But CheckFree isn t just waiting. The infrastructure is in place, thanks to the company s history in the financial electronic commerce business. The company is working to sign up national billers and large regional billers to present bills electronically to consumers and, according to Fontaine, now has 77 under contract. CheckFree is also allowing consumers to receive and pay their bills at any choice of web sites. CheckFree offers its bill-paying service to its own employees.
Employees also are able to offer valuable feedback about the service.
Still, few companies are offering electronic bill payment as an employee benefit. It s a real catch-22, according to Fontaine. Both firms estimate that electronic payments including direct withdrawal will grow from 600 million in 1999 to 40.4 billion by 2005. Forrester Research Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., estimates that electronic bill paying will account for 13 percent of all consumer bills in five years. There are some important signs that interest is catching on.