Payble, a mobile app that helps you stay on top of your bills, claims it will remove the stress associated with bill management and avoid late penalties.
The Payable app, which is backed by Commonwealth Bank’s x15ventures with a $1 million share investment, is headed by Managing Director Elliott Donazzan.
Donazzan says that 85 per cent of Australians have reported bill shock in the last 12 months. That has then caused them stress because they’re worried about how to pay their bill.
Donazzan said; “With COVID, people who have never had trouble are now having trouble and they don’t know they can make a plan with their utility provider.”
He stresses that Payble is not a budgeting app. Rather we’re trying to flip it around and; “Payble is a way to stay on top of your bills and work proactively with your merchant.”
“It’s the bit in the middle and we work with you and your merchant.”
\Payble is predominantly targeting telcos, utilities and is in negotiations with several local government bodies to help consumers pay their rates more easily.
Telcos and utility providers bill in arrears and if a consumer gets behind on their bill payments that can be quite expensive for the merchant.
“A merchant can spend $22 per call from a call centre, so getting a call out of the call centre saves them money and that’s where we’re playing.”
They are also removing the stress from consumers of wondering if a merchant is going to call them to chase up debts and saving the consumer time calling their merchant because they can set up a payment extension with just a few taps on their phone.
They will also save consumers time because instead of having to go to multiple different websites to set up payment plans, you can do it in one place.
“Within the app you can access payment plans from the top 300 payers, so you can ask for a payment plan or you can pay through the app.”
“We have an energy retailer on board who you can pay natively through the app.
“We are most useful for consumers who use one of the utilities we have on board, but anyone can do a pre-registration and they can enter a competition to win $3,000 pay their bills and then view all the others.”
If a merchant you use hasn’t yet signed up to Payble then you can access a directory and be taken to their bill payments page or the biller’s PDF.
“We’re trying to by the thing in your pocket that tells you all the billers so you don’t have to go biller by biller.”
Payble is targeting millennials and anyone else who is comfortable managing their payments digitally.
“We’re not trying to replace the budgeting tool. We’re trying to remove the stress. Our system integrates directly with the biller’s system, so everything we do is only done once. There’s no reason for double handling.”
“There is no charge for the consumer. Telcos and other companies are regulated by what fees they can charge. They can’t charge interest. We never charge any fees. We deliver a service to merchants.”
Donazzon says; “We charge the merchant a monthly fee. We charge as a SAAS (software as a service) fee and they can use a QR code and consumers can just pay.
“It’s a better experience than remembering BPAY and banking. If they want to pay by direct debit we can do that directly. Right now most direct debit is based off paper and if the biller has those options available we’ll enable consumers to pay half now and half later.”
You also won’t need to remember when the bill is due because Payble will send you a reminder in the app.
Payble does not take any personal information that you do not give and they are not linked to any reporting bureaus. Anytime you want to send information to a merchant you’ll need to consent twice.
“It is much simpler and more secure and we cannot actually see that information. You own your data. In the future the system will automatically delete it.”