The number of kiosks has grown from five to 25, located at DTE payment centers and neighborhood Rite Aid drug stores, primarily in Detroit. Many of the drug stores are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for added customer convenience.
DivDat Kiosks For DTE
DTE selected a Michigan-based company, DivDat, to help develop the kiosk technology. In 2014, DTE spent $922 million with Michigan-based suppliers of products and services.
DTE Energy bill payment kiosks convenient for customers was last modified: March 29th, 2020 by Kiosk Industry
Excerpt: Kiosks that handle cash and other forms of payment are the most complex of self service kiosk designs. Don’t trust just anyone to design and manufacture your next financial service kiosk. Led by Olea Kiosks we work with best-in-class partners to bring you a complete bill payment solution.
New Franklin Payment Kiosk
Payment Solutions cover a large range of situations from the simple purchase to more complex deployments.
We offer two turnkey solutions at this time: The Caddo and also the The Creek. Bill payment available for purchase, lease or operation (revenue share) and beginning at $30K complete solution.
We offer three different base + custom models for bill payment.
Applications range from your basic bill payment (paying your Comcast bill for example) to alimony to robust mobile bill pay. Indoor, Outdoor, Wall Mount, Standup, Countertop, Drive Thru.
Underbanked, non-banked and the kiosk industry
Some of the strongest growth the kiosk industry is seeing these days is in the self-order arena, specifically in fast-food restaurants. Those transactions are typically $20 or less, right in the sweet spot for cash usage.
Billpay kiosks are growing in popularity as well, targeting underbanked consumers or those who don’t have the ability to pay bills online. Some of the deployed applications include water bill payment, electricity bill pay, gas bill pay and light bill pay. 30% (and rising) of the US population is lower class living in apartments, renting housing. 25% of the US population is unbanked or underbanked according to a 2017 survey by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp and that number is considered low. Again, the type of people who are likely to favor cash.
So if credit cards are the only payment option, a company that relies on self-service kiosks may be missing out on substantial revenue opportunities.
Still, accepting cash does present obstacles deployers need to overcome. And with the use of alternative forms of payment on the rise, deployers need to plan for those as well.
Centralized electronic bill presentment and payment portal for customers of the city.
– Provide custom API’s or batch process to support non-integrated systems.
– Provide self-service abilities such as AutoPay, interactive pay by text, interactive email, and scheduled payment sign ups.
– Provide ability to pre-authorized payments including sending notification for expiring credit cards and utilize available database from visa and Mastercard. Manage rejected payments, sending notification to the customer and notifying city staff.
– Provide self-service to start or stop utility service or edit customer information on existing utility account. Or automatically generate orders for agency and provide an upload process for ownership and lease documents.
– Customer service rep assisted IVR capability. Provide the ability to track a customer’s call in-progress when passed to IVR for payment and assist customer needs if they need CSR (customer service rep) assistance.
– Ability to send friendly reminders, courtesy interactive email notifications and SMS text to accounts with a balance due.
– Automatic account linking for customers with multiple accounts, including linking of different bill types in single customer view.
– View multiple bills with a ‘consolidated’ view.
– Single payment capability for multiple bills and multiple bill types, and correct application of relevant service fees.
– Provide an itemized detailed receipt where one or multiple services are being paid for, and indicate where service fees are being charged to the customer.
– Provide ability to make payments via Web, Mobile, IVR, Kiosks, and POS systems.
– Reconciliation and reporting capabilities. Create adhoc and custom reports during implementation phase to meet our requirements.
– Implementation services.
– On-going technical support and maintenance of the portal site.
– Detailed reporting for fee statements and most efficient solution for charging fees.
– Flexible solution allowing the city to absorb credit card fees for most transactions and pass along credit card fees for selected transactions.
– Product and solution will be in compliance with city specific rules governing transaction fees or service fees.
– Allow the following transaction types: Credit Card, Debit, Check, Cash, ACH and trust account payments.
– Portal shall provide for payments and funds from different departments to be directly deposited into proper city account with unique identifiers to ensure that the funds are appropriately credited to the respective accounts.
– Handle dispute resolution and repudiation for non-ACH transactions.
– PCI Level 1 compliance and other information security standards.
– Allow point-of-sale (POS) transactions in various locations across multiple departments to include cashier stations, wireless transactions (kiosks) and portable device card transactions for use in the field. Provide necessary equipment for these services.
– Provide necessary equipment for these services.
