E-Bills and E-Payments through E-Mail Set to Accelerate Convenience for Consumers Using Services Backed by CheckFree.

Business Editors

ATLANTA & LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 13, 2001

CheckFree (NASDAQ: CKFR)

    --  Financial services sites and portals offering CheckFree's
        Electronic Billing and Payment services can e-mail their
        customers' e-bills to them

    --  Biller customers can view and pay summary e-bills through
        e-mail, and link to billers for bill details

    --  Extension to core electronic billing and payment enables
        consumers to exchange money with each other for any reason,
        using e-mail

CheckFree Corporation, the leading provider of electronic billing and payment (EBP) services and software, today debuted two extensions to its electronic billing and payment capabilities, aimed squarely at accelerating the convenience of Internet billing and payments for consumers.

The first enhancement is the ability for consumers to receive and pay e-bills over e-mail. The second is the ability for consumers to exchange money with each other using e-mail "invitations" to send or receive money.

Both extensions leverage the fact that using e-mail at work and home has become an integral part of life for consumers. "We're enabling our customers to take e-bills and e-payments to where consumers live or work, without sacrificing the security of having a trusted central site to provide payment authentication, tracking and customer care," said Randy McCoy, CheckFree's chief technology officer. "This blend of distributed bill delivery and payment functionality through e-mail, with consolidated e-billing and e-payment history, security and customer care, is unique in the industry. The power of the model lies in melding consumer convenience with consumer confidence and control," McCoy noted.

E-Billing and Payment over e-Mail

Financial services organizations and portals that deploy the most recent version of CheckFree WebPay will be able to give their customers the ability to elect to receive any e-bills they choose via e-mail. When the bill is available, the financial services organization or portal simply sends an e-mail to the consumer containing bill summary information, a link to bill details and a "pay" button. Consumers can pay based on the summary information and link to the biller site to view bill details. When the consumer clicks "pay," his or her identity is authenticated at the financial services organization or portal's secure site before the payment is validated and settled with the biller.

A January 2001 GartnerGroup report titled "Making E-Mail More Productive" notes that the average person working in an office environment spends four hours each day reading and responding to e-mail.

In a consumer study conducted by CheckFree at Spring InternetWorld on April 5-7, 2000, the ability to receive and pay bills through e-mail was the potential service enhancement respondents found most attractive. Results were similar for both users and non-users of electronic billing and payment services, with 65 percent of EBP users and 56 percent of non-users selecting "being able to receive and pay bills through e-mail" an "attractive" or "very attractive" feature.

"Gartner research shows that many consumers perceive paper mail to be more convenient than going to a web site to view and pay bills," says Avivah Litan, vice president of Gartner Financial Services Payment Systems. "By delivering bills through e-mail, CheckFree promises to break down this adoption barrier by making bill delivery, pickup and payment more convenient than paper mail processes."

E-Payments over E-Mail

Organizations deploying the latest version of CheckFree WebPay also will be able to offer their customers the ability to exchange money with each other electronically as a natural extension of electronic billing and payment. This service supercedes other electronic money exchange services in several ways:

    --  Integrated with Electronic Billing and Payment. It is the only
        service integrated with electronic billing and payment, which
        means consumers get a consolidated view of all of their
        electronic payment history, and the same level of payment
        history tracking and customer care they expect from their
        electronic billing and payment service. Whether they pay a
        bill, pay their lawncare provider, send money to a personal
        friend or family member or exchange money to make an auction
        purchase, the payment transaction is protected by the same
        security and customer care services.

    --  Uses existing accounts at organizations consumers already
        trust. The service uses financial accounts consumers already
        have, and is delivered by financial services organizations or
        portals they already trust. Consumers do not have to
        "pre-fund" an account or put their trust in an unfamiliar
        company in order to exchange money electronically with others.

    --  Fast online enrollment and verification of both senders and
        receivers. Intuitive registration and online verification
        using the Equifax Secure authentication engine makes enrolling
        in and using the service easy, yet maintains stringent
        security standards. Both senders and receivers of money must
        be "validated" by enrolling in the service. When the system is
        instructed by a validated user to send money to another
        person, the system first checks to verify that the recipient
        is enrolled in the service. If they are enrolled, the
        transaction occurs and confirmation is sent via e-mail. If the
        designated recipient is not already enrolled, he receives an
        e-mail "invitation" to enroll in the service to receive the
        money, as in "John Smith would like to send you $30."
        Enrolling in the service does not require the receiver to use
        the same financial services organization as the sender, nor
        does it require the receiver to accept the funds into any
        account other than ones she already has. The receiver can
        enroll in the service through any CheckFree partner offering
        it -- enabling open, fluid money exchange without requiring
        consumers to change or establish any new financial accounts.
        Enrollment information is secured and protected by the
        financial services provider or portal offering the service.

