Report: 73% of Americans Say Inflation is Impacting Their Ability to Pay Household Bills

Annual doxoINSIGHTS Report Reveals Consumers Spend $24,557 per year - 35% of Income - on Essential Household Bills; 86% are Worried About Their Financial Health due to Inflation

A new report released today by doxo shows that inflation is not only impacting consumers’ ability to pay their household bills, but that they are worried about the long term impact it will have on their financial health. Coming on the heels of the Federal Reserve Board’s Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households report, which showed that rising prices have dramatically impacted overall household finances in a negative way, doxo’s analysis similarly finds that three in four consumers (73%) say that inflation is impacting their ability to pay bills. 86% of consumers said they are worried about the impact that inflation will have on their financial health in the future, with 72% saying it would take six months or more until their household’s financial health improves.

doxo’s second annual How Americans Pay Their Bills Report also offers in-depth findings and analysis of demographic data and behavior of the US bill pay consumer, and reveals that the average household in America now spends $24,557 per year, or 35% of their income, on the most essential bills.

“When we launched our inaugural doxoINSIGHTS report, consumers were bracing for the impacts of inflation and now, one year later, we see the effect of rising prices across all measures of a household’s financial health, including their monthly bills,” said Liz Powell, Senior Director of INSIGHTS at doxo. “How Americans choose to pay those bills is unique to every household based on factors such as a fixed or variable income, whether a bill needs to be delayed that month, and whether they choose to pay in cash or by card, but all households face the reality that their bills are slowly increasing.”

Key Findings from this year’s doxoINSIGHTS’ How Americans Pay Their Bills Report, include:

• Inflation is making paying bills harder for consumers:
  • 86% of consumers are worried about the impact that inflation is having on their financial health
  • 73% reveal that inflation is impacting their ability to pay bills
  • 72% said it would take six months or more until their household’s financial health improves

• Because of inflation, consumers are most concerned with their ability to pay the following bills:
  • 73% – Utilities
  • 63% – Auto insurance
  • 63% – Cable & Internet
  • 62% – Mobile phone
  • 51% – Alarm & Security
  • 50% – Health insurance

• Bills eat up a significant portion of total household income:
  • Household bills make up more than a third (35%) of the average household income [with average household income of $70,784 and average annual bill spend of $24,557 ($2,046 per month) up slightly from $24,032 ($2,003 per month) last year]
  • 23% of consumers said they feel relieved when paying their bills
  • 16% reporting bill pay makes them feel anxious or stressed

• Cash is not king when it comes to bill pay:
  • The average household pays nine bills per month, with 14% of households delaying at least one bill per month
  • 27% of bill payers have variable income from month to month, which makes paying bills in a consistent manner difficult
  • 60% of bills are paid with cards (credit, debit, prepaid) vs. cash, check or ACH

• Credit score remains a cause for concern:
  • For the second year in a row, “impact to credit score” remained the top concern among U.S. consumers when it comes to paying their bill, at 86%
  • “Stolen payment information” and “identity fraud” closely followed, at 85% and 84% respectively
  • “Late fees” (71%) and “overdraft fees” (59%) were also concerns for a majority of bill paying consumers

Bill Pay Demographics & Behavior

• Who pays the bills:
  • Women are more likely to manage household bills than men, with 53% of bill payers being female, while 47% are male.

• When consumers pay their bills:
  • Using anonymized data from doxo’s 8 million users, the report breaks down the days and times that consumers are most likely to pay their bills.
  • The window between 10am and 12pm is when individuals are most likely to make payments.
  • Monday and Friday are the most popular days to make bill payments, while most consumers take a break from payments and paperwork on the weekends (Saturday and Sunday are the least popular).

• How consumers pay their bills - payment instruments:
  • More than 70% of consumers use ACH (direct bank account transfer) to pay their credit card and mortgage bills, but when it comes to Rent payments, only 25% of consumers use ACH.
  • Cash is also disproportionately used to pay Rent (16%); while cash payment for other bills is nominal (between 1% and 3% of the time)
  • Debit cards are also used to widely varying degrees, with only 12% of respondents using a debit card to make mortgage payments, and 29% of respondents using a debit card to make electric bill payments

• How consumers pay their bills - payment practices:
  • While websites account for the largest chunk of usage for the majority of bills, with the remaining percentage (over 50%) split between other platforms, including bank bill pay, phone payments, mail-in payments, and even in-person payments
  • Rent, in particular, sees a large percentage of real-life payments: 31% of consumers pay their rent checks in person

• Payment prompts & improvements to the bill pay experience:
  • Consumers most prefer email reminders, with 64% of respondents wanting the feature from their bill pay platform
  • Increasingly consumers expect the ability to pay through a mobile app, with 62% saying it improves the bill pay experience
  • To-do lists were the next improvement consumers wanted to see, at 59%

For the complete United States of Bill Pay: How Americans Pay Their Bills Report and additional insights, go to https://www.doxo.com/insights/

About doxoINSIGHTS

doxoINSIGHTS provides direct insight into household financial health and spending activity by leveraging consumer surveys and doxo’s unique aggregate bill pay data set, comprising actual bill payment activity to confirmed household service providers across the country. doxo data brings together the broadest available data set for analyzing actual household bill payment activity, pulling from over 8 million paying consumers across over 97% of U.S. zip codes. doxo’s payment network covers over 120,000 billers in 45 different service categories and enables payments using bank accounts, credit cards or debit cards. This uniquely broad statistical foundation powers doxoINSIGHTS reports – uncovering key trends for household financial health and bill payment behavior.

About doxo

doxo delivers innovation that transforms the bill pay experience for consumers, billers and financial technology providers. For over 8 million consumers, doxo’s all-in-one bill pay makes it simple to organize and pay any bill on any device through a secure checkout. For billers, doxo’s network-driven platform enables online and mobile payments with a ridiculously simple integration, radically lower costs, and game-changing features that are unavailable with legacy bill pay vendors. For fintech partners, doxo delivers financial innovations to consumers across 97% of US Zip Codes, who make payments from more than 5,000 financial institutions to over 120,000 billers in 45+ service categories. To learn more about America’s leading bill pay network, visit doxo.com.

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