6.1. ERMUSR 08-10-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Elk River -== Municipal Utilities 13069 Orono Parkway • P.O. Box 430 Elk River, MN 55330.0430 UTILITIES COMMISSION MEETING Phone: 763.441.2020 Fax: 763.44 L8099 TO: FROM: Elk River Municipal Utilities Commission Theresa Slominski -Finance Director/Office John Dietz, Chair Manager Jerry Gumphrey, Vice Chair D 1 Thom son, Trustee I MEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM NUMBER: Au ust 10, 2010 6.1 ~' SUBJECT: Staff U dates -Finance Director/Office Mana er DISCUSSION: Last month I was asked if we had received customer complaints about the fees for utilizing the credit cards and to keep the commission apprised of any such complaints. There have been three complaints noted and these have been received from disconnect customers stating that this is their only option and they already have to pay a $50 disconnect fee and they may incur two $4.95 charges because they have to make more than one payment if the balance is over $300. I have also received feedback from staff that many customers inquiring about credit card payments have opted for other payment options when learning of the $4.95 fee, but I do not have an actual count of those customers. One staff member kept a tally on one day and noted that five calls were taken where customers inquired about credit cards, learned of the fee, and opted for alternative payment methods. I personally spoke with a customer (at their request) regarding the fee, and they commented that it is great to be able to pay by credit card but the convenience is not so great as to warrant paying $4.95. He stated that ERMU has to have some benefit in receiving payments sooner, guaranteed payment, and ease of processing. He stated some customers not using credit cards may argue they don't want to subsidize the processing cost to those that do pay by credit card, but taxes do the same thing (if you don't have children in the schools, for example.) Just as a "heads up", in the near future, we will be able to process sales of security systems via credit cards. This would be different than utility bill payments due to the range of prices of systems ($475 to $2,500.) A flat fee to cover the range isn't possible and so we would have to process the credit cards based on a percentage fee of the sale. This cannot be passed on to the customers and so must be absorbed. The security systems can easily be priced to absorb this if the current margins don't support it.