Fiserv, Inc. released new research the company said shows Gen Y consumers are increasingly responsible for paying household bills and that they prefer mobile channels for managing finances.

The company also said that, according to its annual Billing Household Survey, mobile bill pay usage has doubled among U.S. online households in one year, from 8 million in 2012 to 16 million in 2013.

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Some 30% of U.S. consumers use their smartphone to pay bills, the survey found. And, Fiserv also said more than 80% of consumers who visit a biller's website are there to pay a bill, reinforcing the need to make billing and payment a prominent and strategic part of websites.

The tablet surge is helping to drive the numbers, Fiserv added in its mid-December announcement, with 51% of respondents saying they own a tablet and a fourth of that number saying they use their tablets to pay bills.

However, checking isn't dead yet, the survey reported. Fifty-three percent of U.S. online households said they still paid at least one bill by check in 2013, down from 61% the year before.

“While new bill payment channels such as mobile and tablet are coming on strong, traditional channels remain in use, creating a need for billers to support an ever-growing set of billing and payments, channels and payment types,” said Jardon Bouska, division president, Biller Solutions, at Fiserv in Brookfield, Wis.

Fiserv said the Billing Household Survey was completed in May 2013 by 3,004 respondents at least 21 years old and responsible for paying bills. The company said results are representative of the U.S. population of online households, which is approximately 100 million out of 121 million total U.S. households.