Saturday, March 1, 2008

Change #10 - Epost

This week we continue to green our mailbox. In addition to saying no to junk mail, we've also signed up for epost (which apparently is the evolution of mail). Run by Canada Post, epost allows you to receive many of your monthly bills (Bell, Rogers, water and sewer, VISA etc) electronically. Basically, instead of receiving a paper copy of your bills in your mailbox you receive a notice by email that you have received a bill in your 'epost electronic mailbox'. You can even opt to pay all of your bills through epost as well (but I will continue to pay them through online banking).

With all of my bills handy, it took about 25-30 minutes to sign-up (with Ian in my arms, typing with one hand). Some bills aren't available on epost yet (like Enbridge and Hydro Ottawa) so I went directly to their sites and signed up to their online billing options too.

A while ago we changed our settings in our online banking to receive all of our banking statements electronically as well. No more useless statements telling me how little money I have in my savings account.

Incidentally we will also be doing our taxes this week and filing them electronically using quicktax (signing up for epost gives you a 20% discount with quicktax). If you've never done your own taxes, this program makes it super easy. You do everything online, you don't need to download a special program or anything. It took me 10 minutes to do my taxes this year. We've also signed up to get our 'refund' by direct deposit. I also recently opted to receive my monthly Universal Child Care Benefit by direct deposit too.

Do you hear that? It's the sound of a few less trees being cut down.

No comments:

Tell me when this blog is updated

what is this?