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How to Become a Bill Pay Provider Within Your Place of Business

Many customers prefer to pay their bills in person, but many companies don't have bill pay locations that are convenient for all of their customers. To help their customers, many companies work with local agents authorized to accept walk-in bill payments at their place of business, even if the business isn't connected to the biller. As an agent for an authorized biller such as your local electric company or a nationwide cellular provider, you will earn a commission every time a customer pays a bill at your place of business.

Find a walk-in bill payment company. These companies, which contract with electric, cellular telephone and other services that issue customer bills, offer walk-in bill payment services for their customers by using approved agents, such as your business. CheckFreePay, Walk-in Money Solutions and Global Express Financial Services are three of these companies.

Go to the website of the walk-in bill payment solution (see Resources), and verify that they contract with businesses in your state. Global Express Financial Services, for example, only works with companies in a handful of states.

Check which billers or companies with which the company has contracts. For example, if you want to offer walk-in bill pay for a specific cellular phone company, verify that the walk-in bill payment company has contracted with that company or other companies that interest you.

Verify that you meet the agent requirements. Some companies may require that your business receives a certain amount of foot traffic and the store has Internet as well as a dedicated phone line for processing bill payments. CheckFreePay requires agents have an analog phone line and a nearby electrical outlet to power the bill pay equipment, as well as a Windows PC.

Apply to become an agent. Many of these companies have applications available on their websites. Enter your full name, business name, address and contact information. Enter other information about the type of business you have and the services you currently offer. Some applications will also require that you enter the amount of foot traffic your store receives. If the application is approved, you will become an authorized bill pay agent.

Sign the contract to become a bill payment agent.

Install the provided bill payment equipment and software after you sign the contract. The company may also provide signage and wall posters to advertise your new bill payment services.

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Si Kingston has been an online content contributor since 2004, with work appearing on websites such as MadeMan. She is a professional screenwriter and young-adult novelist and was awarded the Marion-Hood Boesworth Award for Young Fiction in 2008. Kingston holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Mills College.