If you are like most people, you know that paying bills is an important part of maintaining good credit. If you are late or if you miss payment on a particular bill, you could soon find yourself hit with dunning letters or worse: your credit score could take a hit. Thanks to online bill paying those cares are done away with for the most part. If you aren't paying the majority of your bills online then you are missing out on a step that is convenient, affordable, and a great organizer.

Online bill paying came of age in the late 1990s when many commercial banks began to encourage this option for their customers. Many banks charged a nominal monthly fee for this service but quickly did away with it once they realized that check processing fees were dropping dramatically and when small competitors rushed in to offer their online bill paying services for free.

Starting online bill paying is easy and your current bank may already offer this for you. If so, simply ask your banking representative how to sign up and then take it from there.

If you bank doesn't offer online bill paying, consider visiting a competing bank to open up a checking account with them. Shop around as several banks still offer free checking or free checking with a minimum monthly balance.

If online bill paying is offered, you can benefit by:

Scheduling monthly payments that are for the same amount every month such as your mortgage, car loan, or student loan payment.

When bills arrive, log on and set up payments to be paid on days that you designate. Pay the phone bill on the 9th, the water bill on the 14th, the cable bill on the 16th, your store card on the 21st, and so on. Or, you can simply enter the amounts due and payment will be made to each account as soon as possible.

Even if you wanted to make payment to a friend in another state you can set up a ?bill payment? for them and the bank will write out a check and deliver it to them with no additional charge for you.

Best of all you can track bills, transfers, debits, and credits from the convenience of your computer. You get instant access to your statements; no need to wait monthly for your post office delivered paper copy: you can read an up to date statement at any time of the day!

Yes, online banking is here and it is here to stay ? have you taken advantage of this terrific method of paying and tracking invoices yet?