E-Banking, Online Bill Paying Growth Ahead

A substantial increase in the number of U.S. households paying and viewing bills online suggests a growing comfort with the medium and less concern over the security of such transactions. A report from Jupiter Research (a unit of this site’s corporate parent) found that 18.9 million households viewed and paid bills online during 2003 – up from 12.2 million in 2002 – and the figure is expected to soar to 60.6 million by 2008.

The number of U.S. households engaged in online banking will nearly double between 2003 and 2008, according to Jupiter. Well over 29 million households currently take advantage of the convenience of online banking, which is expected to grow to 56 million in 5 years.

Jupiter’s forecast indicates that the percentage of U.S. households that only view, and not pay, their bills online will shrink to near extinction. While 30 percent were viewing their bills online in 2001, only 1 percent are expected to still do so by 2008.

Jupiter analyst Bruce Cundiff, the author of the report, explains that the number of “view onlys” will overwhelmingly become online “view-and-pay” (VAP) households as they become more comfortable with online payments in general, and also as more households engage in online banking for bill paying and other banking activities.

“Once consumers begin to receive bills online, we see the logical progression from view only to VAP (the pinnacle as far as billers and consolidators are concerned). We anticipate very little (if any) regression to offline bill viewing and payment, as the number of bills presented online and the number of households engaging in online bill payment will grow dramatically through 2008,” Cundiff said.