Electronic Bill Payment

A startup that lets consumers use their credit cards to make mortgage payments and meet other credit obligations online is talking to lenders about including its payment service when consumers close on loans. Because the service doesn't charge billers for payments, company officials expect the tie-ins will carry considerable appeal …

Google Inc.'s Gmail this week followed Yahoo! Inc. to become the second big e-mail provider publicly working with online auction host eBay Inc. and its PayPal payment service to fight phishing scams. With Google's Checkout service attempting to gain online charge volume in a PayPal-dominated alternative-payment market, the anti-phishing partnership …

The share of bills consumers pay the old-fashioned way via the regular mail continues to decline, according to the U.S. Postal Service's most recent annual study about what goes through the mails. But despite the gains of electronic bill payments, the availability of free bill-pay service at most banks may …

The trend toward combining electronic bill-payment services?particularly payments that post on the same day they're made?with walk-in remittance locations took on more momentum last week with the announcement that Online Resources Corp. will process expedited payments for DolEx Dollar Express Inc., a remittance operation belonging to Atlanta-based Global Payments Inc. …

Despite intense market-development efforts by tech vendors, processors, and some banks, mobile banking and payments still suffer from consumer distrust, according to results of an international survey released this week by Blue Bell, Pa.-based technology-services provider and server manufacturer Unisys Corp. Unisys, which commissioned a survey of more than 13,000 …

A new service that lets consumers receive and pay bills on their handsets could help billers earn more income from last-minute payments customers make to avoid service shut-offs or late charges, observers say. The service, a so-called mobile lockbox, was announced last week by Wausau Financial Systems Inc., a provider …

Internet banking and bill-payment services provider Online Resources Corp. this week unveiled its expedited bill-pay service for financial institutions and walk-up providers to offer to consumers and small-business users, ratcheting up rivalries in the fast-growing realm of last-minute payments. While the expedited bill-pay market has some bigger competitors, including Fiserv …

Some high-profile payment-industry technology providers are reporting increases in their operating measures but are still struggling to make a profit in 2008 as they expand or try to compete in a tough market. –Boosted by demand in North America for countertop terminals and more networking and other services revenues, point-of-sale …

Only one-fifth of financial institutions are using technologies that can authenticate e-mail messages, even though phishing attacks disproportionately affect banks and even though banks say they plan to rely more heavily on the e-mail channel to reach customers, a new research report says. Meanwhile, phishing attacks are not only increasing, …

Green, as in save the environment, and green, as in cash, can be two effective appeals financial institutions can use to persuade consumers to pay bills electronically through bank Web sites, though banks should be especially careful about cash incentives, researchers claim. And the security worries consumers express about electronic …