What system or method do you use for your monthly budget or personal finance?
What system or method do you use for your monthly budget or personal finance?
What budgeting advice do you recommend? Money management method?
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I avoid automatic payments like the plague. I never give insurance companies, utilities, credit companies, etc. permission to withdraw from my account. All it takes is one underpaid office drone to make a mistake, and you’re overcharged a thousand dollars. You can (probably) get the money back, but not without a time consuming hassle.
Ever notice that billing mistakes on paper bills are virtually never in your favor? In my experience, I’ve always been overcharged, and never undercharged. I don’t expect automatic payments to be any different.
I let them mail me paper bills, which I then pay through my bank’s website. When the payment is made, I write the confirmation number on the bill itself. Yes, it’s more cumbersome, but that’s a price I’m willing to pay. There’s a verifiable paper trail, and I’m completely in control. Since it’s my money, I deserve to be.
In my country you can set an upper limit to the automatic payments. (It's mandatory for the banks to implement.) So I just put in like plus 3-4 dollars as the max they can withdraw above my average bill and I'll just get a notification if they try to withdraw above that limit (and they would be refused to do so). Fortunately it never happened.
That would be a very reassuring feature to have! People like me might reconsider automatic payments if that was a law in the US.
Where is that?
I only know that I can set a upper withdraw limit for sending money (say >300€).Hungary.