Card-funded Bill Pay: The Last Great Divide
Can’t we all just get along?
One of the most pervasive influences in bill payments today you will not see in print in American Banker or Payments News. Analysts don’t mention it in their comprehensive analyses and forecasts of the market. And bankers will most likely get fidgety and cold sweats when discussing the subject.
But anyone at a bill pay service provider or at a bank or issuer that has worked on bill pay knows what I am talking about.
It’s the dysfunctional relationship between the issuing side of the bank and the retail side of the bank when it comes to bill pay.
The credit and debit card issuer want their cardholders to pay their bills with their cards to drive interchange revenues, and the retail side of the bank wants their customers to pay through their traditional online banking bill pay. The problem? They are the same customers, paying the same bills but you can’t make an interchange generating card-based bill payment at your bank’s web site.
There, I said it… there’s no solution in market today that provides for both what the card issuer wants and what the online banking bill pay people want. And it’s not for a lack of trying. Two companies offer a work around solution here – Billeo and Yodlee. I won’t go into the details or sales pitch, and I’ll be the first to admit that neither solution is the perfect solution.
The perfect solution – that elusive, silver bullet solution seems so simple. Why can’t there be just a drop down list next to any biller from the bill pay payee list where the user can choose how they want to make the payment? Credit card debit card or ACH? The answer is that the Biller won’t accept a credit or debit card payment this way. Why would they – with ACH, the Biller accepts online banking bill pay payments for pennies and a card bill payment would cost dollars. And herein lies the rub – banks want one thing and the billers want another, and never the two shall meet.
So the dysfunction festers and the tension continues between Biller Direct bill pay and traditional online banking bill pay.
So who pays? The consumer. The consumer is left to navigate the disjointed offerings of the bank. The issuer marketing to the consumer that they should pay their bills with a card and the retail side marketing to pay through online banking bill pay. The consumer does both, of course, because each path provides a different end benefit. Traditional online banking bill pay allows for a seamless one-stop-shop user experience to pay any bill, but the payment can take several days to process. Whereas, paying a bill directly at the biller’s site is instantaneous but the consumer must go to multiple sites.
But some day, somehow that tension will break, because the consumer will demand it.
September 27, 2009 at 1:04 am
I can’t remember my security question, and AOL keeps me resetting the password. When I try to sign in with you, you say you’ve never heard of me. MY password for 5 years has been XXXXXX
September 29, 2009 at 9:04 am
Dear Mr. Carlton,
Thank you for your comment, but please, for your own security, never post your password(s) in a public forum. We have edited your post to delete the password in question. Our records indicate you have successfully logged in to your Billeo account as recently as yesterday. If you are logged into your account you may update your security questions. Just click the Billeo icon on your toolbar >> select My Dashbaord >> select My Profile >> click “edit” beneath Security Questions.
If you continue to experience login difficulty, please contact our support team directly at support@billeo.com or 866/539-0782.
Regards,
Chris Nuckols
The Billeo Team
January 3, 2011 at 6:52 pm
What is it you don’t understand about NO? Go Away
Goodbye! I keep trying to UNsubscribe Please
October 2, 2009 at 7:23 am
does billeo work with chrome?
October 2, 2009 at 12:49 pm
As you may know, Google does not allow the use of extensions on its browser, Chrome. Unfortunately, until Google removes this restriction Billeo will be unable to offer our toolbar to Chrome users. We promise to keep an eye on the Chrome’s development.
April 11, 2011 at 11:53 am
That’s raelyl thinking out of the box. Thanks!
October 25, 2009 at 11:43 am
I’m getting several browser crashes per day using Billeo password entry with Firefox 3.5.3.
October 26, 2009 at 5:56 pm
We are sorry to hear that. That sounds awful. Please feel free to give our Customer Support department a call at 1-866-539-0782 at your convenience for troubleshooting assistance. Alternatively, you may email support@billeo.com with your contact information and we will be more than happy to set up a time to get this issue resolved.
April 11, 2011 at 9:23 am
In awe of that answer! Rlealy cool!
November 5, 2009 at 2:51 pm
well that’s lovely
February 10, 2010 at 6:06 am
I don’t know if anybody’s reported this before but my browser doesn’t seem to be able to display that article nicely… Can you confirm that this article has been set up for Google Chrome? Would be awesome if you could check it out, although it could come from a bug on my laptop
February 16, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Hi levey, I just tried it in Chrome and it looks OK to me. If the blog is still displaying incorrectly in Chrome, please let us know at feedback@billeo.com and attach a screen shot if possible. We will be more than happy to help any way we can.
April 11, 2011 at 2:56 pm
Kudos! What a neat way of thniknig about it.
April 11, 2011 at 7:25 pm
IMHO you’ve got the right anrsew!
July 26, 2010 at 1:07 pm
I have been trying to cancel billeo. You keep sending me to reset password. There is no HELP to click to cancel. PLEASE make it easier to opt out. I do no use billeo. It never worked for me.
Camppointrookie
November 26, 2010 at 9:22 am
Does Billeo work with Crome now? I read a previous post about Crome not allowing extensions to their browser. Is that still the case? I like using Crome because it runs faster on my computer. But I love using Billeo, I think it is the greatest thing ever. My bank put a insert in my bank statement about Billeo and I’ve used it ever since. At 54, my memory isn’t as good as it used to be.
September 2, 2011 at 6:20 am
Super share it is definitely. We have been looking for this content. Thank you;)