Canada Post/Survey Says: Remind Me to Pay the Bills

epostTM, Canada Post’s online bill delivery service, polls Canadians about financial habits

OTTAWA, ONTARIO–(EMWNews – Aug. 21, 2008) – Many Canadians, particularly younger ones, say they would value a friendly email reminder to get their monthly bills paid on time, according to a new national poll.

About 50 per cent of Canadians surveyed in the 18-to-35 age group agreed that a monthly email reminder to get bills paid on time would be helpful. That compares with just 24 per cent in the 55-plus age group and 35 per cent in the 35-to-54 group, according to a survey commissioned by Canada Post’s online bill delivery service epost^TM.

Considerably more Canadian men overall (43 per cent) said they could use a monthly email reminder to get bills paid on time, compared to 32 per cent of women polled.

Canada Post’s epost service – the secure, online, environmentally-friendly way to receive and pay bills – can provide that email reminder. “The reminder feature is one of the most popular features of epost,” says Larry Henry, director, Product Management, epost. “We know that even the most organized bill-payer can benefit from a reminder, and certainly young adults who may be new to the monthly bill-payment regime, enjoy this feature. The benefit isn’t just organizational, it’s also monetary as paying bills on time avoids late charges.”

The survey also found that 69 per cent of Canadians are paying their bills online. epost extends that convenience by delivering bills to one secure location. “The free service gives Canadians convenience and control over bill receipt and payment, eliminating multiple user names and passwords,” Henry adds.

With epost, documents are securely stored for up to seven years, simplifying record keeping for Canadians – good news for the 30 per cent of Canadians who say they currently save bills in a box or envelope, according to the survey. A further one per cent of British Columbians and one per cent of Atlantic Canadians admitted to keeping their bills “in a pile”. Just 11 per cent of Canadians store their bills online, a number that jumps to 18 per cent in the Maritimes.

As an online bill delivery service, epost is an environmentally-friendly way to reduce the amount of paper and other resources required in the delivery of paper bills. epost is working with WWF-Canada to raise $150,000 for The Good Life, an online community of people committed to making small but significant environmental changes to their lives. A dollar for each of the first 150,000 new registrants to epost will go to The Good Life. The fundraising campaign runs until October 7, 2008.

The survey was conducted online on July 30, 2008 by Angus Reid Strategies and involved a sampling of 1,010 Canadians.

To learn more about epost or to register, please visit canadapost.ca/epost.