Economies have changed over the past few decades, having moved from bartering to cash to credit and now to electronic payments. Today, consumers are increasingly embracing electronic payments and servicing options for the convenience and ease of use they offer. In addition, consumers’ use of online channels for household bill payments is rising, as they shift away from cash and check payments toward electronic forms of payment. For utilities, this shift in consumer preferences is creating significant opportunity to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, and deliver positive bottom- line results.

Credit and debit cards will help utilities cope with mega-trends. Credit cards (revolving accounts) and charge cards (paid in full each month) go back a long way. The concept was first mentioned in an 1887 novel Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy. It wasn’t until 1950, however, that the concept of using one card to pay different merchants was invented and became widespread. Since then, credit and charge cards have become ubiquitous in the United States and around the world.

MasterCard International views the use of payment cards to automatically pay recurring utility bills as an extraordinary growth opportunity. In June 2005, EnergyBiz spoke with Donna Johnson, VP, acceptance development at MasterCard, about the organization’s perception of the marketplace it’s courting.

Your customers are always changing. New business models. New facilities. New technologies. To keep pace, you will need to upgrade your customer care and billing system. Over the entire life of your customer care and billing system, upgrades are a significant cost. You can vastly reduce those costs, however, by choosing a product whose architecture is specifically designed for easy upgrades.

Prepayment for electric, gas, and water is a way of life for many countries - and for good reason. It helps customers budget their utility money and helps utilities avoid bad debt without the need to collect and track deposits. Prepayment has gained increased attention in the last several years. The primary reason is that customers switching from credit card billing to prepayment almost always reduce their electricity consumption.