Prepaid products company InComm, along with financial services company Fiserv, have joined forces to make it easier for customers to pay their bills using cash at stores where they traditionally shop.
Bill payment transactions are powered by InComm’s VanillaDirect Pay. When a bill is due, the consumer receives a barcode on their smartphone from the biller. At the point of sale at a brick-and-mortar merchant, the cashier scans the barcode as they would for any other purchase. This adds the customer’s billing balance to their total, which they can pay in cash. After payment, the consumer receives a receipt as proof of purchase. Thee press release states that the service is currently available at thousands of InComm retailers such as Dollar General and Family Dollar.
“CheckFreePay allows us to continue to transform the payment experience,” said Matt Lanford, senior vice president and general manager for financial services at InComm. “Our technology is serving consumers, enabling them to pay bills easily, while also driving more traffic into our retailers and increasing their revenue.”
Fiserv’s CheckFreePay offers billers a cash bill payment option, enabling them to support all channels, including web, mobile, financial institution websites, walk-in, print, and mail. John Stoner, President of Biller Solutions at Fiserv said, “Whether it is for the convenience of paying a bill while shopping or the ability to receive a receipt immediately upon payment, VanillaDirect Pay and CheckFreePay will enable more biller organizations to conveniently serve customers in-lane at thousands of retail locations without visiting a designated walk-up pay counter.”
This cash payment option competes with PayNearMe’s service. Founded in 2009, PayNearMe offers a QR code-based payment service that allows customers to pay at 27,000 retail locations, including CVS, 7-Eleven, Family Dollar, and Casey’s General Store. doxo also has its foot in the door with cash-based bill payments. The company partnered with Coinstar in April to allow users to pay billers using cash at Coinstar kiosk locations.
InComm offers more than 500,000 points of retail distribution with 1,000+ brand partners in more than 30 countries. The company debuted CorFire Mobile Commerce at FinovateFall 2011. More recently, InComm showed off the Cashtie API at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2014. Earlier this month, InComm acquired Gift Card Impressions, making it the company’s seventh acquisition.
Fiserv recently appeared on the FinovateSpring stage alongside Samsung SDS, where the two showcased how Samsung SDS integrates its biometric authentication and collaboration solutions into Fiserv’s Commercial Center: Security (CC:S) to create a more secure and convenient digital banking experience. As another security play, Fiserv recently began offering Mastercard’s Decision Intelligence decision and fraud detection service.
