Bill presentment: Snail mail or e-mail?

In order to pay a bill, you need to receive one first, right? So how does this happen when you pay your bills online? Do you get billed via e-mail, "snail mail," Web alert? Do you receive an itemized statement or just the amount due? And what about the little payment coupon that you normally send in with your check?

Suffice to say, the financial industry has been there and solved that. As a result, with most online bill payment programs today, you have control over how you receive your bills, and how and when you pay them.

The digital world still meets the paper one at the billing level. Although some larger companies now offer online bill presentment -- e-mail or Web access to the same billing statement information you normally receive in the -- small to mid-size businesses, utilities and municipalities may remain bound to paper billing for some time.

As a result, you will likely continue to receive at least some of your bills through the U.S. Postal Service, whether you choose to pay them online or by check, money order or credit card. Even if you receive electronic bill presentment, it may only include limited information such as the amount due; you may still have to wait for the paper statement for a full accounting.

That said, companies of all sizes are rapidly exploring ways to both save money and deliver additional marketing messages to you via e-bill presentment, making it a virtual certainty that e-bills will be an increasingly available option for online bankers.

How bill presentment works
When a bill is presented electronically, you will probably receive it via e-mail. Some programs offer you the ability within the e-mail itself to pay the bill via account debit if you have completed the appropriate registration; other e-bills are static and for information only.

Instead of, or in addition to, an e-mail bill presentment, you may receive a Web alert to your e-mail, your private banking site, or both that points to the secure Web page on which the bill is posted. If your online banking site has account aggregation and you have registered the payee account, you may be able to receive an alert when the e-bill is issued, pull up the bill and pay it, all from your secure banking site.

Advantages of bill presentment
E-bill presentment has several advantages; it can help organize the inherently disorganized by alerting you when your bills are due, it cuts down paper clutter and offers travelers and seasonal residents a hassle-free way to keep up on their bills.

Bill presentment programs also are becoming increasingly robust. Some allow you to sort charges by category; you could break out the travel and entertainment portion of your credit card bill or sort your phone charges by area code, for instance. You may be able to track the status of bills and payments, view account history, search for a specific charge, establish automatic payment and even make online credit requests.

A possible downside to electronic bill presentment: your creditors will likely take the opportunity to piggyback advertising and marketing promotions onto their e-bills, just as they have done for years with paper bills.

-- Updated: March 28, 2003