Countrywide Automates Bills, Payment

Mortgage lending giant Countrywide Home Loans, Calabasas, CA and electronic billing and payment provider CheckFree, Atlanta have reported that the former has made the latter's technology available to its 2.4 million customers across the United States. The technology allows Countrywide customers to pay their mortgage and home equity bills through a number of CheckFree-supported websites including Yahoo,the U.S. Postal Service, WingspanBank.com and CheckFree E-Bill Direct. Once enrolled, Countrywide customers receive one finalpaper bill by mail and then all future bills electronically. Customers can then view their bill on demand, review current and outstanding account balances and access full bill detail from their personal computer. Electronic payments made to Countrywide Home Loans will be processed by CheckFree Genesis 2000, an electronic billing and payment engine that allows billers to view, track and report the status of billing and payment events . All transactions are backed by a guarantee from CheckFree that protects consumers against unauthorized transactions or processing delays. Countrywide's website address is http://www.countrywide.com. and CheckFree Corp's is http://www.checkfree.com.