Eye on Bill Pay: Language Options Could Hinder Online Bill Pay; Utility Bills Increase Almost 5% – Digital Transactions
Americans are now paying a median $363 per month for utility bills, or $4,361 annually, a 4.63% year-over-year increase, according to the latest doxoInsights 2026 Utility Report on electronic bill payments.
And as utility bills grow, some are challenged to pay them online because of the absence of a language option other than English, finds InvoiceCloud Inc., an online bill pay company.
In its report, Boston-based InvoiceCloud says 46% of 1,000 U.S. consumers it surveyed would be more likely to use an online bill pay service if the platform was available in their preferred language.
InvoiceCloud says respondents selected Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Korean as their top preferred language options aside from English. InvoiceCloud says 52% of respondents had to pay through another channel when the preferred language was not available.
“If something as straightforward as offering the right language helps more people pay online with confidence, that’s an opportunity we should all be paying attention to. It’s better for consumers, and it’s better for the organizations serving them,” Kevin O’Brien, InvoiceCloud chief executive, says in a statement.
Other data from the survey found that consumers were most likely to pay utilities online, noted by 78%, followed by insurance premiums, 59%, and property taxes, 33%.
In related news, Bellevue, Wash.-based doxo found that the median—the middle value in the total range—for annual utility bill payments increased 4.63% over 2025 to $4,361.
Doxo says the annual electric-bill total payment of $1,533 increased 6.46% year-over-year, followed by gas, a 5.63% increase to $900, water and sewer, a 2.8% increase to $1,065, and waste and recycling, a 2.74% increase to $863 annually.
