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For most people working 40+ hours a week, having to spend weekends or evenings on tedious tasks like paying bills and tracking their expenses is a chore they can live without.
Well, what about getting your own office assistant who will take care of paying your recurring bills and even enter your purchases into bookkeeping software like Quicken or QuickBooks?
Can’t afford it? Well, you don’t have to because this service comes for free, courtesy of most credit cards. Many credit card issuers offer an automatic bill-paying service for free. All you have to do is enroll in your credit card company’s online account service and then sign up for their automatic bill pay program.
Most cards have a list of companies they offer payment services to, so check out the website to see whether your utility company, insurance, cable TV, and phone provider are included. If you have multiple credit cards, comparison shop because some cards offer a larger list of providers than others.
You can set up your payments as one-time bill payments, or as automatic payments for recurring bills. Payments are credited instantly, so no need to worry about payments getting delayed or lost in the mail.
And what about tracking where your money goes each month? Again, when you sign up for your credit card company’s online services, you’ll be able to download all the charges from your credit cards directly into accounting software like Quicken and QuickBooks. All you have to do is categorize expenses. For recurring expenses the software will even do this for you.
If you’re a small business owner, you can turn this into an even greater benefit. For most small business credit cards, it’s easy and cost-free to get additional cards for employees. This is a great way to consolidate business expenses into one account. For security purposes, you can set different spending limits for each employee credit card and even specify which types of expenses are allowed.
Small business credit cards also typically offer an option for a monthly account summary, categorized by either employee, category of expense, or date. This can even eliminate the need for employees to write up monthly expense reports and submit invoices for reimbursements-a tedious and time-consuming task that takes resources away from where they’re best used: creating income for your business.
9 Credit Card Deals You Never Knew You Had
- Credit Card Deal #1: Purchase Protection
- Credit Card Deal #2: Return Protection and Price Protection
- Credit Card Deal #3: Extended Warranty
- Credit Card Deal #4: Your Personal Office Assistant
- Credit Card Deal #5: Global Traveler’s Assistance
- Credit Card Deal #6: Travel Delay and Lost Luggage Protection
- Credit Card Deal #7: Car Rental Insurance
- Credit Card Deal #8: Worldwide Concierge Services
- Credit Card Deal #9: Free Roadside Assistance
