How to pay a bill: 3 ways

The fastest way to pay a bill today is to take a photo of it with your phone. Services like Remembill read the amount, reference and recipient automatically. You check the details and pay with your bank, card or app. The whole flow takes seconds and needs no login or new account.

This is especially useful for paper bills and for anyone who would rather not retype long reference numbers.

The classic way is to open your bank app, choose Pay, and enter the recipient account, amount and reference. It works at every bank and is safe, but you have to type every digit yourself, without mistakes.

If the bill is already in your digital mailbox you can often open it in your bank app via the link. If you have no digital mailbox or bank app, a service like Remembill can settle the bill for you with no login at all.

For bills that arrive every month, like electricity, mobile or rent, direct debit or e-invoice is the easiest. You set it up once with the company and the money is pulled from your account on the due date automatically.

The downside is that you have to make sure there is money on the account, and these contracts do not cover one-off bills. For occasional invoices it is usually faster to pay directly with Remembill.

An unpaid bill first triggers a reminder, often with a reminder fee. If it is still not paid the case can be sent to debt collection, where the fees grow significantly. The simplest way to avoid this is to pay the bill as soon as you receive it, for example by snapping it with your phone.