By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Every fall when BGSU students move into town, the city’s utility office is flooded with phone calls.
“Typically, the phones ring off the hook,” said city Utilities Director Brian O’Connell.
Among the top requests from students are – how can they get paperless billing, and how can they make paperless payments from their phones.
Until now, the utilities office has not offered those options. But that’s about to change.
On Monday, the Bowling Green Board of Public Utilities approved efforts to expand electronic billing and payment options for customers. Printed utility bills will still be mailed to customers who want to receive paper bills, O’Connell said.
“The younger generations don’t want paper. They just want it on their phones,” O’Connell said.
Currently, all billing is done with paper bills and mailed to customers.
Payment options include:
• Customer service desk (cash, check, or money order)
• Drop box at City Building (check or money order)
• U.S. Mail (check)
• Automatic Utility Payment (direct withdrawal from a checking account on the due date)
• Online Bank payment (initiated by the customer, Bank mails a check to the City)
• Credit card (by phone or online)
According to O’Connell, the city utilities office has received the following complaints from customers about the city’s billing and payment options:
• Lack of electronic (paperless) billing.
• Customers who use Automatic Utility Payment still receive a return envelope with their paper bill.
• Automatic Utility Payment does not have a credit card payment option.
• The customer service desk in the city building does not have the ability to accept credit card payments.
• The customer paid fees associated with current credit card payment options are high and the city has no way to assist a customer if they have an issue with the payment process.
The two vendors currently being used to accept credit card payments from customers charge fees of $5.95 and $4 per transaction. In 2021, there were 32,553 transactions – which have to be manually entered by staff into the office software.
Staff initially searched for a better credit card payment option that would allow the city to also accept credit card payments at the customer service desk. However, it became apparent that this would only address one issue and a more comprehensive billing and payment option was possible.
Staff reviewed potential vendors in 2021 for electronic billing and credit card payment options. The vendor that appeared to offer the best services in this market along with a reasonable fee structure is Invoice Cloud Inc. Below are some of the features Invoice Cloud offers to customers and city staff:
• Electronic or paperless billing option thru their Payer Portal.
• Credit and debit card payments by phone and online with VISA, Mastercard, American Express, or Discover. Customers can schedule one-time or recurring payments.
• Bank ACH and eCheck payments.
• AutoPay option for recurring credit card payments on utility bill due date.
• Mobile device compatible.
• Customers can pay with digital mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo and PayPal.
• Pay by text allows customers to receive texts to their mobile phone and pay by phone.
• CheckFreePay allows customers to make cash payments at participating retail, grocery and convenience stores.
• Credit card payments can be taken in person at the customer service desk.
• Online bank direct service converts an online bank payment to an electronic ACH payment to the customer’s account.
• Customers can donate to the Salvation Army for the Muni-Pal program by rounding up or adding a donation amount.
• City customer service representatives have access to the biller portal to assist customers if needed.
• Cloud Stores can accept payments for utility bills, income taxes, invoices and non- invoiced items such as permits and licenses.
“This pretty much hit all the highlights we were looking for,” O’Connell said.
Staff reached out to two other communities of similar size that use the Invoice Cloud system. Both had positive comments about the system, O’Connell said.
“Invoice Cloud offers all of the services that our customers are requesting and more,” he said. “We would like to start the implementation as soon as possible so that we can promote the new services before the August 2022 college move-in.”
