Why Consumer Lenders Cannot Ignore Current Trends In Consumer Payment Preferences

Payments to financial institutions comprise over 20% of all US consumer payments. Financial institutions expecting monthly payments from their customers may soon find that the check is no longer in the mail. Consumers are increasingly choosing not to write a check when paying bills. Internet usage continues to increase and paying bills online is becoming a mainstream activity, no longer the province of the technology fanatics. Several new electronic payment types have been developed and are being quickly adopted by billers looking to increase payment collection rates. These new payment types cannot be processed through traditional paper processing systems, and may become exceptions during processing. If lenders are not working on incorporating new payment types into their regular payment processing streams, they will experience increased costs to process exception payments and increased customer service and collection costs due to delayed payment postings.