7-Eleven Launches PayNearMe Bill Pay App for Cash Users

DALLAS and SUNNYVALE, Calif. — 7-Eleven Inc. and PayNearMe have introduced a new bill pay app, which allows U.S. consumers to pay more than 17,000 national and local billers with cash using a convenient barcode scan at participating 7-Eleven stores. Called 7-Eleven Bill Pay Operated by PayNearMe, the app is marketed exclusively by 7-Eleven to its customers.

The app serves as a full-service bill payment center that allows cash users to keep track of their payment history, schedule reminders and securely pay their bills in 60 seconds during one trip to their local 7-Eleven.

The range of billers that are payable by the app include cable companies, utilities providers and insurance companies, as well as PayNearMe's existing merchants, including Greyhound bus service and Indego, Philadelphia's bike share program.

This domestic bill payment service is the first in a line of affordable financial services that will be offered to cash-preferring U.S. consumers, and extends the reach of PayNearMe's existing cash merchant processing offering for businesses.

"This PayNearMe Bill Pay app is just the beginning," stated PayNearMe Founder and CEO Danny Shader. "Cash users are largely neglected in today's bank-based digital economy. By building a suite of easy-to-use financial services that are also easy for retailers to provide to their customers, we will make it possible for everyone to benefit from the convenience of digital transactions."

Money transmitter licenses are already secured in the 48 states where they are required, and PayNearMe expects to add national and regional retailers to its payment location network in the coming months.

The app offers retailers a new way to provide additional value to customers, increase in-store traffic and attract new customers, and its cloud-based technology gives them the ability to implement PayNearMe with minimal change to existing systems. 7-Eleven is the first retailer to partner with PayNearMe on a co-branded app.

"The 7-Eleven Bill Pay app builds on 7-Eleven's portfolio of products and services that are affordable and convenient for financially underserved customers," said Raja Doddala, 7-Eleven's vice president of innovation and omnichannel strategy. "This app is one in a series of innovations that will take 7-Eleven stores from being convenience stores to 'convenient' stores."

After downloading the app for free in the Google Play store or iTunes App Store, consumers can pay bills by:

• Creating an account and adding a bill. A barcode will be generated on the smartphone for each biller.
• Showing the barcode to the 7-Eleven cashier inside the store and telling them the amount they wish to pay.
• Providing the cash for the payment and getting a receipt as proof of payment.

A convenience fee of approximately $1.99 per payment will apply, but it depends on the biller and the size of the payment. Most payments are posted to the account within four business days, though many billers post payments the next business day.

"There is a lot of buzz around the potential of digital payments, but you can't push cash into a smartphone or a computer," Shader said. "We are digitizing cash transactions to make it easier for consumers to pay, for billers to accept and for retail partners like 7-Eleven to process."