Town shouldn’t charge fee for online bill pay
Published: October 16, 2009
From Wednesday’s Star-Exponent I learn that the town of Culpeper will be offering online payment of utility bills and local taxes.
This is a very welcome initiative, because it keeps us from going out in the cold, and helps the town save money by eliminating manual processing of these fees.
It would have been nice — appropriate, even — for the treasurer to offer a small discount to those who help the town save money by this elimination of manual processing.
Instead, according to the CSE, the town intends to charge a “convenience fee” for those who “choose the option.”
It’s just as “convenient” to write a check. Where’s the motivation to help the town save money if it costs the taxpayers/utility users more?
At the very least, online payment should cost us the same as writing the check — and that still saves money for the town.
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P.S. I do all of my banking online, in addition to most of my shopping, correspondence, and all business matters plus personal business…Love it.
I pay all of my bills on line for the nominal fee of $5.95 per month for up to 15 payments which I never exceed..It is convenient, takes all of 10 minutes, no bookkeeping on my part. They keep all the records and if I need to, I can pull up payments for the last five years. This is the age of technology..why not make use of it? I can put my time to better use than writing checks each month.
Of course they will charge you, how do you think they plan to make up the deficit? Don’t give them a penny more than they are entitled to.
Why not go to on-line bill paying through your bank? I am something of a dinosaur, I know, but the rep at Wachovia showed me how to do it and - surprise to me - it was so easy that I’ve been doing it ever since. No charge, less check writing, fewer stamps.
Why has it become such a hardship to do anything that requires a person to pick up a pen? People are forgetting how to write. Personally I have no problem paying my bills with a check and I always address my Christmas cards personally ...... card AND envelope.
As much as I dislike the idea of a convenience fee almost if not all governments, including Culpeper County, that offer the service charge a convenience fee. They must pay the credit card companies for that option. So if they didn;t charge the fee, they would lose expected tax revenue and then have to raise taxes. It is a convenience fee if the taxpayers wants to use the service and charge their credit card etc. Otherwise, pay by check just as you always have and I will do. Go to the auction house, bid on an item and pay with a credit card and see if you don’t pay them a convenience fee for that payment option. Its simple don’t pay that way and you don’t have to pay the fee.
I will write checks. It’s more convenient for them to handle the paper than to push a button and have the software tote it up than it is convenient for me to pay for them to do less work.
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