Direct Payment benefits everyone involved: companies, banks, and most importantly, you! Some of your benefits for using Direct Payment include:

Direct Payment is simple.

• Direct Payment requires an easy, one-time setup process. With Direct Payment, you will never worry about late or missed payments again. No more checks to write, stamps to buy, or last-minute trips to the post office.
• Direct Payments are automatic: you don't have to be in town to pay your bills. This is perfect when you are traveling or on vacation.

Direct Payment is safe.

• Each Direct Payment is deducted from your account on an agreed-upon date each month, making it easy to keep track of your payment.
• With Direct Payment, your personal information remains safe and secure. Your bank protects your personal account information. In fact, you gain financial privacy with Direct Payment because the payment is made electronically and no one sees your information, like they do on a check.
• Your checks contain a great deal of personal information - information you do not want to share. Almost 85 percent of identity theft occurs with "offline" transactions, such as lost checkbooks and stolen bills, statements, and check payments. Direct Payment significantly reduces this risk.

Direct Payment is smart.

• It takes 15 minutes per month to pay bills online, whereas writing checks takes two hours. Most people spend the equivalent of three days a year writing checks to pay bills.
• The average household receives 19 bills and statements each month and spends almost $100 a year on stamps alone. Direct Payment not only eliminates postage expense, but also the cost of checks, which can be another $30 per year, and the possibility of being charged late fees.
• Late payments could affect your credit score. About 35 percent of the FICO(R) score used by banks and lenders is based on payment history, including details on timely payments and late or missed payments. Direct Payment ensures that you will never have another late or missed payment.
• According to a 2006 consumer survey, consumers who use Direct Payment or Direct Deposit to save for education save $90 more per month than those who use another method to save. Those who were saving for reasons other than education saved $25 per month more if they saved electronically versus manually.
• You never have to worry about missing or forgetting payments. Mailing a payment just a few days late or having a payment get lost in the mail could result in late fees of as much as $30 per payment and potentially damage your credit score.

Direct Payment is green.

Direct Payment is also good for the environment. According to the PayItGreen Alliance^TM, if one in five household were to switch to electronic payments, statements and bills, we could collectively:

• Save 151 million pounds of paper each year.
• Save 1.8 million trees each year.
• Avoid producing 1.9 million tons of greenhouse gases. Saving this amount of greenhouse gases is the equivalent of:

• The emissions avoided by not driving 3.9 billion miles
• Taking 325,722 cars off the road
• The emissions avoided by not consuming 200 million gallons of gasoline
• Planting 45.6 million tree seedlings and allowing them to grow for 10 years
• Preserving 12,405 acres of forest from deforestation

• Avoid creating 1.4 million gallons of wastewater.
• Avoid creating enough wastewater to fill 2,180 Olympic-size swimming pools.
• Avoid filling 8.6 million household garbage bags with waste.
• Avoid filling 6,141 garbage trucks with waste.
• Avoid using 103 million gallons of gasoline to mail bills, statements, and payments, or the equivalent of driving from New York to LA and back 918 times.