Convincing members to do their online bill paying at their credit union site instead of at the billers' is often seen as a key to deepening the relationship and helping to make the CU the members' primary financial institution. But it better be free. A recent Forrester Research report shows that 16% of U.S. households paid a bill online in the past three months. It also shows how reluctant online bill payers are to pay for the service, and how much of the market now belongs to the direct-biller sites (more than half). The report also shows that the assumption that online bill payers are a subset of online bankers also is not necessarily so: Half of those using biller-direct services don't even bank online. Here are some figures from the Forrester report, titled "Why Consumers Prefer Biller Sites to Pay Bills", by San Francisco-based analyst Catherine Graeber: Convincing members to do their online bill paying at their credit union site instead of at the billers' is often seen as a key to deepening the relationship and helping to make the CU the members' primary financial institution. But it better be free. A recent Forrester Research report shows that 16% of U.S. households paid a bill online in the past three months. It also shows how reluctant online bill payers are to pay for the service, and how much of the market now belongs to the direct-biller sites (more than half). The report also shows that the assumption that online bill payers are a subset of online bankers also is not necessarily so: Half of those using biller-direct services don't even bank online. Here are some figures from the Forrester report, titled "Why Consumers Prefer Biller Sites to Pay Bills", by San Francisco-based analyst Catherine Graeber: