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Technology Stocks : CheckFree Holdings Corp. (CKFR), the next Dell, Intel? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TLindt who wrote (566)	12/9/1998 11:36:00 AM
From: Brooks Jackson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20297

I seem to recall Pete Kight saying in the last conference call -- or somewhere -- that CKFR charged 30 cents per transaction for e-bill. Now, whether he has to split that 30 cents with all the other providers who are partnering with CKFR, whether that includes a roundtrip (presentment AND payment), or anything else, I don't know. So you raise a very good question. I would put it this way: How much does CKFR charge for bill presentment? Who pays? What services are covered? And does CKFR share that money with others? Maybe somebody out there knows.

To: TLindt who wrote (566)	12/9/1998 11:38:00 AM
From: Benny Baga	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20297

>>>But what in theory is included in that 30 cents? I believe the 30 cents was originally more for marketing...just under the price of a stamp. My understanding is that whomever (i.e. CKFR, CYCH, etc.) process the payment gets the 30 cents. And this is where CF gets indirectly paid for their distribution channel, because if CF is able to distribute bills to a large number of consumers, chances are that they will process more payments. I also believe most billers will choose only one or two different payment providers, it doesn't make sense to have two different payment providers that do the same thing. I believe bill creation is an additional cost (buying Oracle or NSCP software, etc). Anyone can feel free to correct me, this is JMHO. Benny

To: TLindt who wrote (566)	12/9/1998 1:07:00 PM
From: BitWizrd	Respond to of 20297

The charge depends on who carries the file. VANS typically charge a "bandwidth" fee with per-Kbyte charges when the monthly allotment is exceeded. These rates are negotiated one by one between the provider and the user. CKFR would be a user, examples of providers include Sterling, CompuServe, Harbinger. Other methods: Fed ACH costs about 3 cents, MasterCard RPS costs a nickel. VPN or encrypted over the Internet is Free (well, not really, as I suppose someone at CKFR has amortized a portion of their connectivity costs accross a representative volume of bills and payments). Regarding e-bill charges, I bring you this golden oldie from the old CKFR thread, circa October 7th: Actually, CheckFree will continue to lose money at $0.30 per transaction until some real volume starts to build up. Once economies of scale kick in, CheckFree will be able to lower that price to make the product even more attractive and still make a profit off of each transaction. The $0.30 price tag has more to do with the cost of postage than with CheckFree's actual cost. When they began, they sort of ignored the COGS equivalent of the product. They figured if they priced it below first class postage, no biller of any size could possibly object to the price. Pretty smart. Especially since many large billers may spend close to $3.00 per customer per month on invoicing. The prodigy who penned this piece of elocutionary genius was ... me! %^)