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Enhanced bill-paying services are great, provided the system doesn't shift costs to consumers.
February 11
Pitney Bowes Inc., perhaps best known for manufacturing postage-meter machines, has created a free online bill-payment system designed to help consumers not only to receive, view and pay bills, but also to manage other important financial communications.
The company announced the system, called Volly, on Jan. 6 and plans to launch it later this year. Besides bill-payment reminders, Volly goes a step further to alert consumers when coupons and warranties are about to expire.
“It’s a reminder platform,” Bernie Gracy, Pitney Bowes vice president of business development and operations for Volly, tells PaymentsSource. “It’s a management system that will help me manage my life.”
Volly uses consumers’ home addresses to verify their identities during the sign-up process. Customers then enter their preference to pay bills either through the automated clearinghouse system by supplying the account and bank-routing information from a personal check or with a credit card. Consumers who use Volly then opt into relationships with particular billers from a list of participating billers associated with Volly.
“From there, consumers have the choice to pay the bill as soon as it comes in or to schedule payment for a certain date,” Gracy says.
Stamford, Conn.-based Pitney Bowes is developing biller relationships it plans to announce in the coming weeks. Broadridge Financial Services Inc. is its first partner.
Broadridge is not a biller and specializes in financial statements, but the partnership gives Volly’s Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard-certified technology “more credibility to have a company that deals with sensitive information using our secure environment,” Gracy says.
Pitney Bowes realizes its service competes with banks’ online bill-payment services, but the company believes it has an advantage in several areas, he says.
With Volly, consumers may pay through checking accounts from different financial institutions, for example. The system also enables consumers to sort and archive communications that might have tax-return implications, Gracy adds.
For instance, a bank may send its customers statements with check images, some of which could contain charity payments. Volly enables consumers to tag documents as charitable donations for easier access at a later date, Gracy says.
More consumers are using online bill payment, but financial institutions and billers still are having trouble moving consumers away from paper statements, says Gwenn Bézard, co-founder and research director at Boston-based Aite Group.
“Billers are pushing electronic payments in an effort to cut costs,” Bézard says. “Bill pay is one area companies are trying to lower costs and are becoming more aggressive [with electronic payments] compared with four or five years ago.”
Pitney Bowes’ eventual plan is to bring to consumers a one-stop shop for bill paying and financial management. Volly also enables consumers to manage merchant catalogs.
The company expects to market Volly to early technology adopters such as young professionals and then try to capture such older consumers as soccer moms and seniors, which internal research has found already pay bills online but may take more time to feel comfortable with Volly, Gracy says.
Indeed, third-party bill-payment services historically have not fared well, Bézard says. Consumers have gravitated toward using bank bill-payment services and to visiting the biller’s website for payment, he says. But neither of those models has gained mass consumer adoption over the other, paving the way for Volly to make an impact, Bézard adds.
“Pitney Bowes is trying to revive the third-party bill-payment model,” he says.
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