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Intuit's Check Ramps Up Utility Partnerships And Integrations

This article is more than 9 years old.

As more and more consumers manage many of their daily tasks on mobile devices, there are increasing opportunities for existing suppliers to consumers to leverage mobile payments. Check, an Intuit-owned company, helps large organizations integrate mobile payments into their broader applications. Founded in 2008, it reports that its application powers 11 million consumers’ bill-paying. The company is extending its reach by partnering with utility providers to deliver mobile payments.

On average, consumers pay between 8 and 12 bills per month – many of these are utility bills (electricity, gas, telco etc). The problem is that utility companies generally run heavy-weight back office systems and creating lightweight mobile payment applications that integrate with these back office systems isn’t really their core-business. This is where Check comes in who is looking to do much of this “heavy lifting” for utility vendors.

The value proposition for the utilities is obvious – not only do they achieve efficiency benefits from not having to use manual payment processes, but they also offer better customer satisfaction – an increasing proportion of consumers see payment by physical check as being backwards and difficult.

Check is seeing this uptake through its utility partners. The company told me that nearly 10% of one partner, Arlington Water Utilities’, customers registered for Check in the first 2 months after launching a partnership with the company. In the year since the utility partnership program was launched, 11 utility providers have signed up including The City of Stockton, Irvine Ranch Water District, Direct Energy, New Jersey Natural Gas, Alltel Wireless. All told Check is offering mobile payments to 3 million utility customers across its utility partners.

The company just signed another partnership, this time with UGI Utilities, a gas and electricity utility service customers in Pennsylvania and Maryland. For UGI it was a no-brainer, while terms of the partnership weren’t divulged, UGI gets to offer mobile payment to all of its customers and in doing so generate both cost savings and more customer satisfaction – a small percentage payment to Check for these benefits is well worth it.

In the future consumers will be able to complete the vast majority of their payments and transactions on a mobile device. If we think about how Uber has completely changed consumer expectations around paying for cab fares, the opportunities here become self evident. Check has a bright future further extending its payment offering across traditional vendors and suppliers.

 

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