Bill Payments in 2017: 6 Trends in Payment Options

Part 1 of our three-part series shared seven key insights from Orbipay® EBPP’s 2017 transaction data related to payment methods. But what payment options did users select when paying their bills last year?

In Part 2, we examine the use of payment options including One Time payments (single payments that did not recur), AutoPay (bill payments scheduled for a specific date and amount set by the biller), and Recurring payments (payment dates and amounts selected by users within the biller’s parameters).

Here are six trends the data revealed about payment options usage in 2017.

Trend #1: One Time payments accounted for more than half of total Orbipay EBPP transactions in 2017

One Time payments accounted for 55% of all transactions recorded in 2017. AutoPay was chosen more than one-quarter of the time (27%), and Recurring payments were selected for 17% of total transactions.

Trend #2: Users who logged in to the Web Portal were most likely to choose AutoPay

Users who logged in to the Web Portal with a User ID and Password were most likely to choose AutoPay to make their bill payments at 40%. One Time payments were a close second at 34%, followed by Recurring payments at 25%.

Trend #3: One Time transactions were most popular for all other payment channels analyzed

For payments that were made via Agents, One Time payments were used most frequently at 54% of all Agent-assisted transactions. One Time payments were used 100% of the time for both Interactive Voice Response (IVR) transactions and Guest Payments (web payments that didn’t require a user to login).

Trend #4: One Time payments were used most frequently across all transaction amounts

One Time payments were used most frequently for all transaction amounts, reaching 89% for transactions over $2,000. Usage of AutoPay maxed out at 39% for transactions between $100 and $200.

Trend #5: Manufacturing & Distribution and Utilities companies were most likely to receive bill payments via AutoPay

Of all industries analyzed, both Manufacturing & Distribution and Utilities accepted over 50% of Orbipay EBPP users’ bill payments via AutoPay transactions.

Trend #6: Six industries recorded One Time payments volume exceeding 50%

One Time payments were used most often in the Real Estate & Construction (100%), Education (99%), Government (97%), Banking (90%), Financial Services (77%), and Healthcare (76%) industries.

The third and final part of this series will examine 2017 trends in payment channel usage including Web Portal, Guest Payments, Agent, and IVR. It will also reveal the days and times that Orbipay EBPP users were most likely to make their bill payments in 2017.