I Owe, So Off To The Net I Go To Pay The Bills Every Month
---------------
By Melba Newsome
Investor's Business Daily
Buying goods and gathering data will never be the same, thanks to the Internet. Now, one of the most daunting chores of all --- paying bills --- also is going online.
To be sure, bill paying is a maddening race against time. Open the envelope, write the check, mail it. You know the routine.
And bills don't take a vacation even when you do. Miss a payment date, and you know what that means: late fees.
If you get smacked with just one late fee, an online bill-paying service might be worth it.
Paying bills via the Web isn't the same as online banking. It's more like a personal assistant. For $8 to $10 a month. Web services from PayMyBills.com Inc. of Pasadena, Calif., CyberBills Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., and Paytrust, a unit of Princeton, N.J.-based Secure Commerce Services Inc., let you get bills online.
"I got the idea for CyberBills because I was always on the road," said John Simpson, CEO and company co-founder. "I used online banking, but it was never enough. This service appeals to anybody who is busy or just can't seem to get their bills organized."
Backers say online bill paying is safe. Only you can make payments from your bank account, they say. And the sites offer the latest security software, making it nearly impossible for anyone to look in on your finances.
Here's how online bill paying works. Bills are sent to the bill-paying centers, which post them on their sites. You receive an e-mail notifying you that a bill has arrived. Simply go to the site to review the bill, select the payment date and authorize the amount. The service does the rest.
Paytrust's service goes for $7.95 a month.
You're able to pay 25 bills each month. Beyond that, bills cost 50 cents each. You also can download data to software like Intuit Inc.'s Quicken and Microsoft Corp.'s Money.
Importing data is simple: Select the software format and the date range.
CyberBills offers different levels of service. For $8.95 you can pay 15 bills each month. Additional ones are 75 cents each. The site also offers StatusAlert, an e-mail service that notifies you when a bill arrives or doesn't arrive, or when a payment is due, late or completed.
With CyberBills you can even customize reports to see your expenses and get a compact disc each year with your bill history.
PayMyBills.com costs $8.95 for 25 bills a month. Extra payments are 50 cents apiece. You also can download to Quicken or track your spending by the site's analysis feature.
Right now such services might seem expensive, but prices are expected to drop as they become more popular. Both America Online Inc. and Yahoo Inc. have signed deals with CheckFree, the Web's largest bill processor.
Those big Internet companies are expected to offer online bill payment this fall. Higher volumes could lower the cost to $3 or $4 a month for consumers.
As various players seize on electronic bill payment as a way to attract customers and sell them other products, the industry's market share is expected to rocket from 4% of U.S. households to 70% within a decade says industry analyst GartnerGroup Inc. |
