It's the only real mail we get anymore. Well, besides junk mail, but you should have gotten rid of that months ago. Going to the mailbox and seeing a big open space may not be that exciting, but if you have to receive bills, wouldn't you rather just do it electronically? It seems to hurt less. Plus, it's good for the environment, and your pocketbook.

If you haven't gotten on the e-bill train yet, we're here to tell you why it's so great. First of all, we'll cover the stats. For every 38,000 bills paid paperless:

• 1 Ton of Paper is saved
• 2 Tons of Trees are preserved
• 16,450 Gallons of Water is saved
• 1,941 Pounds of Solid Waste is avoided
• 60 Pounds of Air Emissions are eliminated
• 5,058 Pound of Greenhouse Gasses are avoided

You can sign up for e-bills in several ways. One way is to sign up with each of your providers separately. They'll stop sending you paper bills, will probably send you a reminder each time there is a bill waiting for you, and you can go online and pay via credit card or through your bank account. Of course, if you don't want to even be dealing with processing electronic payments each month, you could have your credit card automatically pay the bill each month.

Finally, if you use a "big bank" you may be able to request e-bills directly through the bank. They will notify your provider, your paper bills will stop, and you'll be able to check your bills all from within your bank's website. There are benefits to each method, you'll just need to find what works best for you.

If you're not on the e-bill bandwagon, give it a shot. The Electronic Payments Association (everyone has an association these days!) even says that paying electronically helps people save money, time, and even improve their credit scores (easier on time payments). It makes life so much simpler. No more stamps. No more checks. No more bills glaring at you. Ahhh….

Rebecca says: I'm almost completely electronic, and I love it. I have a three-part system. The bills that are always the same amount and I've never had issues with incorrect statements from the providers - get paid automatically on a credit card each month. (Hotel points, cha-ching!) Other bills arrive straight into "my bills" section of my bank page, and can all be paid and tracked so easily from there. It takes me about 5-10 minutes to pay all of my bills each month. I'm so much more organized now that I've gotten rid of the paper, too.

Statistics courtesty of ElectronicPayments.org / NACHA.

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