Keith Regan looks at Bill Me Later in a post on eCommerceTimes.com saying that "credit card-free alternative Bill Me Later has proven that merchants and consumers alike are hungry for alternatives."

Bill Me Later has announced that Journeys.com, a specialty retailer of footwear and accessories, has launched Bill Me Later on its web site. With the Bill Me Later payment service, consumers can conveniently and securely make online purchases without a credit card. Journeys.com is also extending the additional convenience and flexibility of no payments for 90 days to its customers.   » Continue Reading

Bill Me Later, has announced that 'Continental Airlines is offering customers that pay with Bill Me Later $20 off the total price of their airfare. The discount is available to new Bill Me Later customers that purchase tickets at continental.com or by calling Continental reservations at 1-800-523-3273 through April 23. In addition, customers that pay using Bill Me Later can take advantage of special promotional financing offers including no payments for 90 days and no payments for six months on purchases of $1500 or more.'   » Continue Reading

Francine Kizner writes for Entrepreneur.com about alternative payments providers Bill Me Later, eBillMe, Revolution Money, and Bill-to-Phone. "Alternative payment companies entice buyers who may not have credit cards, feel wary about sharing their information online or just want an easier checkout experience."

Business Week's Catherine Holahan takes a look at PayPal - and other alternative payment providers including Bill Me Later and Google Checkout. "Experts point to three main drivers for alternative payments: concern over fraud risk, growth in merchant participation, and fear of, or lack of access to, credit cards."

Bill Me Later has announced its 2007 holiday results - reporting an upsurge in toys, travel and fashion purchases in Q4 2007 as compared to Q4 2006. Toy purchases grew 131 percent, travel buying increased 67 percent, female fashion, including shoes and handbags, increased 128 percent. The company also reported that consumers who used Bill Me Later more than doubled their use of deferred billing in Q4 2007 as compared to Q4 2006.   » Continue Reading

SmartMoney's Kelli B. Grant writes about alternative ecommerce payments - Bill Me Later, PayPal, and eBillMe - and identifies "four reasons you may want to think twice before hitting the "checkout" button using one of these services."

Suzanne Choney writes for MSNBC about Bill Me Later - but also about eBillMe and PaidByCash. Sounds ominous: "The Electronic Retailing Association advises consumers to make sure they read the fine print and know their rights when dealing with alternative online payment programs."

In an article titled 'E-Commerce Credit Card Alternatives Soaring In Popularity', Evan Schuman writes that "some of the largest E-Commerce chains have suddenly started to embrace non-traditional payment methods, with one analyst firm finding a startling 267 percent increase in such acceptance in February, when compared with the identical survey done in mid-October."

Meanwhile, HitWise looks at the growth in traffic associated with Bill Me Later. HitWise reports that Bill Me Later's traffic is up 271% from last year while PayPal's traffic is down 1% and Google Checkout is down 34%

Laura Smitherman writes for the Baltimore Sun about home-town favorite Bill Me Later's recent deal with Amazon.com. "Amazon.com and other retailers choose Bill Me Later because its 3 million users tend to spend more than the average customer and to return more frequently to participating merchants." Saul Hansell of the New York Times blogs about Bill Me Later on the Times' Bits blog: "What Mr. Marino has built is a rare thing: a new widespread payment method."

Amazon.com has announced it has signed an agreement with Bill Me Later to make the Bill Me Later payment option available on the Amazon.com website. Amazon.com also announced that it is making an equity investment in Bill Me Later, Inc. Note that Bill Me Later is not yet available on the Amazon.com web site - "the companies are working closely together to make the service available as soon as possible..." An FAQ is available.   » Continue Reading

Mylene Mangalindan reports for the Wall St. Journal on marketing promotions being offered this holiday season to online shoppers by PayPal, Bill Me Later and Google Checkout. "For consumers, the offers represent an increasingly significant variable to consider when trying to play the holiday promotions. Most of the latest promotions involve free shipping, discounts or credits."

In an article titled 'A credit-card alternative', Tricia Bishop reports for the Baltimore Sun about Bill Me Later - "a young company is trying to change the way people shop online by providing a payment alternative to the credit card."

In an article titled 'An Old-Time Touch for the Modern Shopper', Catherine Rampell writes for the Washington Post about how Bill Me Later is attractive to shoppers who don't want to provide their credit card details to online ecommerce merchants. According to the article, Bill Me Later has 3 million customers.

