Skip Header
Home Achieve your Financial Wellness Financial wellness insights

Pay bills on time

15 Jan 2021

You know it’s that time of the month again when your mailbox gets flooded with a barrage of bills and notices. Paying those bills on time can save future hardship and lots of fees and charges.

1. Don’t take everyday bills lightly

Delaying to pay bill may lead to extra fees and/or fines, but also disruption of services.

Can anybody do without a mobile phone even for a couple of days? If your service is disconnected because of non-payment, you may have to pay penal fees and reconnection charges.

Besides mobile phone and internet services, consider the electricity bill for your home. You might think the worst case scenario is disconnection and inconvenience for a day but that is not all. You may have to pay a re-connection fee and the utility may ask you to pay an additional deposit also. Utility companies are charging as much as 5% of the original amount as penalty for late payment.

2. More than monetary loss

Similarly failure to pay insurance premiums on time can lead to several problems. Insurers often provide a grace period of 30 days but after that they may deduct the amount from the defaulter’s premium deposit account without any notice. They may even deduct the relevant fees from the cash value or accumulated dividends of the policy, with interest. 

The insurance policy may also be cancelled or it may become void after a certain deadline. In the interim period, the policyholder’s investment returns diminish and of course there is no insurance coverage during this period.

3. Legal liability

In the case of tax bills, the Inland Revenue Department imposes a surcharge of 5% on the full amount of tax if not paid by the due date. After six months from the due date, an extra 10% of the outstanding amount has to be paid. More importantly, serious and persistent offenders may even be subject to a penalty charge of up to three times the amount of tax and be held legally liable.

4. Smart tips to avoid delay

One way of ensuring timely payment of bills is to set a payment reminder in your personal account with the service provider for the latter to send a reminder in advance of the due date. Another way to avoid overdue payments is to set up autopay instructions with appropriate payment periods.

When all is said and done, one should have a responsible attitude toward bill payment. Stick to paying bills and making repayments on time to prevent unnecessary inconvenience and penalties.

None

Understand Financial Wellness

Understand the definition and importance of being financial well

None

Determine your Financial Wellness

Assess your personal financial wellness with our easy-to-use tool

None

Retirement Savings Guidelines

Rules of thumb that make retirement planning simple