Posted by Lending Club :: July 15, 2008 @ 9:05 am

Many recurring bills have due dates which can be adjusted for your convenience. With proper planning, and a little bit of work, you can tailor your bills to work with your situation.

It’s usually in a company’s best interest to have you pay your bills on time. As a result, you can normally adjust your due dates to help that happen. Adjusting a few days in either direction is usually no problem and even larger adjustments are often accommodated. If you want to make a significant adjustment to a due date, such as 15 days on a monthly bill, you’ll probably be asked to pay the first bill early at the new date, rather than late. So if you wanted to start paying a bill originally due on the 5th of the month on the 20th, you’ll probably have to pay on the 5th, then again on the 20th of the same month, rather than the 20th of the following month.

The main reason to adjust your bill due dates is to help spread your costs throughout the month. This is especially helpful for people who are paid every week or those with cash flow problems. Housing costs are usually due by the first of each month and are the one recurring cost that typically cannot be adjusted. If you had a lot of other bills due around the same time, it could make money tight at that time of the month. Spreading other bills out, with the next most expensive bill due mid-month, could help. Better yet, making any necessary changes to your bills’ due dates will help you avoid costly late fees, and you can use the money you save in fees to pay down your debt.

For people paid monthly, or those without cash flow problems, having all of your bills due at the same time might be better. That would cut down on the time you spend paying bills because it is more efficient to do a task such as paying bills in one sitting versus having to get out your checkbook, stamps, etc., (or login to online bill pay) multiple times a month.

Whether you adjust your recurring bills’ due dates to spread out your costs or concentrate them will depend on your situation. Taking advantage of this flexibility in due dates can allow either method to be beneficial.