Today is Cyber Monday - expected to be the busiest online shopping day of the year. As a reminder, some of the online ecommerce payments companies have special offers setup to save you money doing this year's holiday shopping. These include PayPal's Holiday Shopping site, Bill Me Later's holiday store, and Google Checkout's Holiday Offers.

Bill Me Later has announced holiday deals including "free shipping at more than 80 merchants, extended payments, holiday travel promotions and exclusive discounts and offers from leading retailers." Consumers can visit http://www.billmelater.com to register for free shipping, find “Daily Steals,” read holiday shopping tips, and more information on Bill Me Later, which allows consumers to make online and phone purchases at hundreds of top merchants without using a credit card."   » Continue Reading

Bob Tedeschi reports for the New York Times about ecommerce retailers adopting PayPal, Bill Me Later and Google Checkout as online payment options. One retailer quoted says "“So we’re a big supporter of these other payment methods. Somebody has to keep the MasterCards and Visas honest.”

CardinalCommerce and Bill Me Later have announced that consumer electronics retailer Crutchfield Corporation has deployed the Bill Me Later payment option. According to the companies: "since it rolled out Bill Me Later in its call center and on its web site, approximately 40 percent of Crutchfield’s Bill Me Later sales come through the Bill Me Later Network and nearly 60 percent of those Bill Me Later users are new customers for the retailer."   » Continue Reading

We're starting to see some pretty mainstream adoption of alternative payments (i.e., non-bank card-based) - what with PayPal's march through the skies with the airlines, Bill Me Later's very effective use of promotional financing, etc. PayPal recently reported that 44% of its payment volume was coming from its Merchant Services business (i.e., non-auction related).

Yesterday, drugstore.com reported third quarter financial results - and they included the following snippet regarding the value to a merchant of accepting alternative payments:

"...almost 10% of OTC transactions in recent weeks have migrated to alternative payment options since the completion of our roll-out of Bill Me Later, Google Checkout and PayPal."

Here's a real-life example of an ecommerce merchant who didn't fool around trying to decide which alternative payment type to implement - they just implemented all three of the majors!

In an article titled 'Paying without Plastic', Don Davis writes for Internet Retailer about alternative payment options for ecommerce retailers - including PayPal, Bill Me Later, eBillMe, and PaidByCash.

The August issue of the First Annapolis Navigator is now available. This issue has a special feature article, "An Attractive Alternative: An Interview with Gary Marino, CEO of Bill Me Later, Inc." as well as "Mortgage Market Meltdown: Taking the Pulse on Potential Spillover Effects", "These Commercial Cards Have Wheels! - A Fleet Card Snapshot", "Q2 2007 Issuer Performance Snapshot", "Business Bankruptcies: Increasing Trend Amid Housing Market Turmoil", and "Average Ticket Dynamics Among Agent Banks".

Mercator Advisory Group has published a new report titled "Alternative Payment Services: Moving into Traditional Payment Territory" that offers "an in-depth look at the principle providers of alternative payment services" and "examines the payment modalities supported by these alternative payment services and the consumer demographics they appeal to."   » Continue Reading

I4 Commerce has announced that it has changed its name to Bill Me Later, Inc. The company says that its "new corporate name marks the culmination of years of work building a leading alternative payment service for retailers and consumers. The Bill Me Later name best reflects the company’s focus on enhancing the retail purchasing experience by enabling customers to shop without using a credit card and to be billed for their purchases at a later date."   » Continue Reading

JetBlue has announced "a partnership with Bill Me Later, a non-credit card form of payment for customers purchasing JetBlue travel. The payment method allows customers to safely and conveniently make JetBlue travel reservations at http://www.jetblue.com using the innovative payment system of I4 Commerce."   » Continue Reading

Equifax has announced that several banking, retail and technology customers are incorporating VantageScore into their decisioning processes - including I4 Commerce which has begun utilizing VantageScore within its underwriting process.   » Continue Reading

I4 Commerce has announced Bill Me Later Business, a new payments service for merchants with small business customers. The company says "this is the first payments service designed to help retailers meet the needs of small businesses, by simplifying the purchasing process and increasing purchasing power for the 25 million small business customers in the U.S., without requiring lengthy applications or credit cards. Bill Me Later Business enables retailers to capture a larger share of the $35.5 billion small businesses spend online annually."   » Continue Reading

