Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Customer Payments topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commission discusses autopay limits and credit-card processing costs
Summary
Commissioners and staff reviewed electronic-payment uptake and constraints: the utility uses a third-party processor that prevents storing credit-card data and current systems do not support flexible autopay dates; staff estimated processing fees to inform future decisions.
Commissioners spent a significant portion of the meeting discussing customer payment options, electronic interfaces and the limits of the current payment infrastructure.
Staff said the utility encourages customers — especially commercial accounts — to sign up for SmartHub autopay; commercial customers who enroll can have deposits reimbursed sooner. However, the system does not store credit-card information locally because a third-party payment processor handles card data, and the utility’s current setup cannot automatically choose flexible autopay dates that account for weekends and holidays.
Unidentified Speaker 3 explained that the utility does not store credit-card numbers “at all” per the processor’s rules and that any credit-card payments must be processed through SmartHub. Commissioners and others raised the possibility of offering more sophisticated autopay scheduling, but staff said that capability would require modifications and third-party changes.
The group compared processing costs and manual handling: staff noted card fees in the range of about 1–3% (one speaker suggested ~1.5%), while manual processing involves postage and staff time. Commissioners asked staff to quantify the comparative savings and costs; staff agreed to return with more precise numbers.
Separately, staff reported they would accept certain customer payments through the end of next week before forwarding collections to the Department of Revenue the following Monday; several customers have already submitted payments under that timeline.
