Bill Da Mamla Hai. Review on Billjunction

I have been using the electronic bill payment service ever since it started in India in 2001 through internet. I use Billjunction.com

Before that also ECS facility was available for a few services like your Phone Bill payment for MTNL through your credit card companies like AmEX, Citi Bank etc. but there you have to give standing instructions and you recieved the bill in physical form.

Today's electronic bill payment systems are much more advanced over these earlier systems.I will come to the features later let me first talk about the economies of using the E bill system

I pay around 150 Rs for some 20+ bills to be paid across various services like Phone bill, Electricity bill, Credit card bill, LIC policies, ISP bill etc.

Now just look at the scenario when I have to pay the bill for my phone 3 years ago conisidering it arrives on time by snail mail I will have to go to the phone companies bill collection center which may be miles away from my home, look for a  parking space stand in Q for hours and then wait for the Almighty Clerk jee Maharaj to come back from Smoke break and then take money from me. If I am paying cash normally he will not have Chutta ( specially in Delhi, though in Mumbai I have not faced this problem). By the time I come back some body has parked his Car in front of mine and blah blah blah blah...... I can continue but I hope the point has been made that it was a pain in the neck wastage of time and money.

Now lets look at the scene today: I open my email box as usual delete all the junk promising me everything from a billion $ in 10 days to the most beautiful babes on planet and and start looking at useful mails. There is a mail from my bill payment service that there is a bill of Rs X for my LIC due after 20 days and I can make the payment by going to my bill payment box. So I log in click on a few buttons make sure that I have the funds in my bank account( which also I check online and lo its done before my coffee gets cold)

The amount is debited from my savings account from on the due date and a email confirming the same is sent to me.

The process to signing for the service is simple you sign a account opening form giving the Bill Collection company authority (this is approved by RBI) to debit your account to pay your bills. and then once your account is activated you can fill details of services you want to pay online.

One major advantage is that for some of the services where the Payment is always a constant and on a set date you can opt for Autopay so that you don't have to even log in to activate the payment. Although I don't reccomend it as you loose the control on your finances and may forget that a bill is due.

So go for a manual payment for the service.

Some of the new age banks like ICICI, Citi, HDFC etc offer this service free of cost to their customers, but I prefer the payed service of Billjunction as you are not restricted to any one bank and you can pay from any bank account with any private of PSU bank which you have designated for the same. Also you have facility to make a phone call to make a payment for extra charges.

My guess is I have already saved more on parking charges than I have payed to the company for their services.

So go ahead and use one  of the electronic bill payment service, just be carefull with your password and Userid as you normally would be with any thing on Internet