In seeking a return to growth, America Online on Tuesday said it sees a check in the e-mail.
AOL, the online unit owned by Time Warner Inc., said it plans to unveil a new service called AOL Bill Pay that lets its subscribers pay nearly all their bills directly through its proprietary e-mail service.
The company struck a partnership with Yodlee, a technology company that helps aggregate bills from vendors as diverse as Verizon to American Express, to provide the guts of the service.
But what it hopes will lure subscribers are the safety features built into its mailbox, where reminders and links to bills will be sent.
Some 67 percent of its members already pay their bills through bill payment Web sites, the company said. With Bill Pay, users will be able to consolidate the myriad user names and passwords to various bill payment sites and be alerted to financial alerts and reminders.
An identity theft feature in Bill Pay alerted one early tester that her identity had been stolen, executives said.
The launch is a part of AOL's two-year mission to build new services on top of its lagging dial-up and relatively new high speed Internet services.
AOL lost 2.2 million subscribers last year to lower-cost competitors and higher-speed cable and telephone company offerings.
The world's largest online service is hoping to involve itself more deeply in members' everyday habits, said Tina Sharkey, senior vice president of life management at AOL.
"We're looking for information that you can take to make your life easier" she said.
