Check, the account aggregator turned payments platform formerly known as Pageonce, has launched expedited bill pay for its 8 million customers. The service comes with a hefty price tag — $14.99 per payment — so why would customers want to pay money to pay money? “Consumers are motivated by negative consequences,” said Check COO Steve Schultz. With your credit card, you may have a $35 penalty for a late fee, so to pay $15 to avoid a $35 fee is a straight-forward value proposition.” Expedited payment services saved consumers approximately $4.8 billion in late fees in 2010, according to a report from Javelin Strategy & Research. These savings are expected to amount to $6.3 billion by 2015. As a bill nears its due date, Check sends alerts to the user. But if you miss a payment, don’t expect an alert. “There’s so many negative events in personal finance; we try to avoid that,” Schultz said. Indeed, 15% of Check users are late with bill payments, the company says. It is expected that expedited bill pay will help with lateness, and the company plans to track this, Schultz said. The idea for expedited bill pay had been kicking around at Check [...]
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