The estimated reading time for this post is 3 minutes
Check out The Wonder of Tech in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer!
************************************************************
Your smartphone just got a whole lot smarter and you may not have even noticed.
Pageonce, a personal finance app that lets you manage funds and pay bills from your smartphone, recently launched a unique bill paying feature to its iPhone and Android apps. Last week, Steve Schultz, COO of Pageonce, gave me a demonstration of the app.
Pageonce allows you to simplify your finances by accessing them from your smartphone. With the app you can monitor your finances from banks, credit unions, credit cards and investment accounts. Schultz compared Pageonce to “a remote control for financial services” with over 8000 institutions included within the app. You can set up reminders when bills are due and see statements directly from your phone. You can track credit card rewards and check your credit score. You can also set up alerts for when your account balances run low.
Two weeks ago, Pageonce was updated to include the ability to pay your bills directly from the app on the iPhone and Android phones (this feature is coming soon to the iPad). Schultz pointed out that the advantage of using Pageonce over a banking app is that, “you can pay your bills from multiple accounts and view credit card statements from within the app. You can’t do that with a banking app.”
Schultz explained that when you pay a bill you have a choice of paying in person, by check through the mail, or on the Internet through an online banking website or a biller’s website. With Pageonce, you can pay a bill from your smartphone using funds from any of your accounts, including a credit card, eliminating the need for multiple apps. You can even have the payment receipt emailed to you.
The Pageonce app is free in the iTunes App Store and the Android Market. Monitoring your finances is free, but Pageonce charges $4.99 per month for the bill paying service.
Pageonce has been around for a while. According to Schultz, the app launched in 2008 and was one of the original 500 apps in the iTunes App Store. According to Schultz, the app has had tremendous growth and currently has 5.3 million users. The app is one of iTunes App Store Essentials and has won the Editors’ Choice Award in the Android Market.
Security is a top priority for Pageonce and the company takes it extremely seriously. Schultz states that, “Pageonce has bank-level security and that security has never been breached.” The company is certified to be secure by Trust-e, Verisign and McAfee.
Pageonce takes further steps to protect the user by requiring a password to access the app. A user can restrict the use of the app and its information to only once device, so even if someone hacked into your iTunes account from another iPhone, he couldn’t access your Pageonce account.
If your smartphone is lost or stolen, you can wipe the device by logging into the Pagonce website. If the passcode is entered wrong repeatedly, the app locks to thwart hacking attempts.
Although Pageonce launched its bill payment feature just two weeks ago, Schultz said the company is looking ahead to future advances. In the near future, Pageonce will be expanding bill payment to the iPad app. Pageonce is also working on an enhancement that allows the user to scan a bill with a smartphone camera to enter information about the biller, making the set-up of an account very simple.
A longer term goal for the company is to expand their financial services so that users can pay for items at a store by using their smartphones. The service would be similar to Google Wallet, but with the capability of accessing any of the user’s credit cards or other accounts to pay for the items.
You can check out the iPhone app here: Pageonce for iPhone
and the Android app here: Pageonce for Android
Are you looking forward to managing your financing on your smartphone? Would you like to pay bills when you’re on the go? Let us know in the Comments section below!
Carolyn – This app looks great, i like the overview page especially which is very neatly divided into the meaningful blocks. But then again, am back to thinking about my credit card security over this app, but it may just be me 🙂
Hi Praveen, You’re right to be concerned over your credit card security, you absolutely should take it seriously. Many people have been reluctant to enroll in online banking for the same reason.
I appreciate your concerns, but I was very impressed with how seriously Pageonce takes security. They have 5.3 million users and have never had their security breached.
They are repeatedly certified by Trust-e, Verisign and McAfee and have never failed to be certified. Mr. Schultz also emphasized that Pageonce has bank level security.
But you have to be comfortable with your financial information, Praveen, so it’s important to decide whether the convenience of having your financial information on your smartphone outweighs your concerns about security.
So true! I installed this on my phone just recently and it makes my life so much easier.
It’s great to hear from a satisfied customer! I’m using this app and enjoying it as well. It’s very handy to have a reference on the go!
I got to the bit about the monthly fee and lost interest. I read today about people on unemployment in America being charged $1.50 to use an ATM. I won’t pay ATM charges! We do have free banking in the UK though. One shop I go in has a fee for using a debit card, I pay cash!
A useful app would be simple accounting so you could enter the name of a store and how much you spent on your debit card and it would keep a record of spending. I use a book for that.
I need at better way to monitor share prices now. I had one up 15% by lunchtime today; it’s dropped back to 12.9% now and the market is about to close. It seems better than putting my money in the bank and much more interesting! So far! 🙂
Hi Mike, Yes, I got very spoiled living in Europe where there are no ATM fees. I hate paying those fees here, so I try to get cash out from my own back or get money back when I go to the grocery store.
