Sovereign Bank Offers Enhanced and Free Online Bill Payment Service

Utilizing the newest version of CheckFree Web, Sovereigns electronic billing and payment service offers consumers numerous convenient features to manage bills and payments. The enhancements are the result of extensive consumer research and usability testing. The new features include a more simplified single-point bill management center, faster payment processing, improved integration with online banking, and the availability of payment posting information. A recent survey by The Marketing Workshop, Inc. and Harris Interactive, sponsored by CheckFree, concluded that the most satisfied banking customers are those who use a consolidated electronic billing and payment service, meaning that they pay all of their bills at one site. Consolidated site users, when compared with those who pay one bill at a time at a billers site, often called biller direct, report being better able to manage and organize their finances, appreciate reminders that help them protect their credit scores by paying on time, and report that the consolidated site saves them time and hassle. With the new service, the banks customers will experience a bill product that is: Free. Sovereign Bank has waived its fee for electronic billing and payment services. Fast. Improved functionality lets customers schedule multiple payments in a fraction of the time it takes now. Some payments can be processed same-day or next-day, and all payments within three or four business days, meaning payments no longer need to be scheduled five or more business days in advance. CheckFrees relationships with thousands of billers and merchants, and its bill calendar technology included in CheckFree Web, enable bill payments to be scheduled and credited faster than ever before. Easy. The new BillPay service is simpler to navigate and use. Access to all critical BillPay information is consolidated onto one page, and the service provides the ability to receive bills electronically, so there are fewer paper bills to track. Guaranteed. The Sovereign BillPay Guarantee, backed by the CheckFree Guarantee, assures the timely, safe arrival of payments.