We Americans on average lug around four credit cards; one out of seven of us juggle a full ten pieces of plastic. For people who use all their cards regularly, that’s a lot of bills to manage each month, on top of all the other regular bills that keep rolling in.
If you’re a prolific credit card user, you know how bothersome it is to keep track of multiple credit card bills with different payment due dates. While we should be organized enough to call card issuers to line up the payment due dates for our credit cards, the reality is that most of us never get around to it. Instead, we keep writing checks and sending off credit card payments several times a month.
Fortunately, as is often the case, our problems are someone else’s entrepreneurial opportunity. So not surprisingly, along comes a nifty little web-based application to help ease chores like paying credit card bills and other bills and to remind us when they’re due: Billeo.
Billeo is a freeware application, which provides a portal for paying all your bills online, stores usernames and passwords, and even tracks online purchases. A fairly new arrival on the Internet scene, Billeo has quickly picked up momentum. The company behind Billeo has partnered with more than 25 financial institutions, including Visa and Discover cards. Billeo has received rave reviews from numerous freeware review sites, including Top Downloads.com, Softpedia, and Cnet.com, and it was awarded the “Best of the Web Award” by Online Banking Report.
So how exactly does Billeo work? Think of it as a personalized home page for all your bills. If that gives you the shivers, it shouldn’t. Billeo takes the headaches out of paying bills and saves users a lot of time writing checks and licking stamps. If you’re one of those people who regularly make a charitable contribution to credit card companies’ billions of late fee earnings, Billeo might even save you some money by reminding you when payments are due.
If the idea of simplifying bill payments appeals to you and you want to give Billeo a try, follow these three simple steps.
Step one. Create an online account for all credit cards and bills, if you don’t already have online accounts. Simply go to the credit card company’s website and follow the instructions to create an online account.
Step two. Download the Billeo software. Once downloaded, Billeo will appear as an option in your browser toolbar. For PC’s, Billeo is compatible with both Internet Explorer and Firefox; it was recently released in a Mac version as well.
Step three. Sign up for Billeo and select which bills to pay via Billeo in the list provided during the sign-up process. Next, enter the information about which bank account(s) you want your bills paid from, and the account information for all your online accounts, including passwords. Lastly, set up bill reminders, so that you can be notified well in advance of each bill’s due date. You’re done!
Now each time a bill is due, Billeo will send you a reminder. When you go to pay the bill, the Billeo automatically logs you into your account on the vendor’s website, fills in the payment information and even saves your payment confirmation for easy access in the future.
So how secure is the information you enter? All personal information is encrypted to keep user information safe, using industry-standard encryption technology. The encrypted information is stored locally on your computer, not in a central database elsewhere, which could present a temptation for hackers. The encrypted information cannot be viewed by anyone without your Billeo password, so even if your computer is stolen, no one else can access the encrypted information.
In short, using Billeo is as safe as any form of online payment. Users concerned about credit card fraud should also keep in mind that because of credit card companies’ zero liability policy, the risk of online fraud lies with credit card companies and vendors accepting credit cards, not with consumers.
