Press release

doxoINSIGHTS Reveals Local Spending on Recurring Household Bills for More Than 900 U.S. Cities

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doxo, the innovative web and mobile bill pay service, today released new data from its collection of analytics reports, doxoINSIGHTS, that reveals what the average American household spends on recurring monthly expenses in more than 900 U.S cities. The data is made available through Tableau Public, an open source service that allows anyone to download and publish doxo’s data in an interactive data visualization graphic to the web. To search and download local household bill spending for any city in the country, simply go to https://www.doxo.com/insights/regional-bill-comparison/ and use the “select city” or “city by rank” dropdown to find your city.

This unique and proprietary doxo data covers over 900 U.S. cities and reveals that the average monthly bundle of bills in the U.S. is $1,024. Most expensive is the Atlantic City, NJ, area ($1,445) and the least expensive is Grand Island, NE ($756).

This new, publicly-accessible data set expands on doxo’s inaugural report earlier this year, ‘America’s Household Bills, Unbundled,’ that revealed what the average American household pays per month on the nine most common bills, which include auto loans, auto insurance, utilities, health insurance, life insurance, cable & satellite, mobile phone, alarm & security, and dental insurance. To better compare household bills on a consistent basis, the index excludes housing expenses like rent and mortgage. The initial report highlighted the cost of bills in the top 25 largest metro areas and ranked them in order of most expensive (Miami, FL) to least expensive (Charlotte, NC).

“Americans spend over $12,000 per year on average on recurring, household bills – but have little insight into how their bills compare to others in their town, state, or across the country,” said Jim Kreyenhagen, VP Consumer & Marketing at doxo. “Access to this type of information and transparency in the bill pay market at the local, regional and national levels enable both users and service providers to make more informed decisions, reduce unnecessary expenses, and improve their financial outcomes. By exposing this data through Tableau Public, we are, for the first time, able to present what people pay in visually appealing, easy to understand graphics that will resonate with consumers and billers alike – making a complex topic like bill pay easier to digest.”

doxo’s data is collected by analyzing the anonymized, aggregate payment statistics from over three million users across the country, who can pay more than 50,000 billers across 45 different service categories on doxo, to uncover the costs consumers spend on recurring, household expenses. doxo’s expanded data release is the most comprehensive and unfiltered look at the bill pay market based on actual household payments. Compared to self-reported industry and household data, which is often distorted by perceptions and small survey participation, doxoINSIGHTS data offers an improvement in the transparency of household payments at the national and local levels.

America’s Love Affair with Cars

The average American household pays $451 (44% of their monthly bills) on their combined auto loan and insurance bills. Residents of Clearlake, CA, spend the least amount on auto bills across the nation while those residing in Sikeston, MO, spend the most – over 3x more than Clearlake.

Hot or Cold?

Location, as expected, makes a huge difference in the average utility bill. Hotter and colder climates keep those air conditioners and heaters active. Newton, IA, Washington, IN, and Bowling Green, KY, all come in on the low end for utility bills. Unfortunately for those living in places like Fairbanks, AK, Fort Drum, NY, Yuma, AZ, and Corpus Christi, TX, utility bills are 3x higher.

Sound the Alarm

Location is a large predictor in the likelihood of having a household security system. Over a quarter of households have alarm systems in places like Okeechobee, FL, Baltimore, MD, Beckley, WV, and Charleston, WV. Less than 10% of households have alarms in Wisconsin.

About doxoINSIGHTS

doxoINSIGHTS is designed to provide the best possible look into the average American household’s monthly bills and relies on anonymized data from doxo’s 3M customers, who can pay more than 50,000 billers on doxo’s network. doxo’s vast amount of data gives a uniquely accurate perspective into what households are actually paying for their bills and provides a sound basis for constructing an accurate gauge of relative differences in the cost of the most common monthly bills across America. doxo’s data is based on anonymized, aggregated statistics from actual payments made by millions of households for key services, and thereby avoids the self-reported estimates and inaccuracies inherent to standard consumer polling methods of typical industry reports. The largest contributing factor is doxoINSIGHTS’ sample size. Whereas an average industry survey will poll a few hundred or a thousand participants, doxo has access to data from more than 3 million paying users across the United States, and their aggregated routine, monthly household expenses. Only doxoINSIGHTS enables filtering payment data by category and region. To access doxoINSIGHTS reports and information about the methodology, visit https://www.doxo.com/insights/.

About doxo

doxo is a simple, secure all-in-one bill pay service that facilitates secure payment to any biller, with any payment method, on any device. doxo currently serves over three million paying users who can make payments to over 50,000 local and national businesses, making doxo the largest bill pay directory in the nation. Billers on the network get paid directly, fast and free – and consumers have complete bill pay independence over when and how they pay their bills. doxo more than doubled its user base in the past year, and is expanding its team to further accelerate growth and change the bill pay landscape to focus on the customer. doxo investors include MDV, Sigma Partners, and Bezos Expeditions. doxo is based in Seattle, WA.

For more information about doxo, visit www.doxo.com.