Pew Research has just published a study on consumer bill payment. It explores the types of payments (utility, loan, etc.), the payment method (cash, check, debit, credit), and explores budgeting, money and marriage, bill payment by income level, etc.

This report should be required reading for B2C billers and retail bankers.

Bill-paying is a different experience now than it was a generation ago. A sizable minority of adults pay by click. And a sizable majority pay each month for one or more of the big three Information Age staples that didn't exist or were in their infancy a few decades back — cell phones, internet service and cable and satellite television.

What Americans Pay For – and How
'Information Age' Bills Keep Piling Up

Pew Research Center
February 7, 2007