There has been some misunderstanding on why the City of Concord has changed its policy and will be using a company to collect and pay the additional fees charged when a customer is using a credit card or debit card to pay bills. This was done to save money and out of fairness for all users, regardless of their method of payment.
The credit card companies charge the City a fee each time a card is used. About 18% of Concord residential customers currently pay their bills this way. Other customers use different options for payment, such as bank draft, check, cash, or money order, which do not involve additional charges. The additional annual cost the City has paid for those using credit or debit cards has reached a point it exceeds $200,000, and would have continued to escalate. This means those that have paid through other means have been subsidizing the costs for customers that chose to pay by card.
The City Council found this difficult to justify in such tight economic times, particularly when most other large utility providers in the area are already using companies to collect and pay these fees to avoid having to absorb the additional cost. For example, Duke Energy, other area private utilities, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities and many other governmental units use companies to collect and pay these convenience fees to cover credit card charges.
Beginning in late July, both residential and business customers will have the option of paying their utility bill using a credit or debit card. Like residential customers using this method of payment, there will be a convenience fee that will have to be paid to cover the extra cost charged by the issuer. The additional fee for using cards will be $2.50.
Additional information on paying bills is available on the City’s website at www.ci.concord.nc.us. Once on the website, customers are encouraged to click on “Residents” in the top left hand corner and sign on to use the City’s e-care service. This service allows customers to pay their bills and access graphical information about utility accounts such as usage, billing history and meter reads.