I4 Commerce has announced that Zappos.com has begun using its Bill Me Later payment service that includes flexible financing opportunities for customers such as no payments for 90 days.   » Continue Reading

I4 Commerce, parent of Bill Me Later, has announced that Mark Britto, former Senior Vice President at Amazon.com, Robert DiRomualdo, former Chairman of Borders Group, Inc. and Victor Lund, former Vice Chairman of Albertson's, Inc. have joined its Board of Directors.   » Continue Reading

Bill Me Later sends along the following news about some interesting holiday shopping trends they've noticed this season.   » Continue Reading

I4 Commerce has announced that it has secured $640 million in a corporate debt financing from Citigroup's Corporate and Investment Banking division. The company, parent of Bill Me Later, says the debt proceeds will be used to fund the continued rapid growth of I4 Commerce's consumer loan portfolio and for general working capital.   » Continue Reading

Consumer Reports takes a look at several online payment services, including Google Checkout, PayPal and Bill Me Later, that it says "can offer added security in an electronic world vulnerable to credit-card fraud and identity theft." The article adds "but they’re far from foolproof."

Erika Brown reports for Forbes on Bill Me Later - saying that I4 Commerce CEO Gary Marino certainly knows "how to pick a fight." Brown reports on one of the basic tenets of payments innovation - the amount of capital and time required for success - as experienced by Bill Me Later saying "so far it has taken him five years and $100 million in venture backing to persuade 2 million shoppers and 300 online retailers to try him out." Brown points out one important advantage that Bill Me Later brings to merchants - the ability to provide promotional financing combined with payment.

A friend writes to tell us about his recent shopping experience on Overstock.com - where he says Bill Me Later was the default payment option for his purchase. He described the whole process and amazing straightforward and simple - once logged into Overstock, he was able to buy and charge to Bill Me Later very quickly. We've also been noticing the increased presence of Bill Me Later as a payment option at more and more online merchants.

Katie Wilmeth reports for the Examiner about I4 Commerce's Bill Me Later - reporting that "the company, which was founded by four former credit card industry executives, has used that wariness over online credit card fraud to build up a roster of nearly 2 million customers — many of them in the “soccer mom” demographic."

I4 Commerce has announced that AirTran Airways is offering customers the ability to pay with Bill Me Later.   » Continue Reading

I4 Commerce, a provider of payment and marketing technology solutions for multichannel retailers, has announced that Brookstone is now offering customers the option to buy now and pay later with Bill Me Later. Part of I4 Commerce's PayCapture suite, Bill Me Later is a fast, convenient and secure way for Brookstone customers to pay for purchases without providing credit card information.   » Continue Reading

Red Herring interviews I4 Commerce's CEO Gary Marino in which he talks about progress with Bill Me Later, now offered by more than 240 merchants and actively used by over 1 million active buyers.   » Continue Reading

I4 Commerce, the company offering the Bill Me Later payment service, has announced it has secured $27.4 million in venture funding led by Kingdon Capital Management and including previous major investors, Crosspoint Venture Partners, Azure Capital Partners and GRP Partners.   » Continue Reading

I4 Commerce has announced that its ShopBillMeLater.com website activity grew 580 percent over Q4 2004 activity. The ShopBillMeLater.com web site provides a directory of merchants who accept I4's Bill Me Later payment service along with special offers from participating merchants.

"Retailers that participated in the website, correspondence, offers and email programs reported that they grew sales during the holiday season. Significantly, analysis indicates 33 percent of these were incremental, coming from new customers to the retailers."   » Continue Reading

MarketingSherpa reports on a case study at Newegg.com testing several different Bill Me Later payment options with online shoppers - after having earlier experimented with PayPal as a payment option.

Peter Burrows reports for BusinessWeek.com on I4 Commerce's Bill Me Later online payment alternative.   » Continue Reading

Samar Farah reports for CMO Magazine on Bill Me Later and on eToys Direct's experience adding Bill Me Later as an additional payment type.Samar Farah reports for CMO Magazine on Bill Me Later and on eToys Direct's experience adding Bill Me Later as an additional payment type.   » Continue Reading

Robert Terry reports for the Washington Business Journal on I4 Commerce's Bill Me Later.

I4 Commerce has introduced PayCapture (PDF), a new service for select retailers who are members of the Bill Me Later Network.   » Continue Reading

CyberSource and I4 Commerce have announced they're partnering to make it easier for merchants to implement I4 Commerce's Bill Me Later payment service.   » Continue Reading