IN THE CITY
by Deborah Ouellette
The Finance Department is pleased to offer our customers the option to make payments at City Hall using a credit or debit card. This week we began accepting Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express cards for routine payments at the front desk. The new electronic payment option is being offered in response to many customer requests.
The city will be using Maine PayPort to process electronic payments from customers. Maine Payport is a web-based payment processing service which is offered to municipalities by Information Resource of Maine (InforME) working in partnership with the State of Maine. The website is safe and secure — it is CyberTrust Certified and PCI compliant so customer data is protected. InforME has been processing state and local government payments for a growing number of Maine towns and cities since 1999.
A credit card fee will be charged whenever the city accepts a credit or debit card for payment. The fee will be calculated as 2.50 percent based on the amount of your transaction with a minimum fee of $1. The service fee will be disclosed separately on your receipt from the city. Because of the fee, your final transaction cost will be higher than using other forms of payment such as checks or cash.
So you are now able to use a credit or debit card when registering your motor vehicle, to purchase licenses, pay property taxes, obtain vital records, and as payment for various city services. We will look at expanding our electronic payment services in the future.
Presently we cannot accept credit or debit cards over the telephone. However, the city will continue to accept tax payments from customers using the Official Tax Payments service online at www.officialpayments.comand by telephone at (800) 272-9829. You can find more information about this service on your city of Presque Isle property tax bill.
We are very much interested in your feedback and any other ideas or suggestions that you may have.
Deborah Ouellette is tax collector for the city of Presque Isle. She can be reached by email at douellette@presqueisleme.us and at (207) 760-2741.
