Can Automated Payments Be Scheduled For Specific Dates Or Intervals?
Putting payments on autopilot can save time, boost your credit score and help you avoid paying late fees. But it can also be easy to lose track of payments and overspend if you aren’t vigilant.
Automatic payments are recurring money transfers that you authorize to pay vendors on an ongoing basis. They are commonly used to pay a mortgage, credit card bill or utility bills.
Scheduled Payments
A scheduled payment is an automatic debit from a customer’s bank account on a set date to pay a recurring bill. These payments may be the same amount each time or they can be within a specified range — for example, a monthly utility bill.
Customers who set up scheduled payments have peace of mind knowing that they will be paid on time every month. This can help you reduce your outstanding debts, and can also boost your credit score when payments are made on time. But remember that automate payments are only helpful if they’re set up correctly. For example, if you set up an automatic credit card payment and your bank account balance is too low when the payment is due, you could face overdraft or NSF fees that will affect your credit score.
To avoid this, make sure you are monitoring your customer’s bank accounts to be aware of their balance. And always keep in mind how long it typically takes for an automatic payment to post to a bank account. This will help you time a scheduled payment so that it arrives before the credit card statement’s due date and at a point when you know there will be enough in your bank to cover the payment.
One-Time Payments
A one-time payment is a single transaction that pays for a product or service. These payments can be processed via a website, mobile app or through an online banking system. For example, someone might buy a new car with a one-time payment or pay for a month of Netflix or Hulu using an automatic payments option.
On the other hand, recurring payments occur on a regular basis and are commonly used to pay monthly bills, such as utilities and mortgage payments. Subscription merchants often use a recurring payment model to sell their products and services, such as gym memberships, curated subscription boxes, newspapers or gated digital content.
Although recurring payments provide benefits to both consumers and businesses, they can create problems. For instance, if an automatic payment doesn’t clear due to insufficient funds in your bank account or a billing error, you could face charges like a returned payment fee or late fees.
One-time payments are also problematic for employees, as they don’t allow time worked to be paid in a timely manner. Alberta Employment Standards Act requires employees be paid no later than 10 days after the end of a pay period worked [ESA 8(1)]. Unless it is required by law, one-time payments should only be used for short periods of work (less than a pay period) and hours should be submitted on timesheets as they are completed.
Scheduled Intervals
A fixed interval schedule is one that takes place at a regular interval, such as every six months for dental exams. These types of scheduled events are a common type of reinforcement schedule used to teach animals new behaviors. They can also be a great way to keep up with regular routines, like brushing teeth or going to the gym.
The scheduling interval setting determines how often your available appointment times will appear on the scheduler. For example, if you set the interval to 30 minutes, clients will see appointment times 9:00, 9:30, 10:00, etc. Schedulista allows you to adjust the interval settings for each individual calendar and for each of your service durations by using classes.
Interval scheduling maximization (ISMP) considers a 1-dimensional interval graph, with each interval representing a task to be executed on a machine/resource. The problem is to find a compatible set of intervals whose union maximizes the number of tasks that can be run in this machine/resource. This is equivalent to finding a maximum independent set in an intersection graph, and while it is NP-complete for general graphs, can be solved in polynomial time on interval graphs.
Actions can be configured to run on a fixed interval, and this functionality can be seen as a user-friendly alternative to cron scripts. To enable this feature, click the Settings icon on an action and select the Schedule tab.
Credit Card Payments
Some credit card companies allow you to set up auto payments that will automatically transfer funds from a checking or savings account on a regular basis. While it isn’t a perfect solution for everyone, it can save you from the stress of forgetting to make a payment or getting hit with late fees and a lower credit score.
If you use a recurring automatic payment, be sure to monitor your bank account balance to ensure that there will be enough money in the account when the transaction is scheduled. If the account balance is too low when the payment is due, you may be charged an overdraft fee (the median cost of which is $34) or your bank may decline the transaction altogether. Most banks offer low-balance text alerts to help you keep track of your account.
When setting up a recurring automatic payment, make sure that the date that you choose is at least a few days before your credit card bill is due. Otherwise, the issuer will process your payment as an extra in the current billing cycle instead of a regular payment toward the billed amount. This could result in you incurring interest charges on your outstanding balance before the end of your grace period.
If you’re a freelancer or work on a contract basis with variable income, it may be beneficial to schedule your payment dates so that they coincide with your paydays. This way, you can avoid the risk of a sudden drop in income causing you to fall behind on your credit card payments.