The UK's Alliance and Leicester Commercial Bank says it has clocked up 200,000 user registrations for its online bill payment service, BillPay.
Alliance & Leicester says users have paid about £50 million through the site since its launch in January 2000. Almost 200 organisations now accept payments via BillPay, including councils, utility companies and the Inland Revenue.
The Web site allows customers to pay bills using a debit card, regardless of whether they have an online bank account.
Darren Whiteley, product manager, bill payments, Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank, says the popularity of BillPay is growing as more organisations recognise how quickly and easily they receive payments online.
"Typically, the service can be up and running in a matter of weeks - and at a fraction of the cost of developing an online payment system inhouse," he says.
The service uses secure, 128-bit encryption technology although debit card details are not retained on the BillPay servers.
Once they are signed up for the service, organisations simply need to add a link to BillPay on their own Web site in order to begin receiving payments.