For those who take LONG LONG Cruises/Holidays

[flagger]

I am interested in those who take either back to backs or holidays of 21 days or even longer.

 

How do you handle taking care of bills while you are gone? We are looking at a three week holiday for 2009 (LAND to NZ/AUS) and maybe even going for four weeks since we will lose four days just flying there from the SE US. What do you do about bills when you are gone for such a long time?

 

Not all of my bills are on automatic payments, but we do get direct deposits. I could write up estimates for water, electric and gas and send extras. Maybe a neighbor could mail our mortgage payments. I guess I wonder most about my CC bill. I could always check online and make direct payments from my bank to them.

 

How do you do it if you have gone for that long? Share your secrets.

[pandabebe]

We've been away for extended periods of time and this is often what we do:

 

- Mortgage payments are automatically deducted from our account bi-weekly so we don't have to worry about that (just have to ensure there is sufficient funds in our account)

- You can check most credit card statements on line and pay from where ever you are in the world. If getting access to a computer is more difficult then I would suggest paying the outstanding balance the day prior to your trip, and then adding a few extra hundred/thousand for any upcoming forseen purchases.

- For water/electronic we are on equalized billing so I have a rough estimate of what the bill will be so I can set up a future bill payment in my on-line banking.

 

For all other bills, I usually have a friend open the bills and email me how much I owe and the due date. Since I always have someone checking my mail and checking up on the house while I'm gone it works well.

[hajekfam]

We are on a 28 day cruise (two 14 day back to back) and will doing a pre and post stay. We are bringing our laptop as hubby has set up paying the all the bills online. He has set up the accounts so that he can view them on line including gas, electric and water.

Our problem is stopping the mail. When he picked up the card to stop the mail, they said they would only hold it for 30 days. We will be gone longer than that.

[Leela]

I bank with Bank of America, and they have a free online bill paying system. Through it, hundreds and hundreds of companies can bill you electronically. Every so often I log in, check for new bills, and pay them online. My cable, electric & gas, and phone services are all billed this way. I have my internet service auto-charged to my credit card each month, and my mortgage and insurance are constant monthly payments, so those I just set up with auto-pay. I can log into T-Mobile's web site to check and pay my cellular bill. I've been using all this for over four years now, and have never had a problem.

[Bruton Branch]

Hajekfam:

Looking forward to meeting you all on the TA:Suggestion since you will be gone so long have you counted in the days of non mail delivery,Sun's and any holidays? Can you get someone to pick the mail up for the first week and then let the postal service keep it for the 30 days till your return -just a thought

Bruton Branch :)

[hobo1937]

Where we live all the utility companies offer an auto pay feature, which we have taken advantage of for quite a few years and it works great.

 

I recently checked into auto pay for our credit cards, which we currently pay online each month, as we will be doing 2 long cruises in 2008-09. No problem setting up an auto pay with them either. You can set it up to pay a fixed amount, the balance due, or a minimum payment.

[Bruin Steve]

Our typical Summer cruise vacation is about 3 weeks (we'll do a 14 night cruise or back-to-back and tack on several nights, often as much as a week on both the pre-cruise and post-cruise side)...

 

But, unlike the old days, when I used to have to collect the bills from the US Mail and write out and send checks for each one, things have changed...

 

I have my mortgage payment, my cell phone bill, my gas, my electric, AAA, Auto insurance and my homeowners association set up for automatic payments...

 

My telephone bill, trash collection, water, Visa, Master Card and American Express I pay on the internet...and I can do that from anywhere--even the internet cafe onboard the ship...But, the invoices usually come up on the websites at least three weeks before payment is actually due...and I can set them up to be paid on whatever day I want...I'll usually set up the payments before I leave on the vacation...

 

That leaves only the small time bills--gardener, pool service, maid--and the oddball, only once or twice a year type bills--Property taxes, Homeowners insurance and maybe a magazine subscription or two...

 

My wife just leaves a check for the maid...the gardener and the pool guy are patient...and they understand if we're out of town...If I'm going to be gone when the Property Tax or Homeowners insurance are due, I just pay them early...

 

Of course, the real key to all this is to always have a nice cushion in your checking account...We do...There is no chance that any of these bills will ever deplete the cushion down to danger level...so, we cruise without worry...the bills take care of themselves...

