More than half of consumers want more security, less friction, and more choices in how they pay their bills online, according to the results of a survey conducted by MasterCard. Legacy systems that have not been updated in years and the inconveniences that go along with paying bills are two of the primary culprits causing problems for companies with bill-paying portals.
So if you haven’t updated your portal recently and aren’t offering payment options beyond just debit and credit cards, it’s likely that your portal is not as up-to-date as consumers are going to expect or want.
The most important capability in the bill-paying process is security, according to the survey. Consumers want the piece of mind that comes along with things like multi-factor authentication, encryption, and other security features. More than half of the survey’s respondents indicated that security is the key feature in the digital payment process. One-fifth of respondents said it was the most important capability.
Nearly 60% of consumers are interested in using bill-payment platforms to manage their finances, because doing so makes paying their bills easier, enable payments to be made faster, and allow consumers to track their expenses.
A lack of features offered is also a source of anxiety and frustration for consumers, according to the survey. Nearly one-quarter of respondents complained about the lack of features available on bill-payment websites. Other key data points from the report:
- 43%: Share of bill-payers identifying the ability to view billing statements online as a crucial feature of a bill payment platform
- 54%: Portion of bill-payers who feel a centralized bill payment portal would make tracking bills easier
- 44%: Share of bill-payers who cite less secure information as the reason for their lack of interest in using a bill payment portal
