Intuit to Provide Pacific Bell Customers Ability to Receive and Pay Telecommunications Bill Online

Business Wire, August 15, 2000

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 15, 2000

Online Bill Presentment Service Allows Pacific Bell Customers to View

and Pay Bills Conveniently Via the Web through Quicken;

Service to be Available on Quicken.com, America Online and Leading

Portals in the Fall

E-finance leader Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq:INTU) today announced that Pacific Bell customers are now able to view and pay their Pacific Bell bills online through Quicken(R), the most popular personal finance software. Using the free online service, Pacific Bell customers now can view a summary of their monthly telecommunications bill and then simply click to download the bill amount and due date into Quicken.

This Fall, customers are expected to have the added option of viewing and clicking to pay their Pacific Bell bill through Quicken.com, Intuit's popular e-finance Web site. Intuit's online bill payment and presentment services also are expected to be available through several America Online, Inc. brands through Intuit's alliance with AOL this Fall. In addition, consumers can access Intuit's online bill payment and presentment service through Excite (http://quicken.excite.com) and WebCrawler (http://quicken.webcrawler.com), and will have the added capability of paying their Pacific Bell bills on these portals this Fall.

In addition to providing Pacific Bell customers with a summary of their bill, the service will provide a link to Pacific Bell's billing site where customers can review their entire bill and billing detail, receive previous bill information, update their account and order new services.

"An increasing number of customers are discovering the ease and convenience of e-finance, and receiving and paying bills online is an important part of the equation," said Ole Eichhorn, general manager of Intuit's web payment business. "Intuit is pleased to provide best-of-breed online bill management services to Pacific Bell's tech-savvy customer base."

According to a 1999 AOL/Roper Starch Cyberstudy, 55 percent of online consumers would be interested in paying their bills online. An increasing number of billers also are interested in presenting their bills online to customers. The addition of Pacific Bell brings to 48 the number of billers who present bills online through Quicken, a number that is expected to grow significantly in the next year.

Infrastructure for Intuit's online bill payment services is provided by CheckFree (Nasdaq:CKFR). CheckFree also provides the routing, tracking and payment engine to support the billers that present bills online and receive online payments.

Intuit's Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment Service

Intuit has been a leader and innovator in online bill payment and presentment, offering a Web-based bill management service that gives customers a single point of access for viewing, tracking and paying their bills -- all from the same Quicken.com site they use to manage other aspects of their financial lives. Intuit's current service includes an online payment service that allows consumers to initiate payment to anyone in the U.S. from any U.S. checking account. Consumers who pay bills electronically are protected from unauthorized transactions or processing delays by the CheckFree Guarantee. Soon Intuit's service also is expected to enable customers to view any bill online, regardless of whether the bill is issued electronically or as a "hard copy" paper bill.

Intuit first began supporting online bill presentment and payment through Quicken in 1997 and has since become a leader in online bill management. In Nov. 1999, Intuit launched My Accounts on Quicken.com, a new suite of services that allows consumers to view and manage their finances -- anytime and anywhere -- using a Web browser. In addition to enabling people to view, track and pay their bills online, My Accounts provides a personalized financial "dashboard" and also enables people to manage multiple investment portfolios and view credit card and bank account balances all from a single Web site. My Accounts is offered on Quicken.com, as well as on Excite (http://quicken.excite.com) and WebCrawler (http://quicken.webcrawler.com). It is expected to be available on other leading portals in coming months.

Intuit is offering bill presentment and payment services pursuant to a license agreement between Intuit Inc. and Venture Finance Software Corp. (VFSC) a privately held joint venture company in which Intuit is a participant. On July 10, Intuit announced its intention to exercise its option to acquire the remaining shares of VFSC. The transaction is expected to close during Intuit's fiscal 2001 first quarter.

About Intuit

Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq:INTU) is the leader in e-finance, including financial software and Web-based financial services for consumers and small businesses. Intuit develops and markets QuickBooks(R), the most popular small business accounting software; Quicken(R), the leading personal finance software; and TurboTax(R), the best-selling tax preparation software. An innovator in delivering Web-based financial tools, Intuit is the leading provider of online tax preparation and filing and online mortgages. Intuit is also breaking new ground as a leader in online bill presentment and payment, and in the delivery of its QuickBooks Internet Gateway platform of connected e-services for small businesses.