So how do pay your utility bills? The new-fashioned way i.e
Digitally via BBPs or the Old-fashioned way i.e Cash or Cheques.
Like taxes, one cannot escape bill payments.
The majority of the banks offer 'Bill Pay Module', to their
customers. Most of the Banks have tie-ups with Bill Aggregators to process the
bill pay services. With the popularity of BBPS (Bharat Bill Payment Services)
growing day by day, ‘Bill Pay’, providers can just add BBPS Module on their Net
Banking/Mobile Banking.
Banks and Bill Pay providers can customize the features
to be offered to their customers. These features are the differentiators for
customers to choose a particular Bill Pay Service Provider.
Bill
Pay is a convenient online service that allows registered customers to pay for one’s
electricity, telephone (landline and mobile), gas, mutual funds and insurance
subscriptions or even taxes in India from the comfort of your home or office at
any time of the day or night.
All
the customer needs to do is Register a Biller under the Bill Pay Link and
choose how he/she would like to pay for this bill.
Depending
on the payment solutions offered by the Biller, customers can choose between:
·
One-time Bill Payment – As the name
indicates, this is an option to pay a bill only once/
·
AutoPay – As the name indicates, this is
where the bill details are saved, and on the presentment of the bill, the bill is
paid by debit to the customer’s linked account. This account can be a credit
card too.
·
Confirm and Pay – As the name indicates,
under this mode on bill presentment, the bill appears on the account holders'
net banking/mobile banking app. The account holder can view the bill and
confirm /decline the payment.
The
above options are almost offered by all the Bill Pay service providers be it a
bank or other portals.
Till date, Bill Pay modules do not offer any in-depth personalization
to encourage account holders to migrate all their bill payments to their
respective modules.
New Age Apps i.e Paytm, Amazon Pay, Google Pay, PhonePe,
Mobikwik, Freecharge etc offer cashbacks
on bill payments. As the offers keep changing, I am not adding any links to the
Apps Pages here.
Please note BBPS enabled
billers are the preferred channel. If a biller is on BBPS, the portal/app chooses
the BBPS mode only, rather than bill aggregator mode.
Customers prefer to search for the best possible offers,
before paying their bills. This decreases
the stickiness quotient for Bill Pay modules.
BBPS has revolutionized the Bill Payments infrastructure
in India. As more and more billers onboard BBPS, its popularity will still
increase.
What is my Wishlist from Bill Pay Module providers?
All utility bills have two
mandatory dates i.e
Mandatory Date 01) ---
Bill Generation Date
Mandatory Date 02) ---
Bill Due Date
Normally, the gap between
bill generation date and bill due date is 15 days. Payment after Due Date attracts Late Payment
charges
My Wishlist’s revolves around
the gap between bill generation date and bill due date.
Eg
|
Sr
No |
Utility
Provider |
Bill
Generation Date |
Bill
Due Date |
|
01) |
Electricity |
05/07/2020 |
20/07/2020 |
|
02) |
Water |
10/07/2020 |
25/07/2020 |
|
03) |
Landline |
01/07/2020 |
15/07/2020 |
|
04) |
Mobile
Post-paid |
12/07/2020 |
22/07/2020 |
|
05) |
Credit
Card |
25/07/2020 |
10/08/2020 |
|
06) |
Etc
– Insurance Premium, Demat
Account Bill |
|
|
Wishlist 01) Virtual
Utility Bill Accounts – Ability to create virtual utility bill accounts linked
to my main bank account. Daily/Weekly Auto
transfer of my Last Bill Amount divided into Day/Week wise.
Wishlist 02)
Early payment bonus – Bill Date is 05/07/2020, Bill Due Date is 20/07/2020. If
bill is paid on 07/07/2020 bonus for early payment.
Wishlist 03) Review
and Pay – 3 Days before Bill Due date, the bill amount to be debited from my linked
bank account / credit card and bill paid. This is a bit different from the ‘Auto
Pay’, feature. Under ‘Auto Pay’, the bill is paid as soon as the bill is
generated and presented for payment.
Wishlist 04) Detailed
Analysis of Bill – Electricity Bill. Comparison between last 3 months bill, usage
pattern, etc. Yes, this is possible with IOT
Wishlist 05) Tips
to reduce Bill Amount – Electricity Bill --- Minimise use of Geyser etc to
reduce the bill amount.
A detailed explanation of
each Wishlist will follow in upcoming posts
So, which Neo Bank/Existing
Bank/FinTech App/BBPS App will offer the above Wishlist?
And, if you have any
wishes please add them in the comment’s column.
Semi-Inspiration 1 for
this Post:
Semi-Inspiration 2 for
this Post: Upcoming Workshop on ‘Bill Pay as a Service’.
References: Citibank
services page @ https://www.online.citibank.co.in/citi-nri/services-paybills.htm
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