Travel Advice - How to handle bills if you will be traveling  for an extended time.

Most of us worry about our credit rating and are concerned when it might be impacted by late payment of bills. If you are going on an extended vacation, one that is two weeks are longer, consider the following recommendations for bill payment.

The easiest way to pay time-critical bills (e.g. mortgage, rent, water, power, natural gas, and telephone) is to sign up for an Automatic Bill Payment program.

• Once your bank has the authorization, they will automatically pay the bills that you designate by debiting your checking or savings account.
• Automatic bill payment is especially convenient if you arrange to have your paycheck automatically deposited in the account.

A second option is to prepay recurring bills based on your estimate of the amount that would be required for payment on the next bill (based on your usage pattern). Mark the sum that you send as a “prepayment”.

Credit card bills require specific handling

• If you will be away across a billing cycle (specifically you will not return home before the next credit card statement is due), you should consider prepaying the sum that you estimate you will spend during the billing period.
• When prepaying, send the check to the same address that you send your regular payment.
  •  In addition, either include a note indicating that the amount is a prepayment of expenses, or call ahead and ask them to place a note in your account file that you will be sending a prepayment.

Make sure you have not  forgotten any key accounts.

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