Paying Bills When You Are Away On Business Or Holiday

Problem
How do you pay bills when you are away? How do you keep track? How do you spot surprise payments?

Lists
Before going away for a long trip you need to make a list of your outgoings throughout the year.

Take into account when holiday bills will fall. Your accountant or tax return may be able to tell you.

Note your income and savings.

Alerts
You can get alerts on your phone for high amounts paid out of your accounts such as Santander.

Passwords
Be aware of your passwords needed for credit cards and mobile phone and google and Facebook and gmail and all the others.

Don't leave your book of passwords behind. Nor carry it on you in a bag which could be stolen along with credit cards and phones.

Divide a code so somebody back home can send you your passwords in two or more parts. For example, you could ask a colleague, "How old is your grandad?" for the first two, four or six numbers of the password. And so on.

Or ask, "What is the name of your dog?" (Translating the letters of the answer into numbers.)

Outgoings and Credit Cards
In Romania, I have been warned, when you hire a car in Bucharest the credit card company will 'block' take? from your credit card the estimated cost of the car hire plus insurance.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, language teacher. Please share my posts.

Tax reminder - deadline Jan 31st

Xmas and New Year Tax deadlines
If you are planning to go away over Xmas, New Year, or in January, remember that a UK tax return has to be completed by January 31st.

The first year I did a tax return, the tax office came back to me with two queries so that by the time I had answered the second I was beyond the deadline, they claimed, and they issued a fine of £100.

If you are having trouble with passwords that could be another problem when travelling, especially if  they insist on sending the password to you by post, taking up to three weeks (plus xmas delays) or they are sending the password to your UK phone which you have left at home to avoid incurring roaming charges.

Accountant
You can use an accountant. But the accountant will be in a rush because everybody else is late as well as you, and the Accountant also wants a Christmas and New Year time off, plus a January ski trip.

Tax Return
So start planning your tax return now. If you are in the USA you have a similar problem. The ideal system is to do your accounts every weekend so that you have everything ready in the decline month.

Or you could spend Christmas and New Year doing your accounts, or do a spreadsheet whilst waiting at the airport for a plane, or stuck in a hotel room.
 Happy holidays, happy new year and -
Happy filing!


Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.