A few months ago I opened an Electric Orange checking account from ING Direct. Part of my reasoning was that they pay a decent interest rate on the checking account (not great, but better than nothing), and to start to seperate some of our bill paying. The problem has been the transition from one to the other has been a bit arduous. Thankfully, this month we had some extra income, so we had enough of a buffer to start making the transition without worrying about a bill coming out of the wrong account and us not having enough money to cover that bill in that account.
Most of our accounts have online access, and those were easy to reset. However, a few require actual paper to be sent. These are the ones that are most concerning, because I don't have a confirmation about which account this month's payment will come from. If the paperwork goes through in time, it'll come out of the new account, but if not, it will come out of the old account. So I have to make sure there's enough money in both accounts to cover them. It's kind of a pain. On the other hand, I'm down to about 5 bills that I don't have automated (either though my end or the bank's) which greatly reduces the risk of missing a payment.
All of this means, my savings numbers won't go up much this month, but should jump significantly once I'm satisfied that all of the bills are directed properly and reduce the buffers in the checking accounts. We still have the car and job situations to work out, but progress is definitely being made. We're actually looking seriously at the possibility of me not having to go back to work once my job ends in September. At least not full time. If we can come up with a way to make this internet thing pay a bit, we may be able to pull it off.
Leave a Comment
Before leaving a comment, please ensure you have read and understand my comments policy and my privacy policy. Any comment that does not abide by the comment policy will be deleted immediately.