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How to Never Miss a Financial Deadline Again

By U.S. News & World Report

It is incredibly easy to simply miss a bill’s due date or some other financial deadline. You fully intend to take care of it and have the means to do so, but it simply slips through your thoughts, and you find yourself having to pay a lot more due to late fees, interest and overdue notices.

This doesn’t have to be the case. Thanks to a plethora of online tools, a person never has to miss a bill’s due date or filing deadline ever again. Here are some of the strategies you can use to make sure that bills and other things never “slip your mind,” helping you avoid many late fees and fines.

[See: 14 Important Personal Finance Dates to Mark on Your Calendar.]

Online banking. Most online banking services offer the ability to schedule payments. Many tools allow you to even pay bills automatically close to their due date, and some will even retrieve the balance of bills, such as your electric bill, and pay it without you even lifting a finger.

Capital One 360, for example, offers integration with thousands of businesses, allowing customers to automatically retrieve bills and pay their balances without the customer having to think about it. By simply linking your other service accounts within your Capital One 360 account, you can have those bills paid completely automatically, with payments arriving before the due date, so you can avoid late fees.

Of course, the challenge with such automation is that you run the risk of overdrafting your accounts if you’re not careful, which incurs a completely different set of expenses. For example, if you’re not paying close attention, you may find that a higher-than-usual electric bill is paid automatically while you don’t have sufficient funds in your checking account, resulting in an overdraft fee. Thus, such strategies work best with a well-stocked checking account that doesn’t run such risks.

[See: Your Month-to-Month Guide to Savings.]

Google Calendar. Google Calendar — or any other such online or offline calendar tool of your choice — offers a lot of advantages in terms of bill-planning. You can add repeating reminders of regular bills, reminding you to check them and pay them in advance of their due date. You can also manually add reminders for unexpected bills.

By getting in the routine of adding such reminders a week or so before the due date of the bill, you can quickly see that this task needs to be done on a particular day, making sure that you get that bill paid right on time.

The big disadvantage of this tool is that it requires you to be a regular calendar user. If you’re not already using a calendar for daily scheduling of upcoming events, you’ll often find yourself missing those reminders and deadlines.

You can achieve much the same thing with a robust to-do list manager such as Todoist or Remember The Milk. Such tools can generate regularly occurring to-dos and offer very useful viewpoints that allow you to see what’s coming up in the next few days as needed.

[See: Basic Money Lessons You (Probably) Missed in High School.]

Smartphone reminders. Smartphone reminders offer clear notification of upcoming bills and deadlines right on your phone, which is the centerpiece of many people’s digital lives. Much as with calendaring tools, you can set up recurring reminders of bill deadlines or one-time reminders of irregular expenses or other due dates.

These reminders have the advantage of having your smartphone make you very aware of them when they occur with onscreen notifications, vibrations and sounds depending on your specific settings, making sure that you see them. However, such reminders are inherently linked to your smartphone, meaning that if you aren’t tied to constant smartphone use, those notifications become far less useful.

A multipronged approach. The best approach is to apply all of these tools in concert. Set up your calendaring tool to put notifications on your phone, so you are less likely to miss them. See if your online banking system has a smartphone app with notifications or even offers calendar integration in some way. Simply make sure that you have the information and notifications you need in whatever way you happen to use frequently to look at your upcoming events.

The goal is to simply make sure that you’re reminded of these upcoming financial events when you need to be reminded of them, and that any regular financial tasks are handled automatically without your intervention. Once you have this kind of trusted system in place, you shouldn’t have to face a late notice, an overdraft charge or extra fees ever again.

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How to Never Miss a Financial Deadline Again originally appeared on usnews.com

Don’t Settle for Student Loans to Pay for Online Education

By WTOP Staff
Online college programs are becoming a more popular choice for prospective students, with one study finding that more than 6 million students enrolled in at least one online course in fall 2015. The popularity of these courses can be attributed in part to their flexibility with working adults' schedules, students' ability to progress more quickly through online programs and, oftentimes, cheaper tuition. [See 10 low-cost online bachelor's programs for out-of-state students.]Online degrees can be beneficial to many college students, but some studies have shown online learners complete their programs at lower rates than students at traditional brick-and-mortar campuses. Individuals with student loans but no degree comprise two-thirds of defaulted borrowers. Though these numbers are not encouraging, just like for traditional programs, there are ways to reduce how much you'll need to borrow for an online program to ensure you won't become one of these statistics. Don't just settle on borrowing student loans to cover the whole cost of your program and living expenses. Instead, start thinking about how to cut costs and cover your balance in different ways, such as the following. -- Grants and scholarships: Even though you are taking an online course, you can still apply and receive grants and scholarships. But your first step should be to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly referred to as the FAFSA, which will allow you to receive a Pell Grant if your expected family contribution is low enough. The EFC criteria and award amounts are adjusted annually, but the 2017-2018 academic year awards range from $606 to $5,920, which could significantly lower the amount you borrow annually. Your next step is to apply for scholarships. You can start by checking online scholarship search engines, such as the Salt Scholarship Search, College Board's BigFuture and Peterson's. But don't forget to take advantage of local organizations and your school's financial aid office. Both may offer scholarships that you can't find with a national scholarship search. [Review these 10 sites to kick off your scholarship search.]For instance, organizations like the Elks Club, Knights of Columbus or the Rotary Club typically offer scholarships annually to local students. Just because you're going to school online doesn't mean you're ineligible. Visit your local library for scholarship listings, and ask around town. You might be surprised how many local organizations offer scholarships. While these scholarships typically aren't large, every little bit counts. Each dollar you receive in a scholarship is a dollar you don't have to borrow and pay interest on. -- Work-study: Another option for online students may be work-study awards. Not all students enrolled in online programs are eligible, but students at some schools -- including, for example, SUNY Empire State College and Liberty University -- are. Work-study awards are not given upfront like scholarships and grants. In most cases, they are an offer to earn up to the awarded amount if you secure an eligible work-study job. While there is a misconception that all work-study jobs must be on campus, students can work for off-campus, nonprofit or public employers as long as the work is in the public's interest. You may be able to work for a for-profit employer if the job is relevant to your course of study. No matter who the outside employer is, it will need to have an established agreement with your college for you to receive work-study funds. Remember, to be eligible for federal financial aid, you must be enrolled and pursuing a degree or certificate. If you're not working toward a credential, Pell Grants and work-study won't be option, but you may still be able to take advantage of private scholarships -- just be sure to read the eligibility criteria carefully. [Explore what to know about financial aid in online programs.]-- Pay as you go: One of the great benefits to enrolling online is the flexible schedule, which can allow you to complete your college coursework around your responsibilities. But prospective students often overlook using their part- or full-time job earnings as an option for paying for college. Almost 80 percent of college students in 2015 worked at least part time while attending classes, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. By budgeting and thinking strategically about your college costs, you can likely reduce your dependence on student loans by paying a portion out of pocket. Many -- but not all -- online programs are less expensive than traditional programs and often have shorter payment periods. Six, eight or 10 weeks are common course durations. Because of the frequency of payments in an online setting, you may be well-placed to pay as you go and possibly avoid borrowing altogether. Attending college online and avoiding student loans may be challenging, but if you are willing to put in the effort, you can limit the amount you need to borrow. More from U.S. News Q&A: Understanding Student Loan Discharge Eligibility Student Loan Refinancing Isn't Right for All Borrowers
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