Arvest Drops Fee for Bill Pay

In an over-banked market, 2006 may be the year of innovative, competitive banking products in Northwest Arkansas.

Observant Arvest Bank customers may have noticed that the bank stopped charging for its online bill pay service as of December, a service that used to cost $5.95 a month. Arvest has yet to make a marketing push or insert stuffers in its statements about the complimentary service — just a few banner ads on its Web site.

But within the first two weeks of January, the bank has already signed up twice as many customers for online bill pay than it usually does in one month. Officials wouldn’t say how many that is each month, but they’re on their way to quadrupling their numbers.

We’ll be interested to see what the 27 banks in the two-county market do to set themselves apart this year.