Check is a full service bill payment and account tracking service. It can be used by going to Check.me, but their mobile apps for Apple and Android have the full functionality since the company is focused on their mobile strategy.
After an interview and a demo we did about the product with Steve Schultz, the company’s COO, I am very impressed with their capabilities and functionality. I have written about Mint.com having the potential of being the portal for the financial industry, but I can see how Check is a clear contender in this space too. Or maybe they will share the lead given that they satisfy the needs of two different types of consumers.
What impressed me about the service is not only its simplicity, but also the fact that you can organize your finances and actually do something about it. On Check you can have your financial accounts in one place, link your bills from all your providers, and pay and store your bills and receipts. It is also possible to make payments that are not regular bills like rent, piano teacher, or a donation to the local fire fighters.
This ability to pay and move money coupled with its impeccable user experience is the key of its success. The company will reach 10 million users soon and is already processing payments worth $2 million each day and growing at a 15% monthly rate.
This is Check’s introductory video:
Each of Check’s services are great solutions by themselves, but the way they work together is what makes them so effective. This is a description of each service:
Bill Payments:
It all starts by linking your accounts and bill providers. The way to do this is by entering your id’s and passwords for each service just like you would do when you log in to their websites or apps. This way you can have your checking accounts, credit cards, loans, investment accounts, utilities’ providers, cellphone, and other accounts and bills in one place and with one password.
Because you have your banking and payment accounts linked and also your billers the service is able to show you your bills when they are due, the amounts, the statement details, and then you can select which account you want to pay with.
Check has more than 18.000 financial providers and billers on its platform so it’s practically impossible your providers are not there.
Pay anyone:
This is the service that lets you pay items that are not regular bills. Here you can enter the email of anyone you need to pay to like a local, non recurring provider, your accountant, or the rent, and when they get the email they just click on the link to credit their money into their bank account.
I can see how this service may be extended in the future to make Check your full digital wallet in the future.
Account tracking:
Because you have all your financial accounts linked on their system, Check also provides a space for you to see your account balances and all your transactions by account.
It is interesting how, unlike Mint.com, Check decided not to include transaction categorization, budgeting, and goal setting in this section. This is because the majority of users manage their accounts by tracking their balances and activity, but few actually take the time to budget and set goals and financial objectives. This is quite a pragmatic approach and also makes the Check website and apps very simple to use.
Bills And Statements “File Cabinet”:
This is a digital storage service like DropBox or Google Drive, where you can store all the bills, statements, and receipts you get when you pay and manage your bills. This filing system is neatly organized by account and provider so you can finally get rid of your paper files!
Alerts:
Since you linked your accounts on Check they have the ability to analyze your balances, payment due dates, fees, and your financial behavior so they can alert you about key events and information about your money like when bills are due, if you are overdrawn in a bank account, if your debts are past due, or even if you exceeded a credit card limit. The company strives to produce alerts that are as smart and useful as possible.
“My Offers”:
In this section the service shows you offers from financial providers and other solutions for your finances according to your profile and your needs. The objective of Check is to recommend services that will ultimately save you time and money.
Please watch the demo we did with Check:
Conclusion:
Consumers are embracing cloud services and new finance technology like never before. Our computers and devices are more and more really terminals of the internet. Intelligent services like Check, that do the computing and storage for us, are what is being demanded. Also, since Check enables its users not only to see all of their accounts and bills in one place, but also to actually do things with them like pay and send money to others, it no doubt will be a brand ever more ubiquitous in American households, smartphones, and tablets.
