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

To: Shane M who wrote (3493)	3/6/1999 8:08:00 PM
From: Sam Biller	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20297

>>>Have any of the e-billers so far offered a discount to customers who pay their phone/cable/utility bill on-line?<<< MCI/Worldcom only offers its best rate to customers who agree to accept e-bills instead of paper bills. For out of state calls, the rate is 9 cents/minute Mon. - Sat. and 5 cents/minute on Sundays. The in-state rate may is usually higher. Other phone services offer similar deals but usually charge a monthly fee for the privilidge. Example, Sprint offers Sprint Sense Any Time which is 10 cents/minute all the time but cost $4.95/month unless you spend at least $30. AT&T will also offer its best deals to e-bill customers but I don't have the details. >>>I think there is a high fear/uncertainty factor involved with electronic payments that must be overcome. IMO offering a discount will push a lot of people over the "indecisive hump," and get them to try out the service. If the first experience is good - and troublefree - then with a handfull of transactions that consumer is won-over. <<< I agree with you that the discount will entice some users to try out the service. IMHO, the convenience of not getting the paper bills, not writing the check, not stuffing the envelope, not putting a 33 cent stamp on the envelope, and not dropping the letter in the mailbox will win-over the consumer. Oh, I forgot to mention, for the Quicken minded consumer, the convenience of not entering the payment into the check register... >>>BTW, thanks for all the recent discussion of the INTU situation. The discussion here was better than any explanation I could find in the press<<< The lawsuit only reinforces this quote from CheckFree doubter Gary Craft (aka Crafty), "Attitudes are changing, and technology could be the inertia breaker, it's a killer application." IMHO, its only a matter of time 'til Crafty upgrades CheckFree.