As you progress through your career and personal responsibilities, your financial obligations will likely grow along with them. Aside from the usual rent and utilities, you’re likely to begin taking on bills for insurance, work apps, entertainment streaming services, mortgages, and car payments. If you have a family, you might even have to start paying for tuition fees and extracurricular classes.
Even if you’ve been paying these obligations off for a while, ensuring bills are paid accurately and on time can still be daunting. The payment strategy that worked for you early in your career is probably not going to work out quite as well in a few years, increasing the risk that you might miss some payments.
These payment challenges often stem from a lack of systematic bill management. While a couple of past-due statements may not seem like such a big deal, failing to address the problem can lead to mounting late fees, damaged credit scores, and unnecessary stress.
Cultivating good payment habits early will keep your finances primed for saving and wealth-building. More importantly, it can secure your peace of mind as you journey through life. Here’s how you can overcome some of the most common payment mistakes made by Filipinos.
1. Relying Solely on Physical Payment Centers
While payment centers do have some uses, relying on them for all your payments is inefficient in this day and age. Given that virtually all major billers facilitate online bills payment, there is little need for you to spend hours each month lining up at physical bill payment counters. Digital payment platforms like Maya make it simple to pay bills online anytime, anywhere over your smartphone, doing away with the need for most bill payments and cash transfers over traditional payment centers.
2. Using Multiple Apps for Different Bills
Tracking and facilitating payments across several platforms is a surefire recipe for confusion. You’ll risk missed payments and you might even increase your chances of overpaying. You can keep things simple by consolidating bill payments in one payment platform like the Maya app. Maya supports bill payments to the Philippines’ most important service providers, making it a great tool for staying on top of your obligations.
You can use Maya to pay bills for various service providers, including electricity, water, internet, and telecom companies. Additionally, you can make payments to schools, airlines, charities, real estate firms, and financial institutions for loans, insurance, and investments. Maya also allows you to settle certain government dues, such as BIR taxes and Pag-IBIG contributions, among others.
3. Not Looking Up Your Transaction Records
Billing discrepancies can literally cost you more than you bargained for. However, without access to your transaction records, dispute resolution can be challenging. Use the Maya app’s detailed transaction history to monitor payments and maintain a reliable audit trail. If you have a biller that sends you paper invoices, make sure to compile them chronologically in a separate file for easy reference.
4. Paying the Wrong Amounts
Overpayments and underpayments can eat into your monthly budget. Unfortunately, these scenarios are all too common with old-school over-the-counter payments. Avoid the confusion by prioritizing online bill payments with Maya. The Maya app offers payment amount confirmation in its bill payment process, ensuring you’re always paying the right amounts.
5. Forgetting Due Dates
The more billers you have, the easier it is to miss deadlines. While many billers do offer grace periods, it usually only takes one missed payment to incur late fees and service interruptions. Use calendar and reminder apps to set up bill reminders and to track due dates accurately. Don’t forget to enable emails and texts from your billers so that you can receive alerts on impending payments as well as upcoming bills payment promo deals.
With Maya, you can store up to 20 of your preferred billers at once, eliminating the need to search or scroll through the biller list whenever you make a payment. Additionally, you can enable recurring notifications to remind you when your utility bills are due. This feature helps you stay organized, ensuring timely payments and preventing late fees or service interruptions.
6. Paying Unnecessary Convenience Fees
Paying over the counter or using the wrong apps will often result in additional fees. These fees are generally quite small, but if you’re paying added fees for multiple billers over several months, the costs do add up. Always check for fee-free options when paying off your bills, and be sure to check if your biller supports free payments over Maya.
7. Not Categorizing Your Bills
Not all bills are equally important. For instance, your utility bills should probably take precedence over subscription entertainment services. It’s all well and good to just pay off everything if you have a decent income, but failing to prioritize can be a problem when you’re in a financial bind, since paying off less important things first may leave insufficient funds for essentials. Categorize your bills from most to least important so that you won’t end up spending on the wrong things.
8. Using Less-Secure Payment Methods
Paying with hard cash or unsecured payment methods can be problematic, especially when you have the option to instead use secure platforms like Maya. The Maya app encrypts and verifies all transactions, giving you confidence that your payments will always reach the right person. The Maya app encrypts and verifies all transactions, giving you confidence that your payments will always reach the right person..
Problem-Free Bill Payments Await with Maya
Managing bills can be stressful but choosing the Maya as your payment partner will make your life a lot simpler. More than just an e-wallet, Maya has multiple consumer-focused finance offerings that empower you to streamline your payments, safeguard your finances, and enjoy the convenience you deserve. Download the Maya app today to experience secure and hassle-free bill payments, all in one place.
