Going to the bank can be a pain. The bank’s hours are limited. Any time they seem to be open and available, you’re busy, and any time that you’re free to drop by, their doors are closed. You just need some help managing your finances, but you can’t manage to get to the one place that’ll help you do that.
Good news! You don’t always need to go to the bank to do your banking. Take a look at some of the banking tasks that you can do at home.
Pay Your Bills
If you have a hard time keeping track of all the due dates for your bills, you should automate your bill payments. By automating your bill payments, you can guarantee that your bill payment is automatically sent to the provider on the due date. You won’t have to worry about collecting late penalties anymore.
How can you automate your bill payments? The easiest way to do it is to contact the provider and set up automated bill payments with them. You will need to give them information relating to the bank account you’ll want the payments to come from. You can find all of that information through your online bank account or mobile app.
If you don’t want the funds to come out of your checking or savings account, you can use your credit card instead. You’ll have to share your credit card information, like your card number, your expiration date and CVV with your provider to make this possible.
There is a risk that comes with automating your bill payments. The payment will come out on the due date, no matter how much is left in your account. So, if your bank account has a low balance, you could risk going into overdraft. If your credit card has a high balance, you could risk maxing out your card. Skirt these risks by following a personal budget and keeping a close eye on your accounts.
Deposit a Check
Do you have a paper check that you need to deposit? You don’t have to travel all the way to your bank to do that. You just might be able to use the mobile check deposit feature through your mobile banking app. The feature lets you scan the check with your phone’s camera and then deposit the funds into your account.
In some cases, you can avoid paper checks altogether. Set up direct deposits with the provider and have those funds transferred directly into your bank account. For instance, instead of waiting for a paper check from the IRS, set up adirect deposit for your tax refund. The process is much faster. You won’t have to wait weeks and weeks to get your hands on the refund.
Apply for a Loan
An emergency expense fell into your lap, and you don’t have enough savings to handle it. You’re considering going to your bank and asking about personal loans. A personal loan could be the right solution in this moment. With an approved personal loan, you could use borrowed funds to cover the emergency expense in a short amount of time and then focus on a repayment process afterward.
You don’t have to go to your bank to do this. You can apply for a personal loan online. Go to a website like CreditFresh to see whether you meet all of the requirements to submit an application. If you do, you’re free to apply! You just might get approved for the loan that you need to recover from your emergency.
Send Money
You want to send money to someone, but they’re far away. You’re not going to travel all the way to their destination to hand them some cash or write them a check. The easiest thing to do is to transfer the funds digitally.
One way to transfer funds digitally is through a wire transfer. A lot of banks require clients to arrange a wire transfer inperson. But it’s possible that you can arrange the transfer through your online banking app or through a phone call with your bank’s representative. It all depends on your bank. You just might be able to send the wire transfer to the desired recipient without having to leave your front doorstep.
Another solution you could try is a money transfer app. The recipient will also need to be signed up with the app. Then, you should be able to send them funds without trouble.
You don’t have to hop into your car and drive to the bank to cross items off your to-do list. You can do plenty of banking from the comfort of your own home.
