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Westerville launches new utility customer portal, offers usage alerts and online payments
Summary
City staff announced a new utility customer portal that provides online billing, usage data, threshold alerts and payment options. Customers must sign up to access the new system; a bank transaction fee of $0.45 applies to online payments.
The City of Westerville announced the launch of a new utility customer portal at the May council meeting, and staff encouraged residents to sign up to access online billing, usage history and alerts.
City staff said the portal, launched the day before the meeting, consolidates electric and water account information, provides month-over-month and year-over-year usage comparisons, and allows customers to set thresholds that trigger leak or usage alerts. The portal supports one-time and recurring payments by bank account or credit card; staff said the bank transaction fee is 45 cents. City staff also noted that because this is a new system customers must register even if they have been utility customers for years.
Why it matters: the portal is intended to improve customer access to billing and usage data and to allow customers to detect leaks or unexpected usage quickly.
The city manager described the portal as a new tool to give customers more control over utility accounts and flagged the leak-alert feature as a way residents can avoid large unexpected bills. “You’ll actually be able to… set thresholds. So if you have a water leak, it’ll send you an alert if you set the threshold,” the manager said at the meeting.
Staff directed customers to sign up at the city’s bill-pay page; the manager said staff will publicize the rollout and asked residents to check Westerville.org/billpay (or Westerville.org/goWesterville) and the city’s social channels for sign-up details and help resources.
