With the growing attention to "being green" and "going green" I thought I would write a little bit about paying bills green (ie, online bill paying.) I pay all my bills online and the economic advantages of doing so are pretty obvious. A person saves 41 cents (the cost of a stamp), plus the cost of the check. A typical family pays on the average 20+ bills a moth, and they can save $80 or more a year by paying bills online, according to the NACHA, the Electronic Payment Association.
Beyond that though, the environmental savings can be pretty impactful. Javelin Strategy & Research estimates, based on a 2007 study, has concluded that if all U.S. households viewed and paid their bills online, it would save the following per year:
2.3 million tons of wood or 16.5 million trees
1.6 billion pounds of solid waste, or 56,000 fully loaded garbage trucks
26 million BTUs of energy, enough to provide residential energy to the city of San Francisco for an entire year
3.9 billion pounds of toxic air pollutants, an amount equal to that produced by 355,000 automobiles
Something to think about next time we all sit down and start writing out that monthly check!
Right on the money. I'm mostly gravitated in the same direction, with the exception of one credit card company that actually charged an online payment fee. Threw that joker under the bus.
ReplyDeleteCom Ed actually charges to pay online, as does Peoples Gas. That's outrageous-- they save huge amounts of money when you pay online.
ReplyDeleteI pay all of my credit card bills online, plus my cable and phone (I use Vonage, which is autopay).
a lot of banks have online bill pay features, and you can skip the fees charged by utility companies. although the bank will charge you a fee, it's usually less than the combined fees for paying bills directly to the utility or credit card...
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