Title
On-Line and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Credit Card Processing Fees for Development Services
History
The Village of Orland Park accepts credit cards from customers and patrons for a variety of Village services. For Development Services permits and license fees, the Village accepts credit cards in the Village Hall and absorbs the processing fees. During the COVID-19 response, the Village added permits and licenses fees to our E-Pay web portal, but the online payment portal charges a fee to the customer. In addition to the online portal, we have been accepting credit card payments over the phone by cashiers at Village Hall, with the Village absorbing the fee because the payments are processed in Village Hall.
For other Village services, such as utility bills, the Village absorbs the credit card processing fees for in-person and online transactions. The E-Pay portal accepts a variety of other fees, such as Municipal Violations, Parking Tickets, Administrative Booking, and Impound Fees, with the processing fees paid by the customer. E-Pay also offers over the phone payments using an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, with fees mirroring online payments. There is a flat fee for online recreation registration.
In an effort to be more customer service friendly and to continue to provide remote customer service, staff would like to continue to absorb fees including removing the online fees as a disincentive for online payment. Online payments and IVR payments are preferred over cashier accepted phone payments because they are customer-driven, more secure, can be done at any time of day or night, and leave Village staff free to handle other matters.
In 2019, the Village paid approximately $150,000 in credit card processing fees from an estimated $21.6 million in total revenue or about 0.71%. If a similar proportion of payments are absorbed for another $1M in processing fees, the Village would incur an additional $10,000 in credit card fees.
The Village is able to change the E-Pay portal to absorb fees for certain purposes, but those changes can only be implemented once per month. If the Village Board is supportive of this change, the Village will begin absorbing E-Pay processing fees for Development Services permits and licenses effective August 1 for online and IVR. Staff would continue to accept credit card payments over the phone until August 1 to save customers from making a trip into Village Hall.
Recommended Action/Motion
I move to approve the Village Manager execute the necessary documents to absorb credit card processing fees for online payments and Interactive Voice Response (over the phone) for Development Services, including Building Permits, Business/Contractor Licenses, and similar Village programs, but specifically excluding fines, violations, booking fees, and impound fees.