Here are the options:
-- You can pay all your bills by writing a check, putting it in an envelope, addressing the envelope, sealing it which may involve licking the glue (yuck), putting a stamp on the envelope (if you have a stamp) and dropping it in a mailbox.
-- You can set up a list of debtors (regular or occasional) on your bank's "bill pay" page, and when a bill comes due you can go on there, enter the amount you want to pay and the bank sends it to the debtor.
-- You can set up a regular debtor on the bill-pay page to send you e-bills, which you pay when they arrive.
-- You can arrange with a debtor to automatically deduct your bill from a credit card (this doesn't work with a credit-card company, but utilities, cable TV, gym memberships and things like that will do it). Then you pay the credit-card bill. Or you can use your bank's debit card as your credit card, so when the bill comes due it comes right out of your account.
-- You can set up your bank's bill pay to automatically pay a bill. It's not called "standing order," but it does have a name -- "direct debit" or "automatic payment" or something like that. If it's a credit card bill where you'd have a total balance and a minimum payment, you could set it up for either or for some amount in between.
-- You can arrange with the debtor to have your bill payments automatically deducted from your account (giving that debtor the account numbers) -- again, either the whole balance, the minimum payment, or something in between like "minimum due plus $50."
The last two work about the same. I have most of my bills -- utilities, credit cards, etc., deducted automatically from my bank account, by arrangement either with the bank or the debtor. I don't do this with my son's rent because his landlord is so 20th century, and I don't do this with my mortgage, because it's a higher amount and I have until the 15th to pay it without a late fee so I time it to when I'll have enough money in my account to pay it. It's the only one (besides Jack's rent) that I actually have to take action on, but it's easy because it's a simple transfer from my checking account to the mortgage, all on my bank account's website.
And of course you can, at any time, pay them yourself and circumvent the system -- either pay extra in addition to your automatic payment, or make a payment and have your automatic payment canceled.
As usual, I'm with you, Chrissi! I'd go crazy if I had to keep track of all of those things and write out dozens of checks each month. Worse, I'd forget to pay them on time even if I had the money to do so, and I'd rack up late fees and tarnish my credit rating.