Consignia has launched a virtual post office, enabling consumers to pay all their bills online.

The new bill management service, Bills Online, offers people the chance to settle their bills through one secure internet site run by Consignia rather than visiting each company's web site individually.

It will also send emails reminding people when a bill is due and confirming that a payment has been received.

The site, which will be accessed through Consignia's web site, is free for consumers but bill issuers, such as utility companies and credit card providers, will pay a set up fee and a small charge each time a bill is paid or looked at through the service.

More than 500 million bills are currently paid through post offices each year but the group believes consumers will increasingly want to pay them over the internet.

Jim Pang, director of electronic services, said: "It is a natural extension of our current bill payment service offering, giving customers the choice of when and where to view and pay their bills at home, on holiday or abroad. "We have the technology and we are now ready to cater for billers who want to offer their customers the choice to pay their bills online and at their convenience."

Consignia was in discussions with a number of companies interested in using the service.

*PEOPLE getting divorced could be entitled to much more of their partner's pension than they are currently receiving.

The Resolve Partnership said the method used by solicitors to divide an occupational pension failed to take its future value into account.

This means that even though a couple may split the pension 50:50, the share kept by the member of the scheme can be worth up to three times more than the partner's.

When couples divorce, a pension's value is calculated according to its cash equivalent transfer value (CETV), which is what the pension would be worth if it was transferred to another scheme, based on the member's salary and length of service.

Keith Williams, director of The Resolve Partnership, said final salary schemes were based on the salary a member was paid when they retire and future increases should be taken into account when dividing a pension.

The current method of assessing value failed to take into account death-in-service and discretionary benefits, such as increases in payouts which boosted the final value.

The group estimated a pension with a CETV value of £100,000 could have an realistic value, taking into account factors such as salary increases, of up to £200,000.

*Most savers in the UK do not know how much interest their savings are generating.

Research by Egg, the online financial services provider, showed that half the people with mortgages did not know what interest rate they were being charged.

Britons intended to save up to 30 per cent of their disposable income this month, suggesting fears of a UK recession continue to rise.

*RESEARCH by Alliance and Leicester reveals Britons intend to borrow more than twice the amount they intend to invest.

*CHELTENHAM and Gloucester is to launch a three-year fixed-rate bond, paying 5.25 per cent a year gross until November 2004.

The rate will be paid on any investment over £500 and additions can be made for as long as the bond is open to new investors.