Long lines, one clerk serving all windows, and spending untold amounts of time may quickly become icons of the past as more and more of us use online bill paying services, electronic postage and other services for which we usually go (and still are, for the most part) to the neighborhood post office

Even though first-class mail continues to increase, the U.S. Postal Service knows it must find a way to stay competitive and modernize operations, and has announced a new service called ‘USPSeBillPay,’ available at the Postal Service’s Web site.

You may be interested to know that a recent GAO study found that the bill-paying portion of first-class mail, which includes Federal and state income tax, is at risk, and that hits the Postal Service head on because this equates to $17 billion, or 25 percent of total postal revenue!

Those using the new Bill Pay service will be able to use an electronic postmark to strengthen security and reliability should a creditor have concerns about whether a bill was actually paid.