By MICHAEL STRAND

Salina Journal

If you're still writing checks and leaving them at the mailbox -- or driving around town with cash to pay your bills -- there are ways that are better, faster and cheaper.

In just the past few years, more businesses have started paying employees via direct deposit, and more also are accepting payments that way.

"It's an added convenience we're able to provide," said Clark Renfro, senior vice president at Bennington State Bank. "When I'm in line at a store and the line stops, it's usually because somebody's writing a check. I have this urge to tell them, 'Hey, there's a better way.' "

"From a Bennington State Bank standpoint, it means spending less time pushing paper," Renfro said of services such as direct deposit, electronic bank statements and services that allow customers to perform some banking functions on their smart phones.

Spending less time handling paper, Renfro said, "allows us to provide better support for customers, in loan operations, at the teller line, trust resources -- it allows us to do things to simplify banking for our customers."

"Each quarter, each month, there are more advancements," he said.

All such services have to balance the competing goals of security and convenience, Renfro said.

"One without the other won't work," he said. "One of the first things people ask is, 'Is it secure?' "

In fact, Renfro said, electronic transactions are more secure than paper checks.

While some banks are "steering" customers toward going paperless, Bennington State doesn't do that.

"We provide it as a service, but you've got people who like to do things a certain way, and as a bank, you've got to respect that," he said.

One of the bank's newer services bridges that gap between paper and digital, Renfro said, allowing businesses to handle paper checks electronically.

"With remote deposit, a business can deposit checks to the bank and keep the checks on hand," Renfro said. "Ours is Web-based -- we supply them with a reader they can hook up to their computer, and it takes an image of the check and sends that to us."

The primary attraction of the service, Renfro said, is "it saves on opportunity costs -- the time it takes to make a trip to the bank."

Even with all those electronic transactions, bank lobbies remain busy places, Renfro said.

"Conventional wisdom would tell you all this would mean fewer people in the lobby -- but people are needing to come to the bank for all sorts of reasons," he said. "People come in to get a loan, change money for trips and things like that. A lot of it is social, too -- a lot of people feel more comfortable coming in."

And, he added, banking is really about people -- not money -- and "the social experience is the bread and butter of our business. The old-fashioned picture of the banker is of someone sitting behind a desk -- today, they're out in the community a lot more."

Jeff Wells' American Family Insurance office has accepted a variety of payment options -- including online payments -- for about two years, Wells said.

Other options include paying by phone, Wells said; customers can call in with checking account information to make a payment. The office also allows automatic deductions from a bank account.

"It's helpful to people who are busy," Wells said. "I kind of like people coming in -- it's a way to stay in touch with them -- but you have to give people the convenience if they want it."

Wells estimated that 20 percent of his customers use some form of electronic payments -- either online, by phone or through an automatic withdrawal.

That's considerably higher than the 6 percent who pay their Salina water bills online.

But the water department's online payment option is relatively new, having started in late February 2010, said Cindy Beneke, water customer accounting supervisor for the city.

"It started off kind of slow -- a lot of people think there's going to be surcharges or convenience fees," Beneke said, stressing the city doesn't charge such fees. "I think as people are learning that, it's becoming more accepted."

The online payment option "applies directly to your account as soon as it's made," Beneke said. "For paying at the last minute, it gets it in quicker."

People have to set up an online account in order to make the online payments, Beneke said, but once the account is established, it provides other services as well.

For example, people who pay online can check their water consumption history, going back as far as three years, she said, and also can print copies of all bills for the year -- a useful feature for businesses at tax time.

And, Beneke said, there's also an option to receive the monthly bill itself via e-mail.

"If you want to go completely paperless, you can," she said.

In the past year, roughly 300 water customers have taken that option, Beneke said, and she gets a call asking about it nearly every day.

"We haven't really marketed it," she said. "I think as people get more tech-experienced, it will get better used."

n Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by e-mail at mstrand@salina.com.