CheckFree i-Solutions Delivers Electronic Billing and Payment Program to 70 Million Federated Department Stores' Credit Card Holders

Business Wire, August 20, 2001

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 20, 2001

Consumers across the country can now receive and pay their

department store credit card bills at their choice

of over 300 financial services sites

CheckFree i-Solutions, the leading provider of interactive e-billing and e-statement applications and part of CheckFree Corporation (NASDAQ: CKFR), today announced that 70 million Federated credit card customers can now receive and pay their bills online at their choice of more than 300 CheckFree-powered sites including banks, brokerages, credit unions and Internet portals.

Federated operates 450 stores across 34 states, Guam and Puerto Rico, including Bloomingdale's, The Bon Marche, Burdines, Goldsmith's, Lazarus, Macy's and Rich's, as well as macys.com, bloomingdales.com and Bloomingdale's By Mail.

With the service, consumers can save time and increase control over their finances by paying their bills online and experience the interactive benefits of electronic bills not offered in the paper world. Federated credit card customers can access, review and pay their bills faster and more easily than with paper payments. They can view their credit card bill 24 x 7, review current and outstanding account balances and access the full bill detail from the convenience of their personal computer. With a few simple clicks of the mouse, consumers can approve the bill and schedule the date of the payment with the specified amount deducted electronically from their designated bank, credit union or brokerage account. Customers who pay bills electronically through this service are protected from unauthorized transactions or processing delays by the CheckFree Guarantee.

"A growing number of retailers, such as Federated, are embracing electronic billing and payment because it offers their customers an easy way to manage their finances while increasing their free time," said Tom Stampiglia, president of CheckFree i-Solutions. "Federated customers can now enjoy the benefits offered by CheckFree, such as the security of the CheckFree Guarantee and the ability to pay everyone, even businesses that do not send electronic bills."

In addition to receiving and paying their bills at one of over 300 financial services sites, consumers can also use "pay everyone" services to make payments from their computers to anyone to whom they would ordinarily write a check. This includes all bills, even to day care centers, home maintenance services, or friends and family members, such as children away at college.

Some of the online financial service providers making the Federated bills available electronically include:

-- Bank of America http://www.bankofamerica.com

-- Bank One http://www.bankone.com/

-- Charles Schwab at http://www.charlesschwab.com/
SchwabNOW/SNLibrary/SNLib047/ SN047mainSchwabBillPay/

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

-- First Union http://personalfinance.firstu nion.com/pf/cda/ps/product_fa
mily/ 0,,60,00.html

-- Merrill Lynch http://www.newmlol.ml.com/?ml hp

-- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter http://www.dwdean.com/

-- Navy Federal Credit Union http://emsc.navyfcu.org/billp ay.html

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

-- PNC Bank https://www.accountlink.pncba nk.com/index.html

-- Quicken 98/99 software and Quicken.com https://bills.quicken.com/wel come

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

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

For a complete list of sites that offer CheckFree electronic billing and payment, visit www.checkfree.com/freedom.

About CheckFree i-Solutions

As a software group within CheckFree Corporation, CheckFree i-Solutions is the leading provider of end-to-end business-to-consumer and business-to-business solutions for e-billing and payment and e-statement delivery. CheckFree i-Solutions offers CheckFree i-Series software for e-bill and e-statement creation, i-Processing services that include payment and distribution through over 300 financial services sites and customer care, and i-Hosting services that accommodate self-hosting or outsourcing. With 271 billers under contract, CheckFree i-Solutions is committed to helping billers, financial services organizations and biller service providers leverage electronic bills and statements as interactive conduits to customer relationship management, marketing and customer self service applications. For more information about CheckFree i-Solutions, please visit www.checkfree.com/i-solutions.

About CheckFree (www.checkfree.com)

CheckFree (NASDAQ: CKFR) is the leading provider of financial electronic commerce services and products. Founded in 1981 and celebrating its 20th year in e-commerce, CheckFree is comprised of three divisions: Electronic Commerce, Software, and Investment Services. CheckFree launched the first fully integrated electronic billing and payment solution in 1997. As of June 30, 2001, CheckFree's Electronic Commerce division enabled more than 5.2 million consumers to receive and pay bills electronically. The company has multi-year contracts with 271 of the nation's top billers to provide online billing and payment through more than 300 financial services organizations, including banks, brokerage firms, Internet portals and content sites and personal financial management (PFM) software. CheckFree Investment Services provides a broad range of investment management services to thousands of financial institutions nationwide. The division's clients manage more than 1,150,000 portfolios totaling more than $500 billion in assets.