The town where I live has sent me a refund check for $107.88 because they over-billed me for electricity. This is strange; I've deliberately overpaid the town before, and it has usually credited the extra funds to the following month's bill. But not this time: instead of giving me a January freebie, the town has sent back the extra money as a refund. Since I owe around $180 in property taxes (I started 2011 with one car and ended up with another, so I've got taxes on both), I'll be putting this refund toward that.
Life is weird sometimes. Or in my case, it's weird pretty often. This has, in fact, been a very strange life thus far.
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Is there an advantage to over-paying bills? It seems to me like it would be best to have the money for as long as possible.
ReplyDeleteThe math works out the same, for the most part, although timing can play a role in whether I find myself in the red or in the black any given month. I usually take a "better safe than sorry" tack and overpay slightly, so that I'm sure to be charged less the following month. So some of this is for timing's sake-- to make doubly sure a bill is paid and then some-- and some of it is for purely irrational psychological reasons: the assurance of knowing that next month's bill will be small.
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