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Digital Banking

Bill Pay: The digital wallet’s new frontier

Michael Kaplan is the Chief Revenue Officer and General Manager at PayNearMe. Kaplan has played key roles in the strategy, development and growth of multiple platforms and markets. A seasoned executive in the payments, fintech, prepaid and mobile markets, Kaplan shares his knowledge and insight on digital wallets with ATM Marketplace.

Bill Pay: The digital wallet’s new frontierImage courtesy of iStock


| by Michael Kaplan

"What's in your wallet?"

That memorable line from a generation of Capital One advertisements may bring to mind multiple credit cards stuffed in your slightly weathered, leather wallet. Or, perhaps, you're like the estimated 441 million adopters of digital wallets who are lightening the load — literally and figuratively — by shopping and storing important documents electronically.

Payment vendors like PayNearMe have simplified life even further by enabling mobile bill pay using the digital wallet. With a couple of clicks, you can pay your auto loan, mortgage and cell phone bill when it's due, from wherever you are. But first, let's define what we mean by digital wallet, and how the concept has evolved to meet consumer needs.

Michael Kaplan PayNearMe

From organizing tool to payment engine
Digital wallets first appeared almost a decade ago as native apps on mobile phones that could store digital versions of documents. Your Apple Wallet or Google Wallet for instance, could carry digitized boarding passes, concert tickets or loyalty cards for easy access — no paper needed.

Quite rapidly, those technologies evolved to streamline online and proximity payments. You could connect your digital wallet to your credit card or debit card and allow it to store standard shipping and payment information, making online shopping a snap. At participating stores, you could simply tap your smartphone or smartwatch to an NFC-equipped payment reader to pay for groceries, dinner or public transit.

Yet consumers still had one tedious money task to conquer: paying bills. Approximately 56% of bills are paid online, according to a Yahoo! Finance survey. However, the process still often requires logging onto the biller's or bank's website or downloading their apps, remembering logins and passwords, and navigating multiple screens.

That's no longer necessary, thanks to modern mobile bill pay technology that seamlessly integrates with mobile wallets to provide billing information and facilitate payments.

Bill payments, simplified
When businesses choose a platform that utilizes modern bill pay technology, their customers can easily pay bills directly from their mobile wallets using only their phone. No app necessary. It can be a simple, three-step process:

  • The payer goes to the bill payment screen and chooses the option "Add to Wallet." A "biller card" or "wallet card" for that bill is automatically placed in the payer's wallet.
  • Each billing cycle, payers tap on the biller card, which has a link to take them directly to a payment screen, no login required.
  • Payers choose their preferred method of payment and complete the transaction.

The biller card can be updated regularly with information such as the amount due, payment deadline and remaining balance. Customers also can enable push notifications to allow engagement communications from the biller, such as billing reminders.

Besides ease of use, an additional benefit of digital wallets is the ability to accommodate a remote cash option for bill payment. Cash payers still make up a large segment of the population — according to the 2019 FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households, a quarter of American households are unbanked or underbanked, leaving them dependent on cash to pay bills. These consumers can take advantage of mobile bill payments by using a unique barcode stored in their digital wallets. They take this barcode to a participating retailer, pay the cashier and collect a receipt as proof of payment.

What's next?
Mobile technology has revolutionized bill payments for customers, but it's also highly advantageous for the billers themselves. When bill payment is convenient and easy, customers are more likely to pay on time, every time. There's no need to search for paper statements or remember logins and passwords when using mobile bill pay, since the technology takes the customer directly from billing card to payment screen. Also, if the biller provides payment reminders via push notifications, customers no longer need to remember due dates for each of their bills, instead having the option to access their "living" bill via their native wallet application.

Finally, mobile bill pay technology allows customers to use their digital wallet to pay their bills in cash at convenient locations they already frequent. Those customers do not need to wait in line at a bank or post office to make their payment, so payments are more likely to be on time.

To take full advantage of mobile wallet technology and allow customers to pay their bills however, whenever and wherever they prefer, make sure you select a payment platform that can meet these requirements and is actively building relationships with mobile payment services. The future of mobile bill pay is here. Now the question is, "What's in your digital wallet?"


Michael Kaplan

With more than two decades of experience in mobile and payments technology, Michael has played key roles in the strategy, development and growth of multiple platforms and markets. He is a seasoned executive in the payments, fintech, prepaid and mobile markets, and has held senior leadership roles at Good Technology, Motorola and Jasper Wireless. Michael holds a BA from Rutgers University and an MA from TCNJ.

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