If you use a bill-paying service, all your bills are sent directly to the bill-paying company, which makes payments for you and sends you a monthly transaction report. They also charge you a fee, typically around 10 percent of the total you owe. Bill-paying services don't actually lend you money, so you still have to cough up the cash yourself. At most, they offer the incentive for exercising a little discipline and the ease of writing one check instead of several each month. Evaluate the costs carefully. If you owe $5,000 and the bill-paying service charges 10 percent, that's $500 you'll be paying for the convenience of having them disburse the money you send them each month.