Convenient in-person bill payment...
at your local retailer’s checkout lane
Bill-paying habits of U.S. consumers
- ~19 billion bills are sent each year to U.S. households
- ~35% of U.S. households pay some bills in person
- ~33% of utility bills are paid via cash or money order
- ~2 billion utility bills are paid via money order
- ~10 days elapse before money order payment is posted
- ~6% of all bills are paid in person
- ~25% of households pay one bill late each month
- ~33% of wage earners do not favor checking accounts
- ~25% of adults don’t use a bank – in some areas, 60%
- ~14% of Americans move each year
- ~$44 million will be saved via prepaid
cards for Social Security benefits
- 32 percent of college students have regularly missed or
been late on a payment
- The bill most likely to be paid late is the utility bill
- Only 68% of women report paying their bills on time
- 28.4 million of households pay at least one bill late per month
- About one third of utility bills are paid in person
- Forty-three percent of people pay their wireless phone bill late
- 73% of wage earners do not have a bank account or use it only intermittently
- Previous late payers are much more likely to late pay in the future
- Late fees had grown from $7 billion in 2000 to $22 Billion in 2004
- It takes four to nine days to post a bill payment made by U.S. Mail
- Grace periods are down from 27.8 days to 20.6 days [in 2004; less today]
- There are nearly 2 Billion money orders sold in the U.S. annually to pay bills
- Households with children are 75% more likely to miss
payments than those without
- For those who do pay their bills late, they are late on
more than three bills a month
- Mortgage/Rent is the one bill that people will most likely
not pay late
- The average late penalty fee is $38.00
- Late payments affect the mortgage rates offered to
consumers on FICO scores
- 39% of adults over 21 are functionally illiterate and do
not maintain a checking account
