CheckFree and Virginia Power Launch Electronic Billing and Payment Option
Virginia Power Joins Growing Number of Utilities That Offer CheckFree E-Bill
ATLANTA, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- CheckFree (Nasdaq: CKFR - news) and Richmond-based Virginia Power today announced that Virginia Power customers now have the option to receive and pay their monthly electric bill via the Internet. Virginia Power, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dominion Resources Inc. (NYSE: D - news), provides electricity to 2 million homes and businesses across a 30,000 square-mile area covering parts of Virginia and North Carolina.
In addition to Virginia Power, CheckFree currently works with 16 of the nation's largest utilities to offer electronic billing and payment (EBP), including: Ameren (Union Electric), Avista Utilities (Washington Water Power), American Electric Power, Boston Edison, Columbia Gas of Ohio, Consumers' Energy, Florida Power & Light, Hawaiian Electric, Illinois Power, Nevada Power, Northeast Utilities, Northern Illinois Gas (NICOR), Public Service Company of New Mexico, PGE, Southern California Edison, and Southern Co. Of these 16 companies, half are actively presenting bills to consumers. The remainder are scheduled to introduce their EBP service to the market by the end of 1999.
To enroll and begin receiving their electric bill on the World Wide Web, Virginia Power customers simply visit one of the Web sites listed below that offers CheckFree E-Bill(SM). Once they have entered their pertinent information, along with the account number from which they would like for the billing total to be deducted each month, they can begin receiving their Virginia Power bill electronically.
Virginia Power customers will have access to their bills via the
following distribution sites:
* Virginia Power at vapower.com ;
* Bank One at bankone.com ;
* Charles Schwab at mybills.com ;
* First Union at mybills.com ;
* Intuit's Quicken 98/99 software;
* Morgan Stanley Dean Witter at dwdean.com;
* Navy Federal Credit Union at
mybills.com ;
* Prudential Securities at mybills.com ;
and
* CheckFree E-Bill Direct at mybills.com .
(NOTE: Some URL addresses require an "s" after the http.)
''Many of our customers are very comfortable with using the Internet every day to buy airplane tickets, jewelry, books, CDs and other items,'' said Mark McGettrick, vice president-Customer Service and Marketing. ''Now, just as conveniently, they can use 'e-commerce' to take care of their Virginia Power bill.''
Matt Lewis, executive vice president of Electronic Commerce Product Management and Marketing for CheckFree, said, ''The utility industry is among the leaders in electronic billing and payment (EBP). As an industry, it is quickly recognizing the cost-savings associated with EBP as well as a brand new level of customer interaction only possible now through the Internet.''
According to a recent study by market research firm Killen & Associates, by the end of 2000 almost 8 billion repetitive bills will be presented electronically each year. The study also states that sending paper bills costs 60 cents to $1.40 per bill, while presenting bills on-line can cut that cost to approximately 50 cents. Overall, the Killen report asserts that U.S. utilities could save $1.2 billion in billing costs by using electronic bill presentment and payment.
About Virginia Power
Virginia Power is the principal subsidiary of Dominion Resources Inc., an international energy company with headquarters in Richmond. DRI also owns East Midlands, a major British electric utility, and operates business subsidiaries active in independent power production domestically, and in Latin America; in the acquisition and sale of natural gas reserves; in financial services, and in real estate.
About CheckFree
Founded in 1981, CheckFree (www.checkfree.com ), the operating subsidiary of CheckFree Holdings Corp., is the leading provider of financial electronic commerce services, software and related products. CheckFree designs, develops and markets services that enable nearly three million consumers to receive and pay bills over the Internet or electronically through a variety of bill aggregation points, including banks, brokerage firms, portals and interactive content sites on the Internet, and personal financial management (PFM) software. CheckFree's range of services and products are focused on enabling customers to make electronic payments and collections, automate paper-based recurring financial transactions and conduct secure Internet transactions. After more than a year of beta testing, CheckFree launched the nation's first fully integrated electronic billing and payment solution, CheckFree E-Bill, in March of 1997. Today, the Company has multi-year contracts with more than 50 of the nation's top billers to provide online billing and payment through the CheckFree distribution network.
Certain of the Company's statements in this press release are not purely historical, and as such are ''forward-looking statements'' within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include statements regarding management's intentions, plans, beliefs, expectations or projections of the future. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, the various risks inherent in the Company's business, and other risks and uncertainties detailed front time to time in the Company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 1998, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 1999, Form 8-K filed May 25, 1999 and the Company's Registration Statement on Form S-3 (No. 333-79695) filed June 1, 1999, as amended June 15, 1999. One or more of these factors have affected, and could in the future affect, the Company's business and financial results in future periods, and could cause actual results to differ materially from plans and projections. There can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements made in this document will prove to be accurate, and issuance of such forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation by the Company, or any other person, that the objectives and plans of the Company will be achieved. All forward-looking statements made in this press release are based on information presently available to management, and the Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
SOURCE: CheckFree Corporation
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