let’s hear if BillShrink helped you find a better plan in the comments. More »
Keep Better Tabs on Bills with BillReminder
1:00AM Kevin Purdy | Linux only: BillReminder might seem like an unnecessary tool in the age of ubiquitous calendars, but the free Linux app lets you determine exactly when and how you get reminded about your monthly obligations, and helps you visualise and keep notes on each one. Once you’ve set up your bills into colour-coded categories, you can set the amount due, leave yourself notes on how (or maybe why) they should be paid, and then have BillReminder tell you about them at specific intervals—in case you only need a day or two for electricity, but would like a week’s warning on that hefty cable charge. BillReminder is a free download for Linux systems only. BillReminder [via New Linux User] More »
Speed Up Your Monthly Bill Pay with Firefox
6:00AM Adam Pash | Reader Adam speeds up his monthly bill-paying process by setting up a bills folder in Firefox, then bookmarking all of his online bill pay homepages. When it’s time to pay bills, he just middle-clicks his Bills folder (or selects the Open All in Tabs option) to open all of the homepages in Firefox. Then, starting from the first tab, he pays the bill, closes the tab, and moves forward to the next one. That way not only does he not have to hunt down his merchants’ homepages every month when it’s time to pay bills, but this also ensures that he doesn’t forget to pay any of his monthly bills. If you’re not using your bank’s automatic bill pay feature, this method seems like a great way to stay on top of your monthly bills. Got a better method? Let’s hear it in the comments. More »
How Do You Divide Your Restaurant Bills?
6:00AM Tamar Weinberg | When you go to a restaurant with a bunch of friends, you have many options to pay for the that large check. You can simply split the bill evenly, pay only for what you ordered (plus tax and tip), or ask the server to write up separate bills. The Mind Your Decisions weblog suggests alternate ways to divvy up the bill. Limit options before you order (to prevent customised orders with extra costs) and share with the group. Send out an email organizing costs beforehand. Estimate the costs before you place the order and choose a designated person to collect the final cost in advance. How do you go Dutch when wining and dining with your friends? More »
