Automating my banking

Following advice of some such as J.D. from Get Rich Slowly, I'm going to try to automate as much of my monthly issues as I can. I'm doing this a few different ways.

Direct Deposit - Automating my savings
I've turned in a change form for my direct deposit. Previously, it went into my online checking account at HSBC, and I would transfer payments to where I needed them to go. Now, I'm going to automate it. From every paycheck, $125 goes into my emergency fund savings account, and $209 goes into my IRA savings account. The remainder goes into my USAA checking account, which has a rewards debit card attached.

In addition, I have already set up for myself, and will set up for my wife (as soon as the account authorization finishes) an IRA account, to which $50/month will be drawn directly from the IRA savings account in a dollar cost averaging program, which is a good plan in times with price fluctuations, such as now.

So, with 2 paychecks per month, that means that the $250/month into my emergency fund, and the $418/month into my IRA savings account will happen automatically. Plus, we will then start making contributions to our IRAs at $50/month each. Once we're a little bit better off savings wise, we might set up another dollar cost averaging plan for a different mutual fund.

Automated payments - consolidating bills, and earning money for doing it
I've opened up a rewards credit card at USAA. This does a few things for me: It makes my debt/credit ratio much better, and it allows me to consolidate my bills. Many of my bills can be paid via credit card, and most of those can be set up to automatically charge the card. Once the card is charged, I can pay the balance on the card off immediately. The other upside to this is that it's a rewards card. I get cash back (only 1%, but it's better than nothing) just for paying my bills!

Not only that, but the card actually comes with checks that can be written, and the checks are treated as credit card transactions, for no extra fee! That's very easily abused, but I plan to use it for one purpose only: Rent. My apartment requires checks or money orders. This way, I can still earn cash back on my rent.

Only a few bills remain that have to be paid from a checking/savings account:

• My power bill will do credit card payments, but charges a fee. Not worth it. Maybe the credit card checks will help with that one.
  
• My auto and signature loans will only take bank to bank transfers. I'll have to pay that myself.

If setting up automatic payment plans from the loans didn't freak me out so much, I'd set them up too, but I just don't like the idea. I review my finances regularly, and don't expect to accidentally miss a payment.