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Strategies & Market Trends : The New Economy and its Winners -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (9391)	10/27/2001 9:30:08 PM
From: Harvey Allen	Respond to of 57684

Businesses see direct-payment opportunity in anthrax scare With anthrax being found almost daily at post offices or in the mail, look for some banks, utilities and credit card companies to quietly step up marketing of electronic payments, say industry analysts and officials. It's not that companies fear their incoming mail. Rather, they see it as an opportunity to save big bucks by converting devout pay-by-mail customers who are considering alternatives. Further, electronic payments could gain popularity when customers start checking into electronic bills - the sister of direct payments - as a way to cut down on their incoming mail. And electronic transactions prevent late payments, which have become more of a possibility as the U.S. Postal Service and individual companies continue to increase their mail-processing security. Companies already have the motivation, said Michael Herd, spokesman for the National Automated Clearing House Association in Virginia, whose network is responsible for all payments made nationwide by automatic draft, online or by phone. Foremost, an electronic payment costs a company 6 to 10 cents, compared with 24 cents for accepting a check by mail or in person, Herd said. Consumers, meanwhile, save time and money on stamps. "Until we have a situation like we do today, most consumers really don't think about it much," Herd said. "But if people experience problems or concerns, they're going to wonder how else they can do things." Last year, consumers paid 2.2 billion bills through automatic electronic payments, an increase of 17 percent from 1999. In addition, nearly 13 million bills were paid online. "We think companies will wake-up more to this now," Herd said, "and it'll encourage them to promote this more." Kartik Mehta, a research analyst at Midwest Research in Cleveland, said banks and utilities have been pushing direct or online payments for years. But now consumers are paying attention to anything anybody says about the mail, said Mehta, who follows electronic payment processing companies nationwide. "This might be a catalyst that drives companies to push it more," he said. "I think this would be a great reason to ask your customers again, Would you like to do this?' " Companies broach the topic cautiously, concerned that they could be viewed as taking advantage of the anthrax scares. Akron-based FirstMerit might start promoting direct payments more because of heightened worry about mail delays, said spokeswoman Dixie Vinez. "We've been encouraging this for a long time. I think everything is moving toward automatic payments anyway because it's just an easier way for people," Vinez said. "Nothing has ever happened to the mail before. . . . I think it's an opportunity for people to look at this again." Ellen Raines, spokeswoman for Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp., said the company periodically promotes automatic payments "because it is less expensive for us to process these." About 10 percent of FirstEnergy's 2 million Ohio customers pay by automatic draft. But it's not for everyone. "No matter what, you're always going to have people who would never, ever pay a bill that way," Raines said. cleveland.com Get postage up over a dollar a piece and you'll start changing peoples life styles. Same for getting gas taxes up to European levels so we don't have to keep kissing Saudi asses while they're funding their favorite Terrorist Tech. Harvey