Online proxy payment service gets ready for takeoff in fall
The Krakow-based Internet Investment Fund (IIF), an "incubator" that develops and launches online business ventures, promises to solve every lazy bill payer's problems.
In June, IIF is scheduled to start testing its online bill paying service. By clicking on billbird.pl, individuals will be able to view and pay their bills over the internet. The service is due to officially start this fall.
According to IIF, billbird.pl intends to use a more advanced technology to make bill paying easier than via telephone services now offered by banks. "We want to go even further in making people's lives easier," said Paula Retinger, billbird.pl's project manager at IIF. "Our goal is to keep track of bill payments for our clients so that they don't need to remember about all that hassle."
Those who sign up for a free trial period starting June 1 will be agreeing to have their bills sent directly to billbird.pl. "And it will be us, by e-mail or by SMS (cellular short message system) who will let our customer know there is a bill to be paid, so he can authorize payment," Retinger said. "On request, customers can also leave everything to us and forget about their bills entirely by authorizing us to automatically pay anything that comes in."
Customers provide the billbird service with the names and account information of those to whom they wish to direct payments. They will also have access to a list of their scheduled payments and, eventually, their most recent two-year billbird-routed payment history, on an encrypted personal site. According to Retinger, IFI will base its fees on the number of bills it processes, charging a competitive fee per every bill it pays.
Retinger said the service will also be available in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, "which is why we came up with an English name for it." Billbird might also be a convenience for the physically challenged, whose number, according to Central Statistical Office (GUS) estimates, will grow to 6 million in 2010 from the current 5.1 million. "A service like ours can make them more independent," she said.
But while online financing services are an everyday occurrence in countries like the United States, some say Retinger's enthusiasm might be premature, considering the current number of "internauts" in Poland. "I wouldn't overestimate the significance of billbird's services since the internet is still in its prenatal phase in Poland and there are not that many customers who would use online bill payment services on a grand scale," said Handlobank's spokesman, Grzegorz Bobrownicki-Libchen. As of December 1999, 2% of households had access to the internet and there were 2 million internet users countrywide, according to estimates by the Krakow-based Academy of Economics and Taylor Nelson Sofres Poland, a market research institute. "Online banking services will have an enormous significance in the near future but not yet," Bobrownicki-Libchen said.
Not only are online services a very modern banking solution in Poland, but there are also few banks with a 24-hour telephone service. "Customers need time to get used to such new services, especially the middle-aged," Bobrownicki-Libchen said. At Handlobank, online services are planned but still not available. Money transfers, like any other orders, can be made by phone 24 hours a day through the bank's Telecentrum. "As we see it, there are a lot of customers who are afraid of using the internet as a money transaction tool. They are even scared to use computers," Bobrownicki-Libchen said. "Trust is the No. 1 factor."
But according to IIF's Retinger, security is a priority for billbird. "All the financial means will be insured and kept in a bank so there is no need to be afraid," she said. "Besides, we are introducing a testing period to see what our potential customers could be afraid of and how to respond to their fears."
While skeptics might claim that billbird.pl is a forerunner of a still-distant era, that era seems to be closer than they think. Bank representatives revealed that it's a matter of months before their institutions will introduce online banking. According to Bobrownicki-Libchen, although online services are still on the margin of banking services, Handlobank is already testing an appropriate system for future internet use. "It should be ready within a few months," he said. "It will be a fast, secure and customer-friendly online banking system, which will also include bill payment services." Citigroup is also testing online services, to be available to both individual and corporate clients. "It all takes time but complete online banking services will be available by the end of this year, and part of (those services will be available) already in June or July," said Citigroup spokeswoman Dorota Kaminska. "What is now available through the (24-hour) citi-phone will also be available online."