– Provide citizen mobile application for web portal (iPhone, Android, tablet device, etc.) or provide mobile adaptive website
– Provide continuous availability of web portal with system redundancy and “up-time” guarantees or contingencies.
– Help desk and assistance point of contact for both the citizens or users of the portal and city administrators and accounting personnel.
– Provide the ability to utilize chip technology or develop in the future.
(2) Contract term will be one year.
Bill Payment News Release — Here is preliminary presss release on the Franklin
Olea Kiosks Introduces The Franklin Bill Pay Kiosk
LOS ANGELES, Calif., October 9, 2019 — Olea Kiosks of Los Angeles welcomes the Franklin Bill Pay kiosk as the newest addition to its self-service line-up. This secure and versatile kiosk is built to handle payments of any kind, anywhere.
The Franklin Bill Pay kiosk has the ability to accept and dispense dollar bills, dispense coins, read checks and take credit card payments. Because it’s a modular solution, it can be customized in a number of pre-designed configurations which make it easy to deploy in situations with first to market opportunities or where time is of the essence.
This kiosk was introduced for those industries that still have a high number of cash-paying customers. “In the past, cash-handling kiosks were very costly to deploy, but with this solution, we’ve implemented some standardizations, which makes complete self-service operation attainable,” explained Frank Olea, CEO of Olea Kiosks. The unit can be equipped with several different models of bill acceptors and dispensers to accommodate all manufacturers and compatibility with almost any software application.
The Franklin is perfect for any cash-paying application including Bill Payment, Retail Transactions, Ticketing, Food Ordering, and Hotel Check-in which makes it an ideal candidate for casinos as they can deploy the same look and feel across a number of different guest services. (if we can get the Casino page updated we can link it here)
The Franklin will be on display at the JCM Global booth 4039, at Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas, October 15 to 17. Olea Kiosks can also be seen at work in a number of other booths demonstrating a range of applications including player loyalty, player games and tournaments, betting applications and food ordering. You can find more information here:
Olea Kiosks Inc., is a Los Angeles-based self-service kiosk manufacturer in business since 1975. Its technologically advanced, in-house manufacturing and services have made it an industry leader.
The 30 kiosks placed at DTE payment centers and select Rite Aid pharmacies in locations around Detroit and Michigan accept all forms of payment, including cash. The targeted customer is someone who might not have a credit card or bank account.
Early returns are strong, company executives say. Of the utility’s 200,000 walk-in payment transactions, 25,000 used a DivDat kiosk last month. The use of its kiosks grows between 10% and 15% month-over-month. More than 90% of customers who use the kiosk one time use it again.
For Bierkle, the goal is broader than Michigan.
“We want to eliminate convenience fees nationally,” he said in an interview at the Ferndale headquarters for DivDat, short for “diversified data.” “We don’t think it’s right.”
He imagines a future of conveniently located kiosks where customers could pay a variety of bills, from water to electric to phone, in one spot without charge. Unlike a payment center, these kiosks would be located in retail stores like Rite Aids that are open on nights and weekends.
A separate trial program inside several area churches also is under way, he said.
The growing use of cash-collecting kiosks in Michigan comes as the Obama administration launched a new initiative last week to boost banking access for millions of Americans who don’t currently have checking or savings accounts.
“For many, it is hard to imagine how it would be possible manage financial affairs without basic products like a checking account or a credit card,” Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Tuesday in an announcement about new public-private efforts to reach low-income populations. “But the consequences of exclusion are real, and expanding access to financial services is important at every level of the global economy.”
The recent financial lending crisis and recession have shined a light on the potential dangers for consumers who shell out higher rates and fees for access to last-ditch credit. Millions of Americans don’t have a sufficient enough financial history to receive a credit score, which can unlock traditional forms of lending, according to Lew.
Bierkle says DTE customers already are using the blue-and-gray kiosk in a number of ways its creators did not necessarily anticipate.
Some customers are prepaying their bills to ensure they don’t lose service if times get tight. Others pay a little at various times during the month.
Ted Williams, 61, who lives on Detroit’s east side and works in inventory at Ford, said he uses the kiosks at DTE payment centers when the lines grow too long or at a Rite Aid near the city airport when he stops in to pick up a prescription.
“It’s very easy to use,” Williams said. “I wait until the last minute so I go in to drop off my check.”
Caregivers including parents of children living away from home and adult children of elderly people are also using the system to pay bills remotely for others.
There is also evidence, Bierkle said, that the millennial generation in some cases prefers cash, making the kiosk attractive beyond those who may be without a bank account or credit card.
But there are hurdles left to clear to move the business beyond its early stages.
