Toccoa To Make Change to Utility Payments Done Over Phone

City of Toccoa customers will soon have to pay a convenience fee if they choose to pay their utility bill over the phone.

Monday, the Toccoa City Commission unanimously approved using a new automated telephone utility payment system.

Toccoa City Manager Billy Morse said the system will free up the city’s customer service staff from taking that information over the phone while also trying to help customers who come to City Hall to pay their bill.

“The staff at City Hall is usually pretty busy with walk-in and drive-up customers and taking a credit card over the telephone takes up a lot of time,” said Morse. “A company we already do business with for our utility billing has a service that they provide where we can transfer the customers who call City Hall to this company. It is an automated system and they can use their credit card over their system.”

However, that system comes with a cost that is charged by the company through fees charged on those payments that would come in over the phone.

According to Morse, that cost to the city would be an estimated $46,300 annually if the city did nothing.

As a result, the city commission also unanimously approved a tiered convenience fee structure that would be applied to all telephone payments processed through the system.

Under the system approved by the city, a $2.45 convenience fee would be charged on all transactions made over the phone up to $100, with the fee increasing by $1 for every $100 increment in total transaction amount above the initial $100.

Morse said that phone payments are the only payments having the convenience fee added under this change.

“It is by choice that customers call and use that method,” said Morse. “There are numerous other methods that do not require a fee.”

According to Morse, a letter will go out to customers explaining the new system and fee structure for phone payments before the change takes effect.

The city said that should take about a month to put together.