Learning to Pay Bills With MasterCard #BillPay #MC

I haven’t paid bills on my own since I was in my late 20s. I have been given the opportunity to try out using my MasterCard with their Bill Pay option. The reason I need to try this out is several fold. First, I know that with the Bill Pay site, I can create a list of bills I pay with my MasterCard and get emails to notify me of payments due. Second, ease of paying my bills since I don’t have a checking account here yet. Third, I stink at using my register in my check book. I haven’t used mine for about 4 yrs.

So, let’s go back in time a bit. When I married my ex-husband 15 yrs ago, I became a stay at home mom again. He brought in the money and he paid the bills. We tried setting up a way for us to pay them together, but he wasn’t a patient person and it never went very well. He also paid his work bills since he was self-employed along with our personal ones, and honestly, it was all overwhelming to me. He dealt with them all of the time and only brought me in sporadically to help.

Spring forward 8 years and we separated. Thankfully, the one thing my ex did right was to take responsibility for our split and continued to pay all of the bills. I went back to work, but only part time. It was still important for both my ex and I that I continue to be a SAHM as much as possible. I only worked while the boys were in school.

I didn’t make a heck of a lot of money, but my paycheck went to: gas, groceries and our tithe for the most part. I didn’t have bills to pay, just every day living expenses. When we moved to Virginia, we lived with my parents so again, I didn’t have bills to pay.

Now, when the time came to make a decision to move to Maryland, I really freaked out. I had to go from living a comfy, good life at my mom’s to giving up over 3/4 of my paycheck to bills. I had to pay rent, which by itself is over half of my paycheck. I’m now paying sewer, electric, cell, and a combined internet/tv/home phone bill along with groceries, gas and tithe. I am completely out of my element. I’m actually scared to death that I may have bitten off more than I can chew. Only time will tell.

This is where the MasterCard Bill Pay is going to come in extremely handy. The other day, as Fred and I were hanging out, he realized that we can pay our tithes online for our church! Doing that payment went lickety split.

From there the other two bills that needed to paid online were my electric bill and FiOS bill. I went to the BGE website so that I could register my MasterCard and guess what I came across? It shows you can use a debit or credit card!

But once you click to add a payment, ugh, only the option is using a checking or savings account. How is that right when the homepage shows MasterCard as one of my chioces? Blah, very disappointing. I’ll have to call them Monday to see when that option will be available.

Next I headed to the FiOS site and that was really fast and easy to sign up for. lol Only problem I had with making my payment? I don’t have a current bill. I’ve only received one bill so far and because I paid it two weeks ago, I still have a couple of weeks before my next bill will be ready to go. Thankfully I was able to register for the Bill Pay option so we’ll see how that goes when my next bill is ready.

The other part I’m happy to be using my MasterCard for this month to pay my bills is the MasterCard Bill Pay Sweepstakes! By paying your bills with your MasterCard August 1-October 31, 2013 you’re automatically entered to win $60,000!

I don’t know about you, but I already know know I’d do with that money. I hadn’t mentioned it to Fred yet, but I have an idea of what we could do instead of moving to MN in 7 yrs after Doodle has graduated…get a 2nd home, or more to the point, a cabin. This way, we have a place to spend our summers, and I’ll be close to my daughters and my dear Minnesota friends. He knows how much I’ve been struggling being away from home and having a cabin when you live in Minnesota is a way of life. When my girls start having families, I can go be grandma to them for a few months and deepen those bonds like good Minnesotans do.

If you want a chance at winning the $60,000 be sure to click over to the MasterCard Bill Pay Site using the links above and sign up! I know that once my next two bills are ready to be paid in the next couple of weeks, well, at least my FiOS bill, I’ll be paying online. Hopefully I can do the same with my BGE bill by then, too! You can see the other houses/cabins I looked at in my Google + album!

What would you do if you won $60,000