 

This wouldn't work for people who carry paper-thin balances or who live from paycheck-to-paycheck...But, if you're on that tight a budget, why are you cruising on 3-4 week vacations?

[willy paul]

we use auto pay for car payment, cable, phone, water, electicity. some are always the same and others are usually in the same area so I leave enough in the checkng account to cover those bills.

 

As of today we have gone to using cash as much as possible and only one credit card from now on. A day or two before we leave I will go on line to B of A and pay any outstanding bills. I also pre pay a credit card that I intend to use on the cruise and pre cruise stays. did this last year and it worked out well. it does take some time to set up auto pay accounts but you may have time.

 

Good luck.

[flagger]

I guess I would have to schlep a laptop with me and plug in at an I-cafe. I don't do auto-drafts as I want to initiate the sending of the payment and not the vendor taking the money out of my account. Had a problem once with a computer error taking too much because of a keystroke error and took 8 weeks to get the money refunded. (The *@&$^$ wanted to give me a credit and I said stuff it).

 

I won't ever use a computer at an internet cafe for anything more than surfing. I would never check my Credit card or banking account at an unknown computer. Too fearful that someone has installed a keystroke logging program and could come home only to be wiped out financially.

 

Thanks for the ideas.

[Leela]

I always bring my laptop when I travel -- and I got a small lightweight one just for that reason! So it's not much of a schlep for me, and comes in handy when I fill up my camera's memory cards and/or want to edit pictures during the trip.

[Jimsgirl]

Like previous posters, I pay extra on all my bills so tht everything is covered until after I get back. Have done 30 day trips this way.

 

For the credit card I will be using on the trip, I notify the company tht I will be travelling so they do not panic at the unusual bills from odd locations. I also pay in about $2,000 a couple of days prior to the triip to take care of any hotel bills that would be posted to the card and require payment before I return. Cruise ship charges do not get onto the card until the last day of the cruise which is very good news.

 

Have a wonderful trip

[leoandhugh]

Sounds to me that, having asked the question about what the rest of us do on long trips for paying bills, you are unwilling to risk doing what we do. So it sounds like you are going to have to find another method to get around the bill paying problem. For years, we resisted auto pay of bills, but as we take more longer trips, we have made the move into the 21st century. And we always have the laptop along for any emergency payments that may come up.:)

[SheilaNC]

We, too, have automatic payments for routine utilities, mortgage, etc. So the only bills that might be due while we're gone are credit card bills. We only use one card for about 2 months prior to leaving and always pay the balances off on any other cards. That way the only bill that could come due is the one we use on the trip. We generally call that company and explain the time period that we'll be away and date of return. Usually they will give us an interest free extension (due to our good payment record). I also have my laptop with me, so if anything does not go according to plan, I would know it and be able to contact the appropriate biller.

 

On another note: we arrange for a neighbor to collect our mail and newspapers, etc. and we reciprocate while they are away. That way we are not signaling to lots of people that we'll be gone. My DH works for our local PD and they frown on discontinuing newspapers and stopping mail...too many eyes on such things.

[tuggers]

Luckily, no mortgage or car payments. For everything else (electric, water, insurance, lawn care, phone, newspaper, magazines, cable, pool, etc) I pay for a year every January. It's amazing how close you can come to the exact amount once you start averaging out things for a year. Every January I readjust based on what's owing or left over.

Only exceptions are housekeeper, cell phone, credit card that come out of account automatically every month.

Works well for me.

[Carlene]

I'll make a copy of the previous month statement of what ever my come due while gone, other than those on auto pay... write a check, stamped, sealed and leave with adult son, mail on the 1st, 5th... whatever... this has been working for years.

 

Also to "pre" load a credit card with a little extra and notify the company of any card being taken with of future use in different locations.

 

Happy Cruising

Carlene

[cruisead]

We did a 104 day world cruise. For that we handled everything via our bank. Car payment automatically taken out, no mortgage so no problem, we overpaid all utility bills so there was always a credit, we overpaid the credit cards we knew we were using on the cruise so there's was never a balance due. We put things like Direct TV and Cable TV on hold so there were no bills for those things. The only problem we had was a notice for jury duty showed up while we were gone. DH had to go to the court house with proof we were gone that long. I also renewed my driver's license before it was due to be renewed.