Fiserv survey reveals four of five households use online banking services

The results of a recent consumer survey, conducted by the Marketing Workshop and Harris Interactive, showed that more than two million U.S. households adopted online banking and bill payment during the last year. A total of 69.7 million households, representing four out of five households with Internet access, now use online banking services, primarily to access balance and account history and transfer money between accounts. Besides, 64.4 million households pay at least one bill online, either at a bank website or directly at a company website.

The Fiserv-sponsored survey reflects the habits of the 88.2 million households in the United States with Internet access. Thus, it is estimated that people who pay their bills online save five hours a year compared to those that pay using checks. 41 % of current online banking users indicated they planned to pay more bills online at their financial institution’s website in the coming months, while 35 % of those who pay bills directly at company websites said they planned to pay more bills online at those sites. Meanwhile, a growing number of consumers are adopting paperless electronic bills. E-bills contain the same information as a typical paper bill, but are delivered directly to a consumer’s online banking account or a company website. The survey revealed that 24 % of consumers who pay bills online also receive at least one bill online each month, up from 22 % last year.

In addition, consumers receiving a bill electronically at their bank are 30 % less likely to leave the company from which they receive the e-bill. And customers receiving an e-bill at the company’s own website are 28 % less likely to leave. More importantly, customers receiving e-bills via their bank continue to visit the company website—56 % of them go to the biller’s site six or more times annually. Thus, billing organizations can reap the cost-savings and customer loyalty benefits of delivering e-bills to financial institution sites, while maintaining a strong branded relationship with the many bank e-bill customers who will continue visiting the company’s own site.