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E-bills Arrive — Convenient, Secure, ‘Green’
By
Terry Savage
Paying your bills online is only the first half of the personal finance
billing revolution. The long-delayed second half of the technology has
now arrived at almost every bank website. It will save you time and energy — and
it will save millions of trees. But it will cost more jobs in the postal
system.
I’m talking about “electronic bill presentation,” or eBills.
This goes beyond just viewing and paying your bill at the biller’s website.
You can already do that at the sites of insurance companies, utilities and department
stores.
But this next generation of e-billing now means your monthly bill will show up
at your bank’s website — ready for you to view, decide how much to
pay and schedule the payment. You still have the same control over your bills — but
you don’t have the chore of piling them up on your desk, opening them and
throwing out the return envelope and statement stuffers, and then going to your
bank website to make the payment.
Major companies, ranging from telephone, wireless, department stores, utilities,
credit cards and mortgage companies are now participating in eBills. And more
than 3,800 financial institutions (including many credit unions, smaller community
banks and brokerage firms like Schwab), are already offering eBills. The moment
has arrived!
When your bank agrees to provide eBills, it will put an eBill icon on your bill
pay page, next to each of your payees that has agreed to offer eBills. Click
on that icon, and acknowledge that you want your bills to be presented electronically.
They already have your account number and banking info, so the process is easy.
(And if you’re skeptical, most banks will offer a 90-day trial, during
which you’ll receive both eBills and paper bills so you can see if you
like it!)
The company will send your bill to the bank website. And you’ll receive
an email notification that the bill has arrived at your online bill pay account.
The email will include a link to your online bill pay, where you’ll sign
in as usual to securely access your bank account.
Once there, you can click on the bill to review it. You’ll see the date
it is due, the minimum required payment and the details of this month’s
statement. Then you can decide how much to pay and when. Schedule that payment
with a click of your mouse.
If you’ve forgotten to make the payment, you’ll receive another notification
five days before the bill is due. Paying on time will help improve your credit
score and your money-management skills.
And you still have a “paper trail” if you need the information for
future reference. Most banks store your bills securely online for at least a
year. And if you’re still hooked on real paper, you can always print out
your eBill and store it in a file folder. Plus, if you’re using Quicken,
you can still download all that information into your budgeting program.
As you can see, this is not an automatic bill pay system. Many people already
set up automatic monthly payments for bills that require the same amount to be
paid every month, such as on your mortgage, rent or car loan.
But eBill presentation is designed for those bills that vary in amount every
month, or may come less frequently. Those are the bills you want to review, and
decide the amount and timing of what to pay based on your bank balance and money
available. It’s exactly how you handle your current paper bills — but
you don’t have to go through the hassle of opening them and piling them
up!
And, you have an extra degree of flexibility. If you’re traveling or on
vacation, you don’t have to wait until you get home, and possibly miss
a payment deadline. When you receive the email that your bill has “arrived” at
your bank, you can simply log in and then click and pay securely from your laptop
or tablet.
Even better, recognizing that mobile apps are the next new thing, many banks
are starting to offer the ability to view and pay your bills from your smart
phone or tablet, through a secure link to your online banking account. That will
be the next generation of click, view and pay.
Of course, eBills are secure. Perhaps even more secure than the paper bills now
landing in your mailbox. No one can click on your email to see your bill, unless
they have your online banking password and pin.
I remember that just a decade ago, many people were sceptical about online bill
payment, wondering if it was safe. Now more than 70 million American households
are paying bills online, delighted at the ease, time saving, organization and
the fact that they don’t have to buy postage! So let’s complete the
process by receiving our bills online, too.
If you want to be green — and have more green in your wallet — this
is the next step.
This page and its contents ©2012
Metropolitan News Company, Inc.
