PiggyBills.com
Most people hate paying the bills. After all, who really enjoys sitting down amid the piles of envelopes, bills, stamps, check books and trash, and suffering the drudgery of writing out checks, entering balances, addressing envelopes and sticking on stamps? For many the monthly bout of "the bills" is depressing and begs to be put off for as long as possible.

What if you could sit at your PC on a clear desk and manage all your bills with the click of a mouse key? What if you could approve the amount and time of payment of each bill and walk away with beautifully kept records of each transaction? What if bill paying were not the onerous chore, but almost fun?

Enter Piggybills.com , an on line service that receives your bills then pays when and as you direct. Once your account is established, Piggybills will receive any and all bills you designate whether paper or electronic, post them to your account, and email you a notice of due bills. You log on to your secure account anytime and click away your bills. It's just like having a bookkeeper deal with the mess while you approve the timing and amounts and sign the checks you want.

How it works.
You have your bills directed to Piggybills and give them routing numbers to the accounts you are paying from such as checking accounts, savings, credit card or other. They will then set up your account listing the bills when they come in, the amounts due and date due. When you decide to pay, you choose the account to pay from and how much you want to pay. Piggybills keeps your records for 24 months and your last 12 months of bills are available on line so you can track any payment made with a point and a click.

Piggybills.com extras include writing a "quick check" to someone not on your bills list, say a friend or relative to whom you want to write a one time check. You can schedule payment dates for any account, get custom reports of all your account activities, get status updates on your accounts and get an at-a-glance overview of your entire account.

What about security?
Web security is good these days and billions of dollars in commerce are being transacted each year. Unique logon ID and password established by you, validate connection to the secure server. Customers are required to use Netscape Navigator 4.0 or above, MS Internet Explorer 4.0 or above or AOL browser. This ensures that all data is authenticated and encrypted by the Netscape Enterprise Server, keeping your data safe as it transits the web. There are no "cookies" created on your computer to establish your identity when you return. Instead the service creates a random session ID which "times out" after 20 minutes of inactivity.

Most people are loath to give out bank account numbers to just anybody so we asked about internal security at Piggybills. They are regulated by the same rules as the credit card companies and the bottom line is that as with credit cards you are liable only for $50 of unauthorized payments. They have a very comprehensive security statement and guarantees program that should put your mind at ease. Even management can't access some records for security reasons.

The relationship is severable at any time with notice, but it will be your responsibility to make sure that your "billers" know where to send the bills then.

The Internet is full of fabulous tools that can and do make life easier. Piggybills.com is one of the best ones!