MONEY COMMENT
Win A Trip To Las Vegas!

By Cliff D'Arcy
October 2, 2003

Earlier this year, I wrote about using Direct Debit (DD) to make paying bills easier. This attracted some lively replies, many of which disagreed with me quite strongly! However, there are some good reasons to use direct debit to pay our bills (and direct credit to pay money into other bank accounts):

• Paying by DD saves us money and usually wins us attractive discounts and the best deals. In fact, we can save an estimated £169 every year, according to automated clearing house BACS
• We can spread the cost of our bills, plus we don't have to queue up for ages to pay them
• There are no chequebooks and uncashed cheques lying around, waiting to vanish into the black hole where keys, biros and odd socks also mysteriously disappear
• DD provides financial discipline by preventing us from missing payments and paying those extortionate late payment charges.

In fact, BACS claims that we are over-paying to the tune of £4.5 billion every year by not using DD to our full advantage. By the way, speaking of throwing away money, we have an exciting competition for you to enter, courtesy of BACS.

Direct Debit is offering one lucky winner a fabulous five-day trip for two to Circus Circus, one of the best casinos in glittering Las Vegas. The prize includes return flights, accommodation, airport transfers and travel insurance. All you have to do to enter is to request information about switching to DD, so just click on this link for your chance to win. The competition closes on Sunday, 26 October (here are the terms and conditions).

Of course, we'd strongly advise you not to go on a wild gambling spree, which is definitely not the sensible thing to do. However, we'd like you to have a good time, so the best of British luck from BACS and The Motley Fool!

More: Why Direct Debits Are Better Than Cheques.