U.S. Consumer Bill Payment and Presentment: A Biller Survey, Part One
Report Summary
U.S. Consumer Bill Payment and Presentment: A Biller Survey, Part One
While most billers agree that paper billing must cease, half of billers lack specific goals for paper suppression.
Boston, June 26, 2012 – A new report from Aite Group investigates how billers make decisions about electronic bill payment and presentment solutions, presents their attitudes on issues facing the industry, identifies their pain points, and discusses their plans for addressing these pain points. Based on a March to May 2012 Aite Group survey of 57 U.S. billers, this is the first in a two-report series on consumer bill payment.
Despite more than a decade of efforts that have sought to drive consumers away from paper bills, adoption of paper turn-off remains very weak. Surveyed billers report that a meager 12% of their customers turned paper off in 2011. While there is a general biller consensus that paper billing must cease, many billers lack a solid plan to make this happen, and most continue to neglect the basic steps they could take to accelerate the penetration of e-bills. A whopping 75% of respondents, for example, have no plans to make e-bills the default option when consumers enroll to pay bills on the billers’ website in the next 24 months.
“While billers have made great progress in driving electronic payment adoption over the years, they continue to lag when it comes to presentment,” says Gwenn Bézard, research director with Aite Group and co-author of this report. “Consumer adoption of e-bills is stuck in the low-double-digit-rate mud. Part of the problem is that the majority of billers continue to overlook basic tactics that could drive more consumers toward paperless billing."
This 35-page Impact Report contains 26 figures and two tables. Clients of Aite Group’s Retail Banking, Property & Casualty Insurance, or Health Insurance services can download the report.