Do not Pass it Up, Pay it Up With On the web Statement Spend
Here are what we see to be the main criteria by which any consumer should ideally evaluate any online bill presentment and payment service. Bill presentment means the capacity to visit a bill in an on the web system of some kind. For many services what this means is either being able to start to see the bill in an email attachment (usually as a PDF) which can be not really an on the web rendering at all (as it is simply an electronic version of a document bill). Some services offer a single line item bill view before paying it. That is useful but far in short supply of the full bill presentment. As a result, the absolute most advanced services are offering a full digital bill which will be one that's not only supplied in its entirety (even when it runs to many pages) but could be saved, sent on/forwarded or clicked on to effect payment.
Bill management features aim to help keep a consumer on target for paying bills promptly (or even early). A good service-provider should offer different alerts (ideally both email and/or SMS texts) that tell a consumer when his / her bills arrive, are due, are paid and are overdue/late (and in some cases the buyer can decide when and ways to get these alerts). Furthermore, the customer should always have the ability to view the facts of the bill regardless of its format. Other useful features to look out for add a bill payment calendar and online notes. In probably the most sophisticated services bill storage is unlimited and thus the buyer can store his or her bills indefinitely. Good online bill paying services will often include a number of payment features. However, many banking services may only offer bill payment from a checking account and large billers with online bill pay portals may only allow ACH and the major credit cards. The independent services are therefore more likely to offer much greater payment choice, and in some instances payment by online wallet, instant bank transfer and even cash (as well as virtually all available credit and debit cards). A great service may also allow a client to choose which payments he or she wants to make each month individually and which he or she wants paid automatically (with a controlled payment such as for instance a direct debit).
In addition to the site being user-friendly, online bill presentment and payment services at a given portal should be easy to create and use, otherwise they do not supply the convenience they promise. This would ideally mean the capacity to pay a bill as a guest or first time visitor without registration on the service. And if a consumer does register, the system should remember just as much data as has already been entered and the consumer shouldn't be required to enter his or her payee and/or account information a lot more than once. Although consumers mainly pay their bills one at any given time, they might want to significantly more than this. A niche site allowing this functionality (and needs only one login and password for a lot of bills) therefore has an advantage. This should include lots of analysis and reporting capabilities, looking at historical cumulative bill payments, aggregate data and even overall spend totals that will well be useful as it pertains to end of year tax returns. Choose a service that is available 24 hours each day 7 days a week because most consumers will wish to pay bills outside normal office hours. There must also be good customer service support offered, both with available documentation and FAQ's and a totally free call number whenever a consumer must communicate with a customer support representative. You will find clearly other criteria which could well connect with choosing an online bill presentment and payment portal but these are the key categories under which a consumer can evaluate each service that is offered.
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