Slowly but surely the ability to set up automatic withdrawal, and process payments via digital bill pay has caught up to and far surpassed the convenience of paying with paper checks. Even many renters are now able to pay their rent electronically.
The increasing popularity of online and mobile banking has prompted Citibank to launch a new type of bank account called Access. Access is designed to appeal to the 20% of Millennials who don’t even have a checkbook.
While Millennials are the largest demographic who do not utilize paper checks, 38% of consumers pay at least one bill electronically each month, compared to that of 32% who still utilize paper checks. Overall 12% of all Americans no longer use their checkbook, and many who do only use checks to write one or two monthly bills, such as rent.
“We developed Access after spending a lot of time listening to customers and looking at their banking needs, and we identified several trends,” Robert Beck, chief operating officer of retail banking at Citi U.S., tells Mobile Commerce Daily. “One of the major ones relates to the fact that the ongoing rise in digital banking is changing how people pay bills and use accounts. A recent Citi survey found that more people now pay monthly bills with online or mobile than with paper checks, and more than half of consumers avoid writing paper checks whenever they can.”
