I am new to the world of online bill pay. When stamps went up again, I opted to start paying bills online through my credit union. Well....that sounds like a good idea, but perhaps I should have had a better idea of how to actually PAY my bills before I got started.

Last month I "thought" I paid my bills--only to find that I had gone in and edited the settings for each merchant instead.

Yesterday I thought I was scheduling my bills to be paid on Friday (when my husband and I both get paid)--in reality I paid them yesterday. I had set them up under "manual pay" so it didn't matter that I put in Friday's date for them to be paid, they were paid yesterday. I cleaned out my checking and savings accounts and I'm $150 in the hole until Friday.

Luckily, my credit union was more than understanding and reversed the two overdraft charges I received. Because we are on automatic deposit, they also covered the two bills that put me in the negative. Thank goodness I had enough money in savings to cover my house payment.

Before you judge me too harshly, I'm a pretty educated person, but every once in a while I need to be humbled. Today I am very humble and very grateful to Jane at the Endura Financial Credit Union.