What Bill to Pay First and Way to Save

Still remember I posted a poll previously on what bill we normally pay first? There were 15 people took the vote and the final poll result is stated below.

Apparently most of us pay Streamyx bill first because Internet access is already important to us, become part of our life perhaps. The result also show no one is willing to pay DBKK assessment fee first, perhaps the bill comes only once a year.

We aware that credit card charging us 15-18% interests rate and also possible late payment charge of 1%, if we don't pay our credit card bill on time. So we as a debtors will trying to pay it on time to avoid penalty charges. It goes the same for some other bills. Perhaps you have know about this, I just want to share with you about bill payment and penalty, and perhaps some savings you can do from these bills.

Credit card interest is killing.

1. DBKK
If you delay your payment, they will charge you penalty, and also 'notification' fee. Notification fee? Don't you think it should be free? I, or should say my dad, haven't pay my house tax for about 13 years. The fees suppose to be RM1,201.20. But I'm charged in the total of RM1,541.02, with the BAYATAN PEMBERITAHU RM65 and FAEDAH RM182.42. Hmmm, I wonder whether I should go and complaint abt RM65 additiona charges.

Why DBKK use my money to put a fish here? -.-

Hey, 13 years but nothing happen, it is suppose to be the same as DBKK parking bill that people are not paying for them? Aren't they take any action for it? I'm not sure whether I should clear these bills, or just leave it until I die. I heard some people said can take the bill to DBKK and ask for 'discount', what do you think?


2. Telekom Malaysia
This is a little bit ridiculous. apart from usage charges, we also need to pay monthly charges of RM29 and 5% government tax. So if you don't make any call, you also need to pay RM30.45 monthly. If you using hand phone to make call regularly, then this bill is definitely it is not worth for you. I know some of us just remain the fixed line for Streamyx only.

Why Malaysian don't use Skype phone?

I have a suggestion to cut your phone bill dramatically. If you don't plan to make any call from your house phone, perhaps you can change the fixed line plan to prepaid. You only require to pay a lump sum of transfer plan fees (around RM80) and an initial prepaid fees of RM20, and you can receive call forever without paying a single cent, where your Streamyx line is still ongoing. If you opt for this, you can save at least RM30.45 every month. As for me, I still reserve my phone line because it is not worth in my case, as my mum did a lot of local call monthly.

In the other hand, if you don't pay your phone bill for 2-3 months, your phone line is still remain, without any penalty.


3. Electricity & Water
For water bill, it's relatively okay, as the bill comes around every 3 months and it's not as expensive as electricity.

We feel bad that electricity tariff is being adjusted again, but that's reality perhaps we have to force ourselves to move back to our traditional living style, avoid using air-con and heater. If we still want to continue to enjoy, we have to get more income to cover it. Electricity tariff is calculated based on unit of KWH you used. The more you consume, the more expensive you pay. I don't have air-con at home, only heater, and my average monthly bill is about RM80 with about 360kwh for 4 people, quite expensive.

Ohm: You force me to do this, TNB!

I have tried to NOT to pay the electricity for 3 months and water bill for 9 months, and nothing happen, no cut off and no penalty given. Kind enough.

I will post on how to save your electricity bill in details on my next post.


4. Astro
I believe majority of the middle and upper class people in Malaysia has Astro at home. Astro is not expensive, if you subscribe the basic package of RM37.95 per month. But it already 'tells' you it's a basic package. Basically it's a empty shell for me.

It may be suffer as you have to pay a lot more if you subscribing 'interesting' channel packages, like Dynasty and Movie. You even pay more if you subscribing latest movie or 'Astro On Demand' package. It costs me RM99 a month for subscribing Basic + Dynasty package, but I don't even watch it at all. I have no way to save on this as my mum is watching Wah Lai Toi everyday. That's pretty okay, we love our mums.

Youngster: Why Astro On Demand? I used torrent download what.

Some suggestions from others to cut down your Astro bill.
a) Some experts suggest you to watch YouTube or e-TV instead of Astro.
b) Some youngsters also suggest to download drama/movie from p2p, easily.
c) Some suggest to share the same dish with your neightbor, with an additional decoder.
c) To make it extreme, some people even invest and do illegal adjustments on their Astro machine, and they able to watch full package. You know, I know. I won't share how-to adjustment to help you to save on Astro bill here, it's illegal.

Anyway, I suggest you pay your Astro bill on time. There will be late payment charge of RM10 monthly once it is overdue (30 days), even after a day. It's not worth if you still consider to continue to watch Astro. Astro will also terminating your service if you are not making your payment after 2 months. I, or should say my dad, had tried it many times. It's kinda stupid of paying RM20 extra for service reconnection, and the late payment charge of RM10 accumulated by every month.

Since Astro is the money sucker for us, you can do auto bill payment via bank SI or credit card. It is wise to do so to avoid late payment charge and you are eligible to earn credit card points, and Bonus Link if you pay 3/6/12 months in advance.


5. Streamyx
Streamyx voted as top bill people would pay for it, apart from credit card. Your Internet service will be terminated if you don't pay your bill more than 2 months within the period given. Even though, I still normally delay 1 month to pay my Streamyx bill, no penalty.

Streamyx offering many packages like Streamyx 512kbps, 1Mbps till 4Mbps, with or without modem. The cheapest is Streamyx 384kbps , comes with 10 hours and 5 cents per minute for additional usage, it's RM20 per month. Not worth it if you spend more than 20 minutes in average to online daily.

To save more, perhaps you can go for Streamyx 512kbps RM77 with modem. It's enough for surfing/blogging/chatting for 1-4 persons. That's the best package I found so far, as the modem provided by TM is life-time warranty. You won't have to pay extra if the modem you bought is malfunction and out of warranty. For wireless modem router, you have to purchase yourself. You can opt for Streamyx 512kbps RM44 with 60 hours, 1 cent per minute for additional usage. Worth it if you online less than 60 minutes in average daily.

One of Streamyx latest package

To save even more, you can share the package with your neighbors or house mates, then the bill is divided. Make sure they pay you or pay the bill! You can also apply and become a Streamyx agent. It's easy to apply and free! You just need to online and enter the necessary information for your customer, done and you will get commissions of what package your customer subscribed. For example, you will get RM77 for a RM77 package. Cool?


Can I say this latest package is cheating marketing purposes only?

That's why you see many youngsters running around and ask you whether you want to subscribe Streamyx package, especially during PC fair. You may be not interested to be an agent and think that too many agents are around and most of us already subscribe? Not really, there is always many strategies to do business. They can ask you to re-subscribe to a new/better package, just like your mobile phone. Sometimes it's worth, sometimes don't, you can justify it easily.

When you see PC Fair, you see Streamyx booth.

Another of my favorite strategies is to hire pretty boys and girls as promoters to promote the package, I love it and I use to entertain the pretty promoter as I'm a friendly person. So use the right strategy is very important la.


6. Newspapers
My family is subscribing daily local chinese newspaper delivery. The newspaper man always come to my house and collect the payment On Time, so I expect their newspaper delivery time also On Time. It's about RM46 per month, and they going to make it RM52 next month due to fuel price hiked. Anyway, if you watch The Star, you can subscribe e-Star newspaper via Bluehyppo, you can save up to 50% per month. To save to the maximum, just watch news from The Star web site la. I used to do that every morning before I go office.

Angmoh: The Star? Is this da one?

To maximize your savings, you can pay your bills above via online banking. It is the best if you use your credit card with cash rebate to pay them. You are not only able to get cash rebate / reward point from credit card payment, but you also enjoying about 20-30 days of grace period to repay it to the bank!