For the first time ever, online bill payments surpassed paper checks among Internet households, according to a CheckFree report titled "The 2007 Consumer Bill Payment Survey."
The report, conducted with The Marketing Workshop and Harris Interactive, found that 74% of all US Internet households pay at least one bill online.
Also, 39% of total bill payment volume among US Internet households in January 2007 was online, up 4% over December 2005. Mailed check volume fell 4%, to just 34% of the total bill payment volume.
This is all good news for banks, according to a ForeSee Results and Forbes.com study. The firms found that consumers who pay their bills through a bank Web site are more satisfied with their financial institution than either people who just check their balances or transfer money online, and others who don’t use computers for financial business.
On a 100-point scale rating customer satisfaction, people who banked and paid bills online scored their banking experience at 79, while online bankers rated their banks at 76 and offline bankers scored around 70.
The more bills paid through a bank’s site, the higher the satisfaction, it seems. Consumers who paid more than six bills through the bank scored 81 out of 100 points for "total satisfaction."
Forsee found that higher customer satisfaction boosts share of wallet for banks. Online bill payers are 31% more likely to purchase additional services from their bank than online bankers who do not pay bills through the bank’s Web site. Even then, consumers who just bank online are 19% more likely to recommend their bank than offline bankers.
However, credit unions have higher overall customer satisfaction scores (84) than both large banks (77) and community banks (77). Their customers were more likely to purchase more services and recommend the institution and its Web site to others.
Via eMarketer
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