More than seven years after online bill payment was added to Intuit’s Quicken, it’s still only used by about 10% of Quicken users. Clearly there is room in the marketplace for lower-cost, simpler bill payment programs. We expect to see dozens of varieties flourish on the Web.

Pay-Anyone Bill Pay

Pay-anyone bill pay is the most common way to offer bill payment today. Typically bills are paid through a private dial-up connection using software provided by the bank or third party, such as Quicken, Managing Your Money, or Microsoft Money. Of the estimated 3 million pay-anyone bill pay users in the U.S., we estimate less than 500,000 are using the Web to initiate payments. Quicken continues to be the leading bill payment platform, claiming more than 1 million users for a 33% share. But the future of bill payment/ presentment lies on the Web which provides a far richer environment for control, user education, customer service, interactivity, cost, linkages with the billers, etc.

Bill presentment can gradually be integrated into a pay-anyone program. As more and more bills are delivered directly from the biller, the service simply becomes that much better.

Web-Based Key-Merchant Bill Pay

Key-merchant bill pay has not been widely used in the PC banking world, though it was the typical approach back in the telephone bill pay days when users were forced to register payees in advance. On the Web, key-merchant bill pay would cater to merchants that are either customers of the bank, so that the payments can be processed in-house, or who accept payments electronically.

With this approach you are educating users on the benefits of electronic bill payment/presentment without incurring the infrastructure expense to support a pay-anyone program. As more merchants move to electronic presentment/payment, your program will become more and more valuable.

E-Mail Bill Pay

The conventional wisdom is that an e-mail system would be too cumbersome, unreliable, and insecure to be used for bill payment. We see e-mail programs as a way to serve a larger percentage of your customer base who are frequent users of e-mail at work and on the road, but are infrequent Web users. E-mail bill pay would be used in conjunction with a Web site where users registered their preferences, and occasionally returned to adjust them. You wouldn’t send any sensitive info through the e-mail, just simple messages such as, “It’s time to pay your telephone bill; if we don’t hear from you within five business days, we’ll go ahead and pay the usual $45 on Dec. 15.” Users could reply back to the e-mail with any changes or concerns.

Voice Mail Bill Pay

In the same way that e-mail bill pay relies on responses to outbound messages, voice mail bill pay simply substitutes voice messaging and touch-tone phones for the PC and e-mail. Users would receive an automated phone call whenever a bill has been presented for payment, and would then select from a brief menu to authorize payment. For example, “press 1” to pay this bill now from checking; “press 2” to charge to your credit card; “press 3” to schedule the bill for later payment; “press 4” to speak with a customer service representative now.

Pager/Screenphone/Fax Bill Pay

Same as above, except notice of bill payments are sent to alphanumeric pagers, screenphones, or fax machines. Depending on the device and user, payments could be authorized with the device itself or with a touch-tone phone or e-mail.

100% Automatic Bill Pay

We believe the task of paying bills will be entirely replaced by software agents connected to the Internet that are programmed to pay the bills on your behalf. Though it may be a decade or more before this approach wins a wide following, there will be progress made during the next several years. If your strategy is to be an interactive services pioneer, this would be a good area to place emphasis.