Here's a new one....
PayMyBills.com -- Latest idealab! Venture -- Launches New Personal Bill Management Company With Strategic Relationships
08:04 a.m. Jul 08, 1999 Eastern
PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 8, 1999--
Company Set to Offer Groundbreaking New Service on July 19 --
Frees Consumers From Bill-Paying Headaches
PayMyBills.com (www.PayMyBills.com) officially unveiled its Web site Thursday, and announced the launch date of its personal bill management service that changes the way consumers pay their bills.
PayMyBills.com also announced key strategic relationships with Travelers Bond, a unit of Travelers Property Casualty (NYSE:TAP), and Imaging Acceptance Corp. (IAC) to ensure the company's success in becoming the premier bill management service for consumers.
Starting July 19, PayMyBills.com will offer a personal bill management service that enables consumers to securely view and pay all their bills via the Internet. PayMyBills.com offers a complete solution -- 100 percent bill presentment and payment. The service shifts the burden of bill management to a single provider, offering consumers a safe, fast and paperless experience.
"Death, taxes and bills are all inevitable -- but we now take care of one of them," said John P. Tedesco Jr., founder and CEO of PayMyBills.com. "Our customers can access all of their billing information online -- they then tell us who, when and how much to pay. The drudgery of receiving and opening bills, writing checks, buying stamps and filing papers is now a thing of the past."
The subscription-based service works with the customer's existing bank accounts and is designed with flexibility to allow for any level of customer involvement. Customers can continue to maintain complete control over the bill-paying process, or they can choose to have bill payments automated.
PayMyBills.com is the latest venture to emerge from idealab!, the Pasadena-based integrated incubator for starting and growing Internet businesses. PayMyBills.com follows on the heels of other consumer-focused idealab! companies, including eToys, GoTo.com, CarsDirect and Cooking.com.
Established Relationships
PayMyBills.com is the first and only Internet bill management company to provide SafeWeb(R) Remote Banking Insurance from Travelers Property Casualty Co. to its online customers. The insurance will offer protection against unauthorized online transactions and is included at no additional charge with every PayMyBills.com subscription. Each customer is protected up to $100,000 per loss.
"The security of online financial transactions is frequently cited as a main concern held by potential online customers, so it is a concern that traditional e-commerce safeguards like encryption and passwords may not have sufficiently addressed," said Robert J. Nighan, manager of Travelers Bond Financial Services. "By providing SafeWeb insurance to PayMyBills.com's customers, our goal is to increase confidence in online financial transactions."
To present bills online to consumers effectively and efficiently, PayMyBills.com has partnered with Imaging Acceptance Corp. to use its high-speed scanning and optical character recognition technology. Imaging Acceptance Corp. is a leading provider of inexpensive content loading systems and services for the Internet and private corporate intranets.
Market Size
In the United States, more than 21 billion bills are mailed to consumers each year by an estimated 3 million billers. Today, nearly 100 percent of those households continue to receive their bills at home. On average, consumers spend two to three hours per month paying 12 recurring monthly bills.
A December 1998 Jupiter Communications report found that U.S. households spend an average of $46 on postage and $144 on check-writing fees each year paying those 12 monthly recurring bills. PayMyBills.com saves consumers their time and money and reduces the anxiety of paying bills.
About idealab!
idealab! is an integrated incubator for starting and growing Internet businesses. Founded in March 1996 by entrepreneur Bill Gross, idealab! currently has more than 20 businesses in various stages of development. In addition to venture capital, idealab! provides creative capital resources to infuse start-up companies with the development strategies and financial support needed to rapidly introduce innovative products and services.
Creative capital resources include office space and the accompanying network infrastructure; consulting and services relating to development and technology; graphic design; business strategy; branding; corporate structure; marketing services; and competitive research. idealab! companies include GoTo.com, eToys, WeddingChannel.com, CarsDirect.com, Cooking.com and eWallet.
About Travelers Property Casualty Co.
A leader in the bond business for more than 85 years, Travelers Casualty and Surety Co. (http://www.travelersbond.com) is a major writer of crime insurance, surety and professional liability products. Travelers Casualty and Surety Co. is rated A+ (superior) by A.M. Best.
With headquarters in Hartford, Conn., Travelers Property Casualty Co. is a member of Citigroup (NYSE:C) a diversified global financial services company offering commercial and consumer banking, investment banking, brokerage services and insurance.
About Imaging Acceptance Corp.
Imaging Acceptance Corp. is a premier center for the design, prototyping and implementation of high-volume, low-cost document imaging technologies. Geared specifically at developing inexpensive methods for loading information from paper and microform onto private or public Web sites, IAC's unique test-bed capabilities help clients put documents on the Web for less than they can put them in their office filing cabinets.
IAC has developed specific application practices in diverse vertical markets, including legal, insurance, medical and personnel records.
About PayMyBills.com
PayMyBills.com is a personal bill management service that frees consumers from the headaches of bill paying by enabling them to securely view and pay all their bills online. PayMyBills.com is a complete solution, offering consumers a simple, fast and paperless experience.
With established key partnerships, PayMyBills.com leverages imaging technology and the bank ACH network to deliver the Internet's premier bill management service. With headquarters in Pasadena, PayMyBills.com is a venture backed by idealab! and idealab! Capital Partners. Experience the service at paymybills.com.
Copyright 1999, Business Wire
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