Bill Me Later Adopts Electronic Bill Payment And Presentment

I4 Commerce Inc., which processes the Bill Me Later payment option on e-commerce sites, has adopted an online bill-presentment and -payment technology to allow accountholders to pay for their Web transactions. The service, which allows consumers to pay for online purchases with credit extended by I4Commerce, will use an application from electronic bill-payment company Princeton eCom to send bills to consumers and allow them to pay them electronically. Currently, the company follows up on transactions with paper invoices. I4 Commerce typically bills customers within 14 days of the transaction. The Timonium, Md.-based company allows online and other card-not-present merchants to offer a credit-based payment alternative to credit cards. Consumers select Bill Me Later at checkout, specifying a birth date or Social Security number to complete the transaction. If they meet I4 Commerce's credit criteria, they can either pay off the purchase entirely when they receive the bill or pay it in installments, with the outstanding balance financed by I4 Commerce. The company has forged alliances with processors like First Data Corp. and Paymentech to extend Bill Me Later's reach to online merchants those processors serve. Merchants pay a transaction fee of 1.5% plus 15 cents, which I4 Commerce estimates is 30% to 40% lower than card-not-present rates (Digital Transactions News, March 31, 2004).