Hi,
Some months ago, I like many others, was very critical about the service provided by ICICI Bank. Here I am writing about a joint venture of ICICI, which is worth appreciating. Billjunction.com (bj.com) is a bills payment site which is really good.
Like many junk mails, I received this mail from bj.com for my enrollment. I filled in few details like the username, password, address etc.. Within couple of days I receive a call from bj.com that a representative from their office wants to meet to complete the registration formality. Since I was travelling and will not be in office, I suggested that the registration documents be couriered. Documents was couriered and I filled the forms which also contains a mandate letter, which was for essentially instructing my bank to pay whenever bj.com comes for payment. The entire registration got completed within 7 days by paying some marginal fees of less than Rs. 500 (sorry don’t remember).
BJ.com can be used for various payments. Payments are broadly divided into ’’Billers’’ and ’’Payees’’. ’’Billers’’ are the agencies whom BJ.com has a tie-up with, which means that a copy of the bill directly is sent to BJ.com in addition to the bill received what the customer normally receives. Obviously this after receiving information from the customer: like for MTNL, a customer number (which is printed on the bill) needs to be defined on the site. BJ.com will inform about the payment of the bill through SMS alerts and also mail alerts. These alerts are received 2-3 times before the due date. They also have this facility for auto debiting the bank account or giving a cap over which the BJ.com has to obtain an approval from the customer. If a manual payment is selected (preferred) then the customer needs to go to the site and pay off the bill. The list of billers are to name a few: MTNL, BSES, LIC, MSEB etc etc etc.
’’Payees’’ are agencies who not send bills directly to BJ.com, thus not receiving any SMS alerts or mail from BJ.com. But the customer can go to the site and place an order to pay a particular payee. For instance : BPL Mobile.
Needless to mention one can very easily add a Biller, Payee or a Bank. The Bills can also be paid through Telephone and SMS. However, Bills cannot be paid through BJ.com if the due date has lapsed. The wonderful thing about paying BJ.com is that irrespective of the date you order it to pay, the bank account is debited only two working days before the due date so that the agency is paid on due date. If the customer intends to pay the bill earlier, this can also be done.
The obvious advantages are:
No waiting or standing in queues
Effective Reminders
Good float
In this busy life nobody has time to waste standing in lines for paying bills!!!!
Any comments?
Regards
Vijay