Simple, Effective Financial Management

Monday, March 1, 2004

Is Just a Click Away (NAPSA)—Intoday’s busy world people are finding it more and more difficult to balance personal and work obligations. Manyare looking online for ways to simplify and streamline time-consumingtasks and responsibilities. For example, 35 million U.S. consumersnowpaytheir bills online, according to market research firm Gartner, and that numberis expected to reach 65 million by 2007. A recent survey conducted by MasterCard Remote Payment and Presentment Service (RPPS) found that a growing number of consumersare payingtheir bills online through their bank’s Website. The MasterCard RPPS study found that 90 percent of survey respondents who routinely pay their bills online at their bank’s Web site cited convenience as the primary reason whytheyprefer to pay bills this way. Nearly threequarters (73 percent) of respon- dents said they use their bank’s Web site to pay bills online because they are able to take care of all their banking needs in one place. Among the other reasons consumerscited for preferring to pay their bills this way included 24/7 access, a better management tool for their personal finances, security features and the peace of mind that comes from dealing with an institution they already knowandtrust. offs @& Online bill payment can help ease the juggling of personal, financial and work obligations by providing greater control over one’s finances. Consumers also recognize that paying bills online at their bank’s Web site frees them from timeconsuming paper-based methods, saves money on postage, and eliminates the hassle and confusion of remembering multiple log-ins and cal solution for busy consumers, especially those with diverse banking needs beyond bill payment, such as moneytransfers, tracking checking account balances, and reviewing account passwords required at individual Web sites. The convenience and benefits of this “one-stop” bill-payment method led 44 percent of survey respondents to say they would change banks if their current one stopped offering online bill payment throughits Website. Online bill payment at a bank’s Website can be the central organizing mechanism of personal financial management, freeing consumers from trips to the postoffice, and the possibility of ever misplacinga bill or having a paymentgetlost in the mail. With all of these advantages, now is the perfect time to sign up respondents. bank’s Website. Paying bills online is a practi- transactions, according to survey for online bill payment at your

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