Will Checkbooks Become Irrelevant?

Got a personal computer? Throw away that checkbook.

A new service that lets people receive and pay bills on their home computers was announced Tuesday by the Atlanta-based CheckFree Corp.

Called CheckFree E-Bill, the service allows users to pick up their bills by visiting a site on the World Wide Web and then instruct their bank by computer to pay it. The bills, which contain graphics and all the details of their payments, can be stored for future reference.

BellSouth, GPU Energy and Capstead Mortgage are among nine companies in five industries that have signed up to offer the service to customers. The companies have been testing the service for nine months, said Matt Lewis, of CheckFree.

About 2,000 customers signed up for the service during the trial period, he said.

CheckFree provides electronic banking and bill payment services for more than 225 financial institutions, including nine of the top 10 U.S. banks.