Consumer Bill Payment Trends in 2018: 5 Takeaways

Consumers have many choices when it comes to paying their bills. Do they want to pay directly from a bank account, use a Debit Card, or pay their balance on a Credit Card? Do they want to be alerted when a new bill is due and make a One Time payment, or do they prefer the convenience and ease of AutoPay? Are they most likely to login to a user account, contact an Agent, or use a simplified online experience to pay a bill? And what is the most popular time for them to initiate their bill payment transactions?

Alacriti has a unique view into consumers’ bill payment habits thanks to our electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) solution, Orbipay® EBPP. The transactions that flow through Orbipay EBPP give us exclusive insight into the bill payment habits of our clients’ customers. At the conclusion of 2018, we performed an extensive analysis of our transaction data to gain a better understanding of our users’ bill payment preferences. Here are five takeaways from our research that can help provide a better understanding of today’s bill payers.

Please Note: Our analysis of consumer bill payments excludes transactions of $5,000.00 and above.

Takeaway 1: Billers were most likely to offer ACH as a Payment Method

Among ACH, Debit Cards, and Credit Cards, ACH is the payment method that’s most likely to be offered by billers, with 93% of our clients doing so. Debit Cards are the next most commonly offered Payment Method at 61%, followed by Credit Cards at 57%.

Takeaway 2: When ACH wasn’t offered, Debit Cards were chosen by bill payers more often than Credit Cards

For billers that didn’t offer ACH as a Payment Method, Debit Cards were the preferred way to fund bill payments with 71% of users choosing them. Credit Cards were selected for 29% of transactions in this scenario.

Takeaway 3: Debit Cards were the Payment Method of choice for Payment Plans

Orbipay EBPP allows billers to offer a Payment Plan option to their customers, in which the biller establishes the amount and frequency with which users can pay an outstanding balance over a specific time period. Users on Payment Plans gravitated toward Debit Cards as their Payment Method of choice, with 59% of users doing so. ACH funded 27% of these transactions in 2018, and Credit Cards funded 14%.

Takeaway 4: The majority of Utilities payments were made automatically

Almost two-thirds (65%) of users chose to make their Utilities payments via AutoPay.

Takeaway 5: Users preferred to make their payments at the beginning or the end of the work week

Mondays and Fridays led the pack for the most popular days to pay bills, but what about the other five days of the week? Download our white paper to learn more.

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