Some internet banking companies allow you to do online bill paying for free. You usually have to have a "qualifying account," but the rules for those vary. You can also get free online bill paying if you carry a large balance in your internet banking account.

For some banks that amount is $1000, for others, it is $5000. Otherwise, you will have to pay a fee, which will be well under $10 per month for a certain number of bills paid and an additional fee for extra bills. This additional fee is usually under $0.50 per bill.

To sign up for automatic bill pay through internet banking, start at your bank's website. There should be a tab marked "bill pay" or something similar. Click on that and you can enroll in their bill paying services.

Then, you will be instructed in how to set up your payees. You will go to a tab marked "Add Payee." This will give you options of how to list the people you are sending money. You will probably be asked the name and zip code of the company. Some internet banking services will ask you for the company's address, too.

Type in the information you have about your payee. Or, if the company you wish to pay is on a list compiled by the internet banking company, you can simply click on it and select it. You have now set up the person who is to receive payment.

Next, you designate which account from which that person or company is to be paid. This is particularly important if you have several accounts with the same internet banking operation. Your accounts will be in a drop-down list where you can select the one you want.

You can set up a bill payment up to a year before you have it taken out of your account. You cannot do an immediate bill payment. It will take a certain amount of time for the payee to receive payment.

You can set up recurring payments to be taken out of your account periodically. These payment arrangements are commitments. Unless you cancel them in time, they will be paid. If you do not have the money in the internet banking account for them, you will overdraw.

You can find out if your payment has been made in different ways. You can opt to be notified by email from your bank every time they pay a bill. The payment will also show up in your internet banking account transactions on the website. You will also know from your next bill from that company if a payment was credited to your account.

Paying bills through internet banking is easy once you get the hang of it. If you set it up correctly, it takes very little management to keep up the steady stream of payments going from your account to those with whom you do business. Now, if internet banking could come up with a way for you to stop having to pay bills, you would have it made!