ENGLEWOOD, Colo., and ATLANTA, July 24, 2000 — TransPoint LLC and BellSouth Corp. today announced that BellSouth customers can begin receiving and paying e-bills online with the TransPoint™
online payment service. The service enables consumers to view and pay bills that arrive electronically through TransPoint, to pay bills online that arrive in the U.S. mail, and to initiate a payment online to anyone with a U.S. mailing address.
BellSouth serves 14.5 million residential customers in nine Southeastern states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. BellSouth joins other leading telcos, including GTE and MCI Worldcom, in offering its bills online through TransPoint for the convenience of its customers.
“The ability to receive and pay BellSouth bills online with TransPoint increases the number of choices our customers have to receive and pay their bills online,”
said Klaus Werner, general manager, BellSouth e-Store.
“With the TransPoint e-billing solution, we have created the BellSouth online bill that delivers compelling interactive features for our customers, while giving them the same detailed information as our paper bills. E-bills also allow us to make changes quickly and easily to respond to our customers’ needs.”
With one convenient service, consumers with Internet access can pay all their bills with a few clicks of a mouse. Customers can check the status of their TransPoint online payment account via their computers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If more help is needed, the TransPoint online payment service includes Web-based site support and a fully staffed customer-service team.
“We are excited by the continued momentum we are experiencing with leading companies such as BellSouth,”
said Lewis Levin, TransPoint president and CEO.
“The company’s choice of TransPoint demonstrates the strength of our offering — a full-service solution designed to bring billers to market rapidly and maximize their control of the entire process.”
Companies that deliver bills electronically through TransPoint benefit from targeted marketing, greater control over the billing process and personalized customer service. In addition, the costs of customer inquiries are dramatically reduced with e-billing, because much of the user interface offers self-help options.
The TransPoint e-bills service is available to consumers through the MSN MoneyCentral online personal finance service ( http://www.moneycentral.msn.com/ ), TransPoint ( http://www.transpoint.com/ ), Prodigy Internet service ( http://www.prodigy.com/ ), the Go2Net Network ( http://www.go2net.com/ ), Compass Bank ( http://www.compassweb.com/ ), and InterWest Bank ( http://www.interwestbank.com/ ).
About TransPoint
TransPoint, established in June 1997, is a joint venture of Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) and First Data Corp., with Citibank as a minority equity investor. Englewood, Colo.-based TransPoint is a leader in the emerging electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) industry with a seamless e-bills service built from the ground up. The TransPoint system uses innovative technology and integrates easily with billers’ and banks’ existing payment systems.
The TransPoint service is designed to be a fast, easy way for consumers with Internet access to make all their payments online from a single, secure Web site.
On Feb. 15, TransPoint entered into a definitive merger agreement with CheckFree Corp., a leader in electronic billing and payment. The combined technologies and relationships of the two entities are expected to accelerate the billing and payment process from paper to the Internet and to advance the rate at which consumers sign up for electronic billing. The transaction will be accounted for as a purchase by CheckFree and is expected to be final in three to five months. More information about TransPoint is available at http://www.transpoint.com/ .
About BellSouth
BellSouth (NYSE: BLS) is a $25 billion communications services company. It provides telecommunications services; Internet, data and e-commerce applications; wireless communications; entertainment services; and online and directory advertising to nearly 39 million customers in 20 countries worldwide. For more information about BellSouth, please visit http://www.bellsouth.com/ .
TransPoint is an exclusive U.S. trademark of TransPoint LLC.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. If you are interested in viewing additional information on First Data, please visit the First Data Web page at http://www.firstdata.com/ . If you are interested in viewing additional information on Citibank, please visit the Citibank Web page at http://www.citibank.com/ .
