Skip to content
Families

Utilities slapping customers with online-payment fees

As if rising water rates aren't enough, try to pay your city water bill online with a credit card, and you get whacked with an extra charge of $3.95.

    by DAVE DAVIES
    Published 

As if rising water rates aren't enough, try to pay your city water bill online with a credit card, and you get whacked with an extra charge of $3.95.

The cash goes to a company called Official Payments Corp., which processes payments under contract with the city and gives the credit-card companies their cut of the action.

Why can you buy a pair of pants online for no extra fee but get nailed with a surcharge on your water bill? Turns out, most utilities charge a fee for online credit-card charges, because unlike the company competing for your pants business, utilities know they'll get paid sooner or later.

Peco and PGW charge about as much as the city. Comcast will take your online payment for free.

Nancy Kammerdeiner, who was city revenue commissioner when the policy began, said that it was a matter of deciding who would absorb the cost of processing the credit-card payment and paying the banks their fee.

"The principle that prevailed in Philadelphia and a lot of governments was that whoever used that service would have to pay for it, and they didn't want the rest of the ratepayers to have to pay," Kammerdeiner said.

Revenue Commissioner Keith Richardson said that the policy is being re-evaluated, but couldn't say when that review would be completed.

City Consumer Advocate Lance Haver said that charges for online credit-card payments are one thing he hopes might be re-examined during a hearing to examine proposed water-rate hikes.

"I wouldn't say the charge is not fair, because it is disclosed," Haver said. "But when this started, it wasn't seen as a common way for people to pay their bills. I think that as technology changes, we should be creative and try to find ways to help customers."

About 25,000 customers pay their water bills through Zipcheck, a service that deducts payments from bank accounts at no charge. *

    DD
    DAVE DAVIES