Consumer bill payment habits continue to evolve, but the operational realities behind those payments are becoming more—not less—complex.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s 2025 Survey and Diary of Consumer Payment Choice confirms what many financial institutions (FIs) are already seeing firsthand: consumers are increasingly paying bills remotely, while bill payment activity still spans both digital and mailed channels. At the same time, paper checks haven't disappeared, payment channels continue to multiply, and receivables operations must support them all.
For FIs and the commercial clients they serve, the challenge is more than simply accepting more digital payments; it's also about creating receivables operations that can efficiently process each payment type while maintaining visibility, speed, and accuracy.
While purchases make up the majority of consumer payment activity, bill payments account for a disproportionate share of payment value.
According to the Federal Reserve, consumers made an average of 47 payments per month in 2025. Only about 10 of those were bill payments, representing 21% of total payment volume. Yet those same bill payments accounted for 63% of all payment value.
That distinction matters.
For FIs supporting commercial clients, bill payments they receive often include utilities, insurance, lending, healthcare, property management, municipalities, and countless other recurring payment relationships. Because these transactions tend to carry higher dollar values, improving how they're received, processed, and reconciled can have a substantial operational impact.
The report also highlights just how much bill payment behavior has shifted:
87% of all bill payments are made remotely.
89% of bill payment value is paid remotely, whether electronically or through the mail.
Consumers pay bills through a mix of online and mailed channels, using methods such as online banking bill pay, bank account number payments, debit cards, credit cards, and checks.
For FIs, supporting this payment mix requires more than simply offering digital payment acceptance; it also requires receivables infrastructure capable of handling payments arriving from many different channels while maintaining consistent reporting and reconciliation.
One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding digital transformation is that digital payments automatically simplify receivables. However, consumers use a wide mix of payment methods, and each payment method can arrive with different settlement timing, remittance information, reporting formats, and operational workflows. For example, among bill payments captured in the Federal Reserve study:
25% were made using online banking bill pay
24% were made through bank account number payments (BANP)
Nearly 20% were made with debit cards
Without integrated receivables capabilities, organizations often find themselves managing multiple systems, manually matching remittance information, and reconciling payments from disconnected sources.
The consumer experience may feel seamless, but the back-office work often isn't.
The survey results confirm the ongoing decline in paper check use. Only 33% of consumers reported making a check payment in the previous 30 days, down from 35% the year before. The average number of monthly check payments also declined from 1.2 to 1.0.
However, those numbers don't tell the entire story:
Across all consumer payments captured in the study, the average check transaction was $631, well above the average transaction value for credit cards, debit cards, and cash.
Checks also remained a steady part of the bill payment mix, accounting for approximately 6% of bill payments by number and more than 10% of bill payment value.
For many industries—including utilities, property management, healthcare, insurance, municipalities, and commercial lending—paper payments continue to represent meaningful receivables activity. That means receivables modernization isn't about replacing checks overnight. It's about processing both paper and digital payments efficiently within a unified workflow.
Consumer payment behavior is becoming increasingly channel-agnostic. While consumers expect flexibility, businesses expect faster posting and reconciliation, and treasury teams expect better visibility.
Meeting those expectations requires receivables operations that can bridge every payment channel—not just support the latest one. As a result, FIs are increasingly evaluating solutions that can:
Process paper and electronic payments together
Consolidate payment and remittance information
Improve exception handling
Provide centralized reporting across payment channels
Help commercial clients modernize receivables without disrupting existing customer payment preferences
Rather than treating paper and digital payments as separate operational tracks, an integrated approach to receivables helps FIs and their clients manage both more efficiently—with better visibility, less manual work, and a more connected workflow.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's findings support a broader trend already underway across the financial services industry: Consumer bill payment behavior continues shifting toward remote options, while FIs and the clients they serve still need to manage multiple payment channels and methods.
At the same time, CheckAlt's recent research with Datos Insights found that 75% of FIs are actively evaluating or planning to evaluate receivables and payment processing technology within the next 18 months as they respond to evolving client expectations and growing operational complexity. The Fed data reinforces the need behind that evaluation: FIs and their clients need receivables infrastructure that can support multiple payment intake channels, reduce manual work, and improve visibility across the payment lifecycle.
Consumer payment behavior will continue to evolve, but FIs need receivables operations that can adapt alongside it.
Download CheckAlt's Datos Insights report, The 18-Month Receivables Window: What Financial Institutions Must Decide Now, to explore why so many FIs are reassessing their receivables strategy—and what to consider when planning your own modernization journey.