Press release

Cost of Living in the U.S. Grows 4% Year over Year as Consumers Now Spend Nearly $26k Annually on Essential Household Bills

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The 2024 U.S. Household Bill Pay Report found that the average amount consumers spend per year on household bills grew 4% year over year. The Bill Pay Economy™ of 2024 amounts to $4.46 trillion, of which $3.35 trillion are the ten most essential household bills. The report found that the average U.S. household spends $25,513 per year, or 34% of income on the ten most essential household bills, and also breaks out the household spending market size for each of these bill categories, percentage of households that pay each bill, and average monthly and annual bill pay costs by state.

doxo’s proprietary and comprehensive dataset — based on actual bill payments across 97% of U.S. zip codes and 45 bill pay service categories, enables precision much greater than typical survey-based estimates of market size and consumer spend. The 2024 U.S. Household Bill Pay Report provides resolution at the national, state, county and city levels, enabling the deepest and most complete picture of The Bill Pay Economy™.

“While we’re starting to see an overall cooling of inflation, American sentiment towards their own financial health remains bleak,” said Liz Powell, Senior Director of INSIGHTS at doxo. “70% of American consumers report they’re still worried about their financial wellbeing despite a stabilizing economy. With this ubiquitous sentiment, it’s never been more important for consumers to have a clear view on what they can expect for their own household expenses. doxo’s 2024 U.S. Household Bill Pay Report provides the critical economic transparency that consumers, service providers, and policy makers alike will need to make better informed decisions throughout the year.”

doxo’s proprietary dataset of consumer bill pay activity is the most accurate representation of The Bill Pay Economy™

doxo’s bill pay service enables all-in-one bill pay to more than 120,000 providers across the country in 45 different service categories. By incorporating tens of millions of bill payments across 97% of U.S. zip codes and all U.S. income and regional demographic segments, the 2024 U.S. Household Bill Pay Report directly represents what Americans actually pay on their bills.

Updated to represent 2024 consumer spending, and in light of recent findings that 74% of consumers made changes to their spending and savings habits over the past year, this proprietary dataset provides the foundation for doxo’s bottom-up market sizing of the 10 most common bills and makes category size and average spend transparent at the national, state, county and city levels. In contrast to other industry data sources – which often mix household recurring bill expenses with employer-paid or withheld expenditures (e.g. health insurance and taxes), and retail and discretionary spending (i.e. credit card balances) – doxo’s unique, nation-wide household bill pay data specifically quantifies the actual consumer portion of total recurring bill spend and household penetration rate for each category.

Key Findings from 2024 U.S. Household Bill Pay Report include:

  • Total Market Size: $3.35 trillion spent per year on the ten most essential household bills

  • Average Yearly Cost: $25,513 spent per year on the ten most essential household bills

  • Percent of Annual Income: 34% of consumers’ income per year

The report findings also include breakouts by service category, household market penetration for each type of service, and household average spend per month by state.

$3.35 trillion is spent across these 10 essential household bill categories:

The average U.S. household spends $25,513 per year on the ten most essential bills

According to The U.S. Census Bureau, the real median household income in the U.S. is $74,7551. This number, combined with doxo’s estimate that the average U.S. household spends $25,513 per year on the ten most essential bills, suggests that more than a third of Americans’ yearly salary is put toward core expenses – a sizable portion of income by any measure.

While housing continues to be the highest U.S. household expense by a longshot, the report reveals that the average household is paying more out-of-pocket per month for auto loans, auto insurance, and even mobile phone bills than essential costs like health or life insurance, which are frequently covered by their employer or automatically deducted from paychecks. The average monthly amount of each bill paid in each category is:

Note that the market size of each category, and the total spend per household per year, factor in not only in the average amount of each bill payment, but also the actual percentage of households paying each category. For example, consumers that pay rent are not typically also paying a mortgage. See full report for these category details.

Actual Bill Pay Spending Ranked by State

  • Mortgage payments are highest in California, New Jersey, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and New York, respectively. The same five states also top the list for rent costs. West Virginia has the distinction of being the most affordable state for both mortgage ($961 on average per month) and rent ($846 on average per month) costs.

  • Auto Loan payments are highest in North Dakota ($595/month) and Nevada ($578/month). Pennsylvania ($422/month) and Missouri ($429/month) residents enjoy some of the lowest.

  • Auto Insurance bills are the highest in Rhode Island ($280/month) and Maryland ($264/month), while Alabama ($164/month) and Vermont ($162/month) pay the lowest monthly average.

  • Utilities expenses (defined in the doxo report as electric, gas, water & sewer, and waste & recycling) are highest in Hawaii ($634/month) and Maine ($498/month), while Mississippi ($266/month) and South Dakota ($262/month) are the most affordable.

  • Cable & Internet bills make the biggest dents in the pockets of residents in Delaware ($156/month) and New Hampshire ($153/month), and the smallest dents in the residents of Kansas ($106/month) and South Dakota ($95/month).

  • Mobile Phone bills are most expensive in Alaska ($156/month), and are lowest in North Dakota ($91/month).

  • Health Insurance expenses, when considering consumer out-of-pocket spending only (excluding employer payments), are highest in North Dakota ($208/month) and Rhode Island ($194/month) and lowest in Vermont ($53/month).

  • Life Insurance spend is highest in Hawaii ($144/month) and Rhode Island ($126/month) and lowest in West Virginia ($66/month) and Oklahoma ($65/month).

  • Alarm & Security bills are most expensive in New Jersey ($111/month) and Minnesota ($108/month) and residents in New Hampshire ($62/month) and Vermont ($39/month) pay the least for protection.

In addition to the direct cost of household bills, consumers also contend with additional hidden costs of bill pay, which totals an average of $1,268 per year per U.S. household (up from $986 on average the year prior) per household. The Hidden Costs of Bill Pay report from doxo exposed the hidden bill pay costs – obscured in identity fraud, late fees, overdraft fees, and detrimental credit impacts – which amount to an additional $167 billion annually in consumer spending.

For more information, or to view the entire report, visit www.doxo.com/insights/.

About doxoINSIGHTS

doxoINSIGHTS provides direct insight into The Bill Pay Economy™ by leveraging consumer surveys and doxo’s unique aggregate bill pay data set, comprising actual bill payment activity to confirmed household service providers across the country. doxo data brings together the broadest available data set for analyzing actual household bill payment activity, pulling from over 10 million paying consumers across over 97% of U.S. zip codes. doxo’s payment network covers over 120,000 billers in 45 different service categories and enables payments using bank accounts, credit cards or debit cards. This uniquely broad statistical foundation powers doxoINSIGHTS reports – uncovering key trends for household financial health and bill payment behavior.

About doxo

doxo delivers innovation that transforms the bill pay experience for consumers, billers and financial technology providers. For over 10M consumers, doxo’s all-in-one bill pay makes it simple to organize and pay any bill on any device through a secure checkout. For billers, doxo’s network-driven platform enables online and mobile payments with a ridiculously simple integration, radically lower costs, and game-changing features that are unavailable with legacy bill pay vendors. For fintech partners, doxo delivers financial innovations to consumers across 97% of US Zip Codes, paying from more than 5,000 financial institutions to over 120,000 billers in 45+ service categories. For employees, doxo is a creative, ever-learning team that is passionate about building fintech tools that dramatically improve the bill pay experience. For investors, doxo provides an extraordinary opportunity to invest alongside Jackson Square Ventures, MDV, and Bezos Expeditions to disrupt a market that accounts for over $4T of US Household spend. To learn more about America’s leading bill pay network, visit doxo.com.

1 United States Census Bureau, Income and Poverty in the United States