Epost is a free online service offered by Canada Post where you can receive, add, pay, print and manage your bills and other important financial documents. If you have signed-up to view your bills electronically through online banking, then you are automatically signed up with epost.
I signed up with epost several years ago after becoming frustrated with receiving, storing and tracking all of my monthly bills that came in the mail. After misplacing a few bills and getting charged with late payment fees I decided to look for a better way to manage my documents and pay bills online.
How does it work?
After you’ve signed up for the service, you can get started by adding Mailers – the companies or organizations that send bills or other financial documents to you through the epost service. There are over 100 mailers registered.
When you add a Mailer, you are choosing to have this bill or document delivered electronically to your account. After adding your Mailers, all of your bills and documents will be sent to your mailbox once the next billing cycle begins.
You can arrange for epost to send you email notifications when a bill is delivered to your epost mailbox. Once notified, you can login to your mailbox and view your bills.
Epost allows you to store documents within your mailbox for up to 7 years. Plus, you can organize and manage your financial documents electronically by sorting, printing or setting up bill payment reminders to pay bills online.
What Is A Mailer?
Mailers are the companies and organizations who are registered to send you bills, pay stubs, tax receipts, and other financial documents to your Mailbox.
When you add Mailers to your epost Mailbox you are choosing to receive your existing paper mail in an electronic form. There are over 100 Mailers and over 200 documents to choose from, so the more Mailers you add, the easier it is to consolidate and manage your bills.
Available Mailers include:
- Major Bank credit card companies
- Major retailers
- Utility companies
- Telecom companies
- Payroll Companies
Here is the complete list of Mailers.
How do I pay bills online?
You can pay bills online at 2 locations:
- epost.ca: You can pay your bills online via credit card, electronic funds transfer or online banking link.
- Your online banking web site: epost powers the electronic bill portion of your online banking website, which means that you can view and pay your bills through epost at the same time, while you bank online.
Once your payment method has been chosen, whenever a bill arrives in your Mailbox you simply click on the pay link located on the left navigation bar of the bill statement and follow the instructions from there.
Epost automatically fills your bill amount into the “amount owing” field of your bill payments page for your convenience. Your payment will be processed and you’ll be given a reference number to confirm your payment.
Benefits of using epost
Many companies are now charging up to $3 or $4 per month just to send your bill or statement in the mail. Some of them have their own e-billing services, but the nice thing about using epost is that you don’t have to keep track of multiple websites to view and pay bills online.
Receiving my monthly bills online through epost is convenient, secure and environmentally-friendly. Furthermore, when we recently sold our house I called all of our utility companies to transfer over their services to our new place and I didn’t have to worry about trying to track down their next statement in the mail.
Best of all, this service has reduced the clutter in my house, kept me organized so that I never miss a payment again, and saved me money on mailing fees.
Do you still receive your monthly bills and statements in the mail? Is it time to switch to e-billing?
Financial planners recommend setting aside savings of three to six months of expenses in case of unexpected emergencies such as job loss or a sudden disaster, but how about setting up two years worth of expenses for an opportunity fund?
In Richard Carlson’s book Don’t Worry, Make Money he tells a story of a man who was offered a job at a promising start-up company. The position offered a small initial salary but plenty of stock and stock options in the company.
Because he had a large financial reserve he accepted the job without worry. If the venture worked out, great. If not, he figured it would at least give him valuable experience. It turned out to be successful and he amassed a large fortune within a few years.
This man however was not the company’s first choice. The talented person to be first offered the job unfortunately had to turn it down.
He was currently earning an excellent salary, but he was living paycheque to paycheque.
He had a large mortgage and both he and his wife drove expensive cars. They enjoyed spending money at fine restaurants and taking luxury vacations. They spent most of what they made. Although the job offer was an opportunity of a lifetime, he had to decline as he thought it was too risky.
Build an Opportunity Fund
If you are completely dependent on a secure, regular salary and have no financial safety cushion, you are probably going to dismiss a lot of opportunities that may come your way.
If your livelihood isn’t dependent on your day to day efforts though, it is amazing how creative you can be and how willing you will be to experiment with new and unexpected opportunities to broaden your life.
It’s not easy and may take a few years to accomplish but it’s worth the trade off – buy a less expensive house and car, take fewer or less costly vacations, reduce luxuries – for that two years worth of income in the bank.
What do you think of this idea? Do you think it’s possible to save two years worth of income? Would having that money allow you to make some changes to your career and lifestyle? Would you pursue your dreams? Could you go back to school, look into starting a franchise or opening up a small business, or maybe take a year off to travel the world?
I think it would be a challenge but imagine the enormous peace of mind and sense of security you would have. With an opportunity fund you’d be able to do just about anything you wanted to do.
How To Kill The Joy Of Giving
I think of myself as a kind and generous person, always willing to help out, but there are some instances that make me want to keep my time and money to myself.
Gift Giving
Tipping
Charities
I think that losing the joy of giving has come about because we as a culture have lost the joy of receiving. We don’t know how to gratefully and gracefully receive a gift especially if it’s not what we wanted or expected and sometimes we expect too much.