Paying Bills on Time

Problem: You've been losing track of when bills are due and racking up late fees.

Solution: There are a number of easy-to-use Web-based applications that will track your bills and send you reminders before they are due. At BillQ (mybillq.com), you enter your bills and amounts due and the site will send you text and/or email reminders, as well as monthly expense summaries. A "Groups" feature calculate amounts owed for shared expenses such as rent or a percentage of a family cellphone plan. The service is free for up to 10 bill schedules, five groups, and text and email reminders to one phone number. BillQ Plus ($5 a month or $50 a year) allows for more schedules, groups and email addresses, expanded reports and the ability to export data to Quicken or Money.

Budget Tracker Inc. (budgettracker.com) offers a broad range of services, but its most popular is a bill tracking and reminder feature using text or email alerts. The service is free for up to 15 bills and 50 calendar reminders. An expanded service, for $2.95 a month or $24.95 a year, allows you to export reminders to our Outlook, iCal or Google calendars. Rudder (rudder.com) is a free Web application that aggeregates all your financial accounts in one place, but it also can be used a sa bill-manager and email-reminder service.