BillMatrix Offers New ATM Option.

BillMatrix Corp., a provider of outsourced telephone and Internet-based recurring payment services, has created what the company believes is the mortgage industry's first program to allow consumers to pay their monthly mortgage bill over the telephone using an ATM card.

The service was recently implemented with a major mortgage servicer, the company said. The mortgage client was looking to accelerate cash flow and provide customers with a convenient, secure means to make payments.

Leveraging the growing use of debit cards for utility, insurance and other bills was a natural extension of the servicer's automatic, recurring ACH service, BillMatrix said.

Responding to increased consumer demand for expanded payment options, a mortgage servicer can take advantage of an ATM/debit card feature that virtually eliminates returned items, a frequent problem with payments mailed in via checks. Some checks are typically returned due to insufficient funds.

BillMatrix's system validates that funds are available in the account for the payment on a real-time basis and assigns those funds to the mortgage servicer.

Jerry Portocalis, senior vice president of sales and marketing for BillMatrix, said the outsourced service was implemented over a short period of time and with minimal internal investment for the client. The company is now seeking additional business for the ...