Dim Bulb #1

The metaphorical light bulb flickered on while I was paying off my bills online. 

I don't autopay my credit card bills, because there might be dispute. During a dispute, who is holding the money has the upper hand. If you already paid, then the company keeps the money by inaction.

The payment process used to be really simple. I put in the website information once & the sites would forward the bills to my bank. My online bank account would then show all the bills in one place. For some reason that I could not work out, a pair of credit card companies stopped sending information & there doesn't seem to be a simple update, so I go to their websites to download the statements.

Since the statement cut-offs are different, I rarely got myself mixed up & got the month that I needed to pay & the month when the bill got accrued mixed up. So each month, I count up the number of monthly bills & make sure that I got all of them. For example, I have power and three credit cards, so I expect to account for 4 bills a month & when I'm done paying, I count up the number of bills to make sure that I have them all accounted for. It's a habit that I've gotten into in case I'm sick or tired or both.

The other occasional problem is transposing the cents, like paying $300.23 vs $300.32. The interest isn't changed on the 9 cents difference; it is charged to the full statement amount. At 16% to 30% APR, the previous example would yield a bill of $4 to $7.50. I've heard that a carry-over on a balance can trigger interest on two months, so it could cast more than that. After thinking about it, it's worth it to just round up to the nearest dollar. I will be credited with excess payment & only loose out on the interest that I could earn on my round-up, which is non-existent right now.

Small, but real life applications of proofreading & rounding.