Pageonce is free if you want to monitor your personal finances. The only fee is for paying bills so if you don’t want to pay that fee you don’t have to use that option.
But if you travel a lot and need to pay bills when you’re on the road, then you might find the bill pay option a valuable tool. Otherwise, you could just grab the free app and keep track of your finances from wherever you go.
Now that’s convenient. What an easy way to keep up with everything.
I think the security issue would be my only concern but it sounds to me like they have that under control. I mean what good would something like this be if it wasn’t secure for it’s customers!
I can’t help but remember seeing that video of thieves who have these electronic devices and all they do is stand close to you and are able to swipe all your account information off your credit cards. I have that scary thought of them doing the same things with phones now. Not that anything like that has ever happened to me but thieves are just getting a lot smarter these days.
Great app though Carolyn, again, thanks for keeping us up to date.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Exactly, Pageonce would be out of business if their security weren’t tight.
In Europe, where credit card fraud is much more prevalent than in the US, waiters bring the credit card machine to the table. You never let your credit card out of your sight in Europe. Europeans visiting the US must feel very wary of letting a waiter walk off with their credit card when it’s time to pay the bill!
Carolyn, aloha. Amazing. Whenever I do get my iPhone, I can tell it will be a whole new world for me.
There is a balance between security and convenience, however, I think the “bad guys” know how to get through most anything and since it is so easy to wipe it, that does give a level of comfort.
So, Carolyn, the big question is do you use it? If so, what to you like best about it? If not, why not?
Carolyn, I am getting to be so tech savvy it is absolutely astounding. Thanks so much. Until next time, aloha. Janet
Aloha, Janet, Great questions! I do use Pageonce to monitor my finances and I find it very handy. I can keep track of my bank account balance and my credit card balances. I also like that I can see my credit card bills right from my iPhone. I always have my iPhone with me so I find Pageonce very handy!
I had never used a banking app on my iPhone before because I was always concerned with security, but I feel very confident that Pageonce is secure after researching this article.
I don’t use the Bill Pay option because my husband pays the bills and he uses a Blackberry (he’s close to switching to an iPhone, I think, he loves Siri!).
Hi Carolyn,
This app sounds great. I will definitely download it, but may not use for bill paying immediately. I’ll try it out for awhile and see. Thanks for sharing. (Loving my new iphone!)
Hi Cathy, Great idea to get used to the app for managing your finances before you use it to pay bills. Get used to it and see if you like it.
You should also note that if you wanted to try the bill payment feature, you can subscribe for a month at a time. There is no long-term commitment for the bill payment feature.
Wow Carolyn!
You always amaze us with awesome information!
I have heard about smartphone and people paying their bills through it, but like Adrienne- have never gone in for it because of the security reasons and the fear of online theft. But I read your reply also that Pageonce would be out of business if their security was not tight enough- that sounds reasonable enough as well.
At our end the technology regarding paying bills through our cellphones is just about catching up now, and may take a while where everyone starts believing in it. Yes, we do check the balance in our bank and everything else, beside the actual monetary dealing. I guess once more people start dealing with funds through their smartphone, things would work better.
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi Harleena, I’m glad you find this information helpful!
You’re right, banking via our smartphones is cutting edge, like online banking was a few years ago. But it makes sense that we should be able to use our smartphones to bank, so long as the process is secure.
But people were unsure about online banking when it first came out. Now people don’t worry as much.
Hi Carolyn,
Pageonce looks awesome. I have a similar app from my bank in Norway, but I haven’t used it at all. I’m not sure why, but I’m a little sceptical of accessing my bank account via my iPhone. It’s not that it’s not secure, it’s more that I’m sure that I’ll be doing some mistakes and mess up my finances 🙂
Hi Jens, Yes, you’re right, you should be careful when entering information on your smartphone, especially with the small keyboard on the iPhone. Make sure to double check your entries to make sure you entered the proper amounts! 🙂
Great app, can turn out to be very useful. I love using my smartphone like this. After all, that’s why the call it a smartphone.
Regarding this app, I’m pretty sure its not available for countries outside USA right?
Hi Cristian, Yes, Pageonce is US only for now. They might expand in the future though.
Hey Carolyn,
Nice app. I am the one who would use it a lot if these were available here.
Right now I have to log into a multiple number of websites to pay the bills. in India, we have a similar service called as Bill Desk . Though they do not have the apps for smart phone I think it is a matter of time that they might develop it.
The best part is the security in pageonce. Smart phones are going to contain a lot of info these days and if someone steals it, they can ruin the phone owner.
Really useful app, I can say. Thanks for the information once again 🙂