Mobile bill pay usage is growing, with more than six million Americans using smartphones to pay bills in the past year, according to Fiserv Inc.'s 2011 Billing Household Survey.

Other lead findings from the third annual online poll was that nearly 20% of online consumer households change the way they bills each month and that e-billing interest has hit a new high, the company said.

“Consumers indicate it is important for billers to provide multiple payment options and many report changing the way they pay their bills month-to-month due to timing and funds availability,” Fiserv said in a statement about the report.

The most common method of paying bills online is at biller or financial institution sites, followed by check and auto debit, Fiserv said. The company said it also found that 30% of online consumers have visited a biller's site using their mobile browser to access a monthly bill, typically phone, cable, credit card and utilities.

The poll also found that 32% of consumers who pay bills at their bank site already receive e-bills and that 38% percent of non-recipients are interested, the highest in the survey's three years.

Of the 6 million consumers who said they had paid a bill with a mobile device, more than 40% used a mobile browser to pay their bill, while 35% used an app downloaded from a biller or a bank and 17% used text to pay.

Six out of every 10 mobile bill payments were made with some kind of card, either debit, credit or prepaid, Fiserv said.

Fiserv said its annual Billing Household Survey was conducted in May 2011 by The Marketing Workshop and reflects the responses of 2,500 adult consumers who are responsible for paying their household bills.

The company said results are representative of the United States online population of households, which it said is approximately 96.4 million out of the 121 million households in the United States.

Instant Insights /

Fiserv Billing Survey: Mobile Bill Pay Growing, Consumers Move Between Payment Channels

Related Stories

Recommended For You