How can the average U.S. household save almost a tenth of a tree each year? By switching to electronic bills, statements, and payments, the average household saves 6.6 pounds of paper, avoids producing 171 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, and saves .079 of a tree annually, reports the Pay It Green Alliance.
The hurdles to e-billing are dropping away as more businesses and consumers embrace the technology behind e-billing and see the timesaving benefits involved. The environmental arguments for e-billing are simple: less paper waste and lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Online payment is catching on as consumer confidence in the system rises. Could paper bills become a thing of the past?
By: Marlene Habib, Special to The Globe and Mail; Source: Canadian Bankers Association; CheckFree Corp.
They can break the bank account, raise stress levels or make you curse the day you ever bought that house or car.
Bills are an unwelcome fact of spending life. But these days, when "waste not, want not" has as much to do with reducing unnecessary paper as it does with wasted time, paying bills is more commonly being done with a click of the mouse. It's no surprise that in these go-green times, the Internet is fast becoming the method of choice.
Many e-billing services provide online bill reception and payment at no cost, and have come a long way in providing a safe and secure virtual world.
For busy Canadians like Helen Manis, a self-described "full-time mom, full-time employee and part-time student," it has been easy to jump on the e-billing bandwagon.
Dollar Bank, a US-based bank, joined Wells Fargo and Company in a 15-month test of the Electronic Billing Information Delivery Service (Ebids), an electronic bill payment system, says Digital Transactions.
This newest report from Mercator Advisory Group's Retail Banking Practice outlines the opportunities within electronic bill pay that continue to arise as new technologies, new networks and new marketing creates an overlay of bill payment services (from both consolidators and billers) and mutable consumer needs.
After many of the early players in the EBPP space filed for bankruptcy and vanished along with their virtual coins (remember Cyber Cash?), the finish line of what constitutes universal adoption of EBPP has continued to evolve and morph.
First, bankers and billers got online consumers setting up user names and passwords to log-in to check account activity, balances and payment postings.
Second, bankers and billers got consumers to sign up for online bill pay and now, third, bill pay players are convincing consumers and commercial customers to relinquish paper statements and adopt truly electronic end-to-end bill pay.
eBillingHub®, the world leader in simplifying electronic billing for law firms, today announced that the national law firm Foley Hoag LLP has selected the eBillingHub for its electronic billing solutions. The eBillingHub will reduce the complexity caused by the increasing volume of electronic billing and will produce a predictable, dependable and efficient e-billing process, benefiting both clients and the firm.
Foley Hoag is a leading national law firm, headquartered in Boston and with a global client base. The firm recently joined The American Lawyer's "A-List 2008" of the top 50 law firms in America, a prestigious grouping of firms based on diversity, pro bono, associate satisfaction, and revenues per lawyer. In an effort to control the operational costs of electronic billing, Foley Hoag selected eBillingHub to serve as the basis for gaining not only the operational benefits but also the visibility through reports and dashboards, keys to understanding real-time electronic billing.
