Last month I got a late fee for paying my credit card bill two days late. D’oh! I pay all my bills online now, but between three credit cards, an electricity bill and a phone bill I have five usernames and passwords to keep track of. Not to mention my investment accounts, bank accounts and health insurance logins. It’s a lot to remember. Usually, I write a checklist every month to make sure I pay all my bills, but sometimes, I just drop the ball (psst—don’t tell Equifax).

I may be in luck though. A new solution called digital mail is promising to solve the problem of managing multiple proprietary online services channels (e.g., bofa.com or att.com) by consolidating them into an easy-to-use, one-stop-shop solution. Digital mail has already taken off in parts of Europe. And with the U.S. Postal Service on the brink of bankruptcy, the time may have come for services like Volly by Pitney Bowes and Zumbox in the U.S.

You’re probably wondering how digital mail works, and how it’s different from email. Well, in theory you would log into your digital mailbox with a single password, and from there access all the mail you would normally find in your roadside mailbox—in digital form. With just the one initial-entry password, you could pay bills quickly and easily without leaving the digital mailbox environment. Your mail might have the look of print documents, but also feature interactive components (think clickable catalogues).

None of this represents new technology. All the same, it's an innovative application of existing technologies that aims to create a more compelling user experience—which may be the difference between wide market adoption and failure (currently, e-delivery for many financial services companies hovers around 10%). Take Apple’s iTunes and iPhone, for example. MP3 players and mobile phone technology already existed when Apple debuted its industry-disrupting products, but Apple stood out because of its superior user experience and the strategic partnerships with record labels that enabled it to centralize content delivery.

Will digital mail create a similar revolution? Hard to tell. But digital mail services seem to be taking the Apple approach. They observe that physical mail works because it all comes to the same place. And they recognize that partnerships with mailers are essential to a consolidated experience. By joining with mailers, like banks or utilities companies or retail outlets, digital mail developers can offer users access to services they already use—on a single digital platform (like iTunes). And that’s why people may want to sign up. I know I do (if only so Equifax will be my friend again).