    --  No need to expose account information. Users share account
        information only with the financial services provider or
        portal through which they enroll in the service. In the case
        of online auctions, the service validates to the seller that
        the buyer has funds to complete the transaction. The buyer
        never has to share account information with the seller.

    --  Access to multiple accounts for easy money transfers. With a
        single sign-on, consumers can transfer funds among accounts,
        whether or not they reside at the same financial institution,
        in the same session that they pay their bills, saving time and
        adding another layer of convenience and control.

Financial Services Organization and Portal Benefits

      Financial services organizations and portals using CheckFree
WebPay enjoy the following benefits:

    --  Enhanced customer retention and acquisition. By offering the
        services consumers want -- such as bills and payment over
        e-mail -- banks, brokerages, credit unions and portals bolster
        customer satisfaction and loyalty.

    --  Brand exposure and increased revenue potential. Financial
        services organizations and portals have the opportunity to
        expose their brands to consumers with every payment. Financial
        services organizations can choose standard or custom branding
        options for CheckFree WebPay. Custom branding offers the
        opportunity for personalized cross-selling and targeted
        marketing services, increasing the potential relationship with
        each existing customer.

    --  Integrated extension of existing services. E-bill over e-mail
        and e-payments over e-mail are extensions to existing
        CheckFree services already offered by financial services
        organizations and portals. These payments are covered by the
        same CheckFree Guarantee that protects existing electronic
        billing and payment transactions, and receive the same
        security, privacy and quality considerations afforded by
        CheckFree's industry-leading electronic billing and payment
        infrastructure, Genesis.

Biller Benefits

      Billers choosing to send bills through CheckFree's distribution
and payment network receive the following benefits:

    --  Another convenient way for consumers to receive and pay bills
        online. The convenience of e-mail receipt and payment,
        combined with the control of consolidated reporting and
        customer care through a financial services organization or
        Internet portal, offers a new incentive for consumers to
        receive and pay bills electronically.

    --  Consistent tracking and customer care. Tracking of bill
        distribution and payment, along with related customer care
        service, continues to be provided by the financial services
        organization or portal offering the electronic billing and
        payment service to consumers. Consumer convenience is enhanced
        without compromising consumer protections.

    --  Customer relationship enhancement. Consumers can access the
        biller's Web site directly from the e-mail to view bill detail
        in the biller's secure environment. There, consumers can take
        advantage of all of the interactive customer service and sales
        convenience features billers design into their electronic
        bills.

Service Availability

The e-payments over e-mail enhancement is available to all CheckFree financial services organizations and portals using CheckFree WebPay 3.2. The e-bill over e-mail enhancement will be available in late Summer. The financial services organization or portal offering the services sets pricing to consumers.

About CheckFree

CheckFree (Nasdaq: CKFR) is the leading provider of financial electronic commerce services and products. Founded in 1981 and celebrating its 20th year in e-commerce, CheckFree launched the first fully integrated electronic billing and payment solution in 1997. Today, CheckFree enables 4.4 million consumers to receive and pay bills electronically. The company has multi-year contracts with 222 of the nation's top billers to provide online billing and payment through nearly 275 financial services organizations, including banks, brokerage firms, Internet portals and content sites and personal financial management (PFM) software. CheckFree Software Services division provides solutions that are used to process more than two-thirds of the nation's six billion Automated Clearing House payments, and reconciliation and compliance products and services to 400 banks and businesses. This division includes CheckFree i-Solutions, the leading provider of interactive e-billing and e-statement software and services that enable companies to transform bills and statements into interactive conduits for customer relationship management, marketing and customer self service. CheckFree Investment Services provides a broad range of investment management services to thousands of financial institutions nationwide. The division's clients manage more than 1,000,000 portfolios totaling more than $500 billion in assets. For more information visit www.checkfree.com

Certain of the Company's statements in this press release are not purely historical, and as such are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include statements regarding management's intentions, plans, beliefs, expectations or projections of the future. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, the various risks inherent in the Company's business, and other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in the Company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2000 (filed September 26, 2000), Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2000 (filed November 14, 2000), and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2000 (filed February 13, 2001). One or more of these factors have affected, and could in the future affect, the Company's business and financial results in future periods, and could cause actual results to differ materially from plans and projections. There can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements made in this document will prove to be accurate, and issuance of such forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation by the Company, or any other person, that the objectives and plans of the Company will be achieved. All forward-looking statements made in this press release are based on information presently available to management, and the Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.