Autopay is wonderful until you’re not around to monitor it anymore.
Most of us have at least some bills set to automatically deduct from our bank accounts or charge to our credit cards. Utilities, phone service, streaming subscriptions, insurance premiums, maybe rent or mortgage payments.
This is great for convenience and for making sure you never miss a payment. It’s less great when someone needs to figure out what’s being automatically paid, when, and from which accounts.
Your electricity bill might be coming out of your Japanese bank account via direct debit. Your Netflix subscription might be charging to your US credit card. Your phone service might be deducting from your PayPay balance. Your life insurance might be automatically withdrawing from a different Japanese account.
If something happens to you, your family needs to know about these automatic payments for two reasons: first, so they can keep essential services like electricity and phone running and second, so they can cancel non-essential services (like that meditation app you’re still paying for but never use).
The solution is documentation – a list of what’s being automatically paid from where. You can even include account numbers, payment amounts, and contact information for each service.
It’s tedious to write it all down in the Ending Note, but it’s incredibly helpful when someone else needs to take over your financial responsibilities temporarily or permanently.
Leave a Reply