Lloyds TSB kickstarts ‘paperless bill’ revolution

Online banking enters a new era today, as Lloyds TSB launches a ground breaking service allowing customers to pay, view and store ‘paperless’ bills online. The new ‘bill manager’ service gives customers the ability to view all of their household bills in one place and will be available free of charge to anyone registered with Lloyds TSB Internet banking.

The service is designed to remove the need for customers to deal separately with individual companies or log on to numerous providers’ websites to view and pay bills. With one log-on, customers are able to view an on-screen snapshot of all their bills and will receive email alerts as and when bills are due, all without the need to deal with paper bills.

Once a customer has received an email alert for a particular bill, they will be able to view a summary of the bill and pay via Lloyds TSB Internet banking. Customers will also be able to keep a paperless online record of bills, whether they have paid directly through the site, or using a direct debit or standing order.

A number of companies, including utility and telecoms firms, have already agreed to allow their customers to view and pay bills through the new Lloyds TSB site and many more are expected to sign up in coming weeks and months.

Anita Hockin, head of Internet, Lloyds TSB, said: “Internet banking has already won over a generation of customers with its speed and simplicity, but the ‘bill manager’ service we’ve launched today takes things one step further.

“A deluge of paper bills can be confusing and off putting for anyone – and even the most financially savvy consumer can easily lose track of their finances when there is so much to keep an eye on. This service means that with one log on, customers can view all of their bills in one place – it couldn’t be easier.”

“Lloyds TSB has four million Internet banking customers and research has shown that at least two thirds of online banking customers want to be able to manage all their bills online. By allowing customers to manage, view and pay paperless bills from the comfort of their armchair, we’re sure the popularity of online bill management will go through the roof.”

The organisations which have so far agreed to allow bills to be viewed and paid through the Internet bank are:

Anglian Water
Bournemouth and West Hampshire Water
Bristol Water
Colchester Borough Council
EDF Gas
EDF Electricity
Essex and Suffolk Water
Nectar
Northumbrian Water
Southern Water
Sutton and East Surrey Water
Telewest
TV Licensing
Wessex Water

The technology behind Lloyds TSB’s Bill Manager service is provided in partnership with electronic bill management company, OneVu.