The study also examined the three ways that people make payments on the Web. According to Litan, biller direct is by far the most popular with consumers because it is simple and non-invasive. With biller direct, the person goes to the biller's Web site, enrolls in the bill payment program, examines his or her bill and pays it. The two consolidation methods have not been adopted as quickly because some people fear a loss of control, said Litan. Electronic bill consolidation involves a middleman who gathers up all bills from merchants who have put their billing systems online.
Consumers can, in theory, visit one site and pay several bills at once through one company.
Total bill consolidation takes it one step further. Figuring that consumers do not want to have to remember which bills they pay online and which they have to pay by paper, these companies have people change the mailing address for their paper bills, causing the bills to be mailed to the consolidator. The consumers then log on to the consolidator's site to view their bills, which are scanned in. Examples of total bill consolidators include Paytrust and CyberBill. Two, consumers do not know what is available to them.