A Five-Step Action Plan To Help Banks Compete With Biller Sites For EBPP Users

Consumers who use biller sites for electronic bill pay and presentment (EBPP) do so because it's free and simple to use, and they can make their payment at the last minute. Why do they shy away from using online bill pay and viewing eBills at their bank's site? Surprisingly, more than four in 10 online consumers still think that their bank charges for online bill payment, despite the fact that almost all major banks have dropped the fee in recent years. To step up their efforts to compete with biller sites, banks need to undertake a five-step action plan to improve EBPP adoption. They'll need to focus on marketing the "free" aspect of EBPP, explain the benefits of eBills, speed up delivery of payments, offer eBill alerts, and — as a last resort — offer financial incentives to spur adoption.