CheckFree and GPU Bring Electronic Billing and Payment to Two Million Utility Customers

Business Wire, Nov 6, 2000

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 6, 2000

GPU Energy Customers Can Save Time by Receiving and Paying Bills

Through Their Choice of Financial Services Web Sites

CheckFree (NASDAQ: CKFR) and GPU Energy, which operates the largest electric distribution system in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, today announced that electronic billing and payment (EBP) is now available to GPU Energy's customer base of more than two million customers.

Now, GPU Energy utility customers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York can save time and increase their control over bill payments by receiving and paying their monthly electric bills statements online.

Driven by customer demand and a desire for both enhanced customer communication and corporate cost savings, GPU Energy implemented CheckFree's fully integrated EBP solution. Now, customers can access bills, view bill details and approve their bill payment in minutes through their choice of nearly 250 financial services Web sites offering the CheckFree EBP service including banks, brokerages, credit unions, Internet portals and personal financial management software such as Intuit's Quicken(R). GPU Energy's electronic bill is very similar to that of its paper-based counterpart but unlike paper bills customers who pay bills through this service are protected from unauthorized transactions and late fees or interest from processing delays by the CheckFree Guarantee. Information about the EBP program is available on GPU's Web site (www.gpu.com)

"We want to simplify the lives of our customers by offering them more online services," said Michael B. Roche, GPU Energy's vice president of customer and regulatory services. "By offering electronic billing and payment through CheckFree, we are offering our customers an easier and more convenient way to manage this part of their financial lives while providing enhanced communication and customer service through the Internet."

"Consumers increasingly want to leverage the Internet to gain more control, flexibility and ultimately more free time by reducing the time spent on a regular monthly chore such as paying bills," said Tom Stampiglia, president of CheckFree Software Division. "In addition, electronic billing and payment enables companies like GPU to better communicate with their customers when, where and how the customer chooses."

The CheckFree EBP service is available through GPU's Web site as well as banks, brokerages, credit unions, portals and other financial service sites. Current online consumer service providers making GPU's bills available electronically include:

-- Bank One at https://server24.bankoneonlin e.com/logon/

-- Bills.com at http://www.bills.com

-- Charles Schwab at https://www.mybills.com/schwa b

-- Citizens Bank at http://www.citizensbank.com/

-- First Union at https://www.mybills.com/first union

-- Merrill Lynch at https://www.mybills.com/mlol

-- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter at https://www.dwdean.com

-- Navy Federal Credit Union at https://www.mybills.com/NavyF ederalWebBillPay

-- NetBank at http://www.netbank.com

-- Prudential Securities at https://www.mybills.com/Prude ntial/WBP

-- Quicken 98/99 software and Quicken.com at http://www.quicken.com/bankin
g_and_credit/

-- Summit Bank at https://www.mybills.com/summi tbank

-- US Postal Service at http://www.usps.com/ebpp/spla sh.html

-- Yahoo! at http://bills.yahoo.com

For a complete list of distribution partners offering CheckFree electronic billing and payment, visit http://www.checkfree.com/freedom and discover the freedom of being "check free." (Please note that an "s" is required after the "http" on most of the sites, which indicates that the site is secured.)

About GPU

GPU, Inc. (NYSE: GPU), headquartered in Morristown, NJ, is a registered public utility holding company providing utility and utility-related services to customers throughout the world. GPU serves 4.6 million customers directly through its electric companies -- GPU Energy in the US, GPU Power UK in England, and Emdersa in Argentina. It serves an additional 1.4 million customers indirectly through GPU GasNet, its gas transmission subsidiary in Australia. GPU's 1999 revenues were $4.8 billion and its total assets were $21.7 billion. GPU's other subsidiaries include MYR Group Inc., GPU Advanced Resources, Inc., GPU Nuclear, Inc., GPU Service, Inc. and GPU Telcom Services, Inc. (http://www.gpu.com)

About CheckFree

CheckFree (www.checkfree.com) is the leading provider of financial electronic commerce services and products. Founded in 1981, CheckFree launched the first fully integrated electronic billing and payment solution in 1997. Today, CheckFree enables 4.1 million consumers to receive and pay bills electronically. The company has multi-year contracts with 210 of the nation's top billers to provide online billing and payment through nearly 250 consumer service providers (CSPs), including banks, brokerage firms, Internet portals and content sites and personal financial management (PFM) software. CheckFree's Software Services division provides solutions that are used to process more than two-thirds of the nation's six billion Automated Clearing House payments, and reconciliation products and services to 400 banks and businesses. Also within the Software Services division is CheckFree i-Solutions, which enables billers to create electronic billing and payment applications that transform bills and statements into interactive conduits for customer relationship management, marketing and customer self service. CheckFree's Investment Services provides a broad range of investment management services to thousands of financial institutions nationwide. The division's clients manage more than 1,000,000 portfolios totaling more than $500 billion in assets.