BOSTON– The “hidden drag” on billing modernization isn’t paper alone, according to a new report, which said the real issue is “double-deliver,” noting that with one-third of utility customers still receiving both paper and electronic bills, a “redundancy that adds cost, confuses customers and leaves cracks for fraud to slip through.”
That’s according to PYMNTS Intelligence’s Digital Financial Services Tracker, “Fitting the Bill: How Automated Bill Presentment and Payment Are Transforming Business,” which found that electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) is “no longer just a cost-cutting tool. It’s a loyalty and risk management play,” the company said.
“Automated billing reduces manual errors, speeds invoice cycles and improves cash flow predictability while meeting consumers’ demand for convenience, transparency and immediate confirmation,” PYMNTS stated. “Legacy processes, like printing, mailing and reconciling paper checks, remain slow, labor-intensive and fraud-prone, even as most customers have shifted to online and mobile bill pay.”
The Findings
According to PYMNTS, findings include:
• 63% of utility customers still receive paper bills, the epicenter of legacy friction that EBPP can remove.
• 70% of customers expect their bill payment to be processed the same day or instantly, a benchmark that raises the stakes for real-time options.
• Checks were the payment method most vulnerable to fraud in 2024 (65%), underscoring the risk in paper-based remittance flows.
The Costs
PYMNTS said its analysis also found that beyond the headline numbers, the report quantifies how paper persists as a tax on operating performance. Processing a single paper bill costs firms $9.40 and takes 9.2 days on average; digitized or automated billing can lower that to $2.78 and 3.1 days, respectively.
The report estimates that going paperless can trim billing costs by as much as 90% when printing and postage are removed, PYMNTS said.
“Consumers have already voted with their thumbs, as 58% pay bills online and 38% do so via mobile apps; 42% use autopay, which cuts missed payments and collection work,” PYMNTS reported. “Wallet usage is rising, as 34% pay with digital wallets when available. With 85% smartphone ownership in the United States, the audience for mobile-first bill pay is essentially universal.”
Not a Hypothetical
According to PYMNTS, fraud pressures are not hypothetical, as more than 20% of organizations report incidents tied to mail interference, up 10 points from 2022, reinforcing the case to push transactions off paper and into authenticated, monitored channels.