“We have two challenges,” he said. One is building awareness about the availability of the kiosks and another is reducing concerns that installing kiosks means putting customer-service employees out of work.
For Bierkle, the kiosks are a natural evolution for his family’s business that started in early 1971 as a data processing company. Later, it developed a variety of bill-paying services for companies that progressed from the mail to faxes to the Internet.
DTE sought a partner in 2012 for the kiosk idea and eventually found DivDat. DivDat charges DTE to operate the kiosk and the bill-paying company rents space from local Rite Aids in addition to kiosks stationed in DTE payment centers.
“I consider it wildly successful,” Ronald Gillmore, kiosk program manager for DTE, said in an interview.
The program collects about $3.5 million a month for the utility.
“We’re probably going to look at expanding the network,” Gillmore said. DTE has 2.1 million electric customers and 1.2 million gas customers (and some overlap), the company said.
It can still be a challenge to persuade some older customers to adapt to the new technology, Gillmore said. But once they do, most become repeat customers, he said.
DTE offers cash payment kiosks for low-income customers was last modified: September 14th, 2018 by Kiosk Industry
Editors Note: Thanks to Olea Kiosks for sending update to us here at Kiosk Industry. Olea provides bill pay services.
Update: March 22, 2018 @ 4:00pm ET
Bill Pay TIO Networks Provides Second Update on Suspension of Operations
After careful consideration, PayPal has decided to not restore TIO’s services and will wind down TIO’s business accordingly. We thank you for your patience as we made this difficult decision. We apologize for the inconvenience the discontinuation of services has caused our billing partners, retailers, agents, and their customers – and we appreciate your partnership and support for the past 20 years.
As previously announced, the PayPal platform is not impacted in any way and PayPal’s customers’ data remains secure. PayPal remains committed to our mission to democratize financial services and provide secure, convenient and affordable ways to move and manage money to those who are underserved by the financial system.
If you are a TIO biller, retailer or agent and have any questions or would like to speak to someone about this situation, please feel free to contact the TIO call center at (866) 710-0846.
If you are an affected customer that received a notice about the TIO security incident, and have any questions, you can still reach out to the Experian call center Monday to Friday 6:00 AM – 6:00 PM PT, and Saturday and Sunday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM PT at (855) 272-6796 (toll-free) for domestic callers or (479) 788-5000 (toll) for international callers.
Update: December 1, 2017 4:30PM ET
TIO Networks Provides Update on Suspension of Operations
As announced on November 10, the operations of TIO Networks were suspended to protect customer data as part of an ongoing investigation of security vulnerabilities of the TIO platform. We have been working tirelessly to conduct a thorough review and get to the bottom of the situation. Now we have a clearer picture.
The ongoing investigation has uncovered evidence of unauthorized access to TIO’s network, including locations that stored personal information of some of TIO’s customers and customers of TIO billers.
TIO has begun working with the companies it services to notify potentially affected individuals. We are working with a consumer credit reporting agency to provide free credit monitoring memberships. Individuals who are affected will be contacted directly and receive instructions to sign up for monitoring.
We greatly appreciate the support of our billing partners, retailers, agents and consumers during this time. We will continue to communicate important updates to customers.
If you are an affected customer that received the customer notice, and have any questions, you can reach the Experian call center Monday to Friday 6:00 AM – 6:00 PM PT, and Saturday and Sunday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM PT at (855) 272-6796 (toll-free) for domestic callers or (479) 788-5000 (toll) for international callers.
If you are a biller, retailer or agent and have any questions or would like to speak to someone about this situation, please feel free to contact the TIO call center at (866) 710-0846.
Bill Pay News – PayPal Suspends TIO Operations Permanently was last modified: March 26th, 2018 by News Editor
MoneyGram (NASDAQ: MGI) has won two prestigious gold awards recognizing the company’s commitment to innovation at the 2016 PYMNTS Innovator Awards ceremony. The company won “Best Cash Innovation” for revolutionary kiosk solutions and also “Best Comeback Story” for MoneyGram.com‘s new state-of-the-art online platform.
A very successful kiosk project with bill payment. Kudos to KIOSK and all the partners. Key features include guest and repeat user experience, multiple languages, and minimal data entry for the customer. MoneyGram’s kiosks can be found inside more than 2,200 CVS locations in the U.S. as well as inside stores and post offices in Europe.
MoneyGram Wins Double Gold at 2016 PYMNTS Innovator Awards was last modified: March 19th, 2016 by Kiosk Industry
