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In order to cut out £12,000 worth of annual charges, Babergh District Council is set to introduce a standard transaction charge on payments made by credit card. The 1.5% fee will come into force on 1st February and will affect those who pay their council tax, rent or business rates using their flexible friend. Debit card payments are not affected and their usage continues to remain free of charge.
At a recent meeting of Babergh’s Strategy Committee, Members heard how credit card payments are costing the authority approximately £12,000 each year in commission charges.
Head of Revenues at Babergh District Council, Bob Southgate said “That expenditure does nothing to improve the lives of Babergh residents. The Council is happy to offer the credit card method of payment to those who prefer to pay that way but cannot do so at the expense of other services. The public quite rightly expect value for money. The money saved by this decision can now be used on other priorities. Imposing a fee for credit card payments is not new, many businesses and organizations already do just that. We are not the first local authority to have faced this issue - others are already charging fees for credit card payments”.
A random sample of payments made revealed that around 98-99% are made regularly and by households with up to date payments. It is felt that levying a charge should not create hardship and is also an incentive for a switch to more efficient payment methods such as Direct Debit, or the use of a debit card which is not so expensive for the Council.
Switching to Direct Debit is easy. Babergh offer a variety of payment dates, with a choice from the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd or 28th of each month for Council Tax and 1st or 21st of each month for rent. Direct Debit is totally secure and only needs to be set up once – which can be done by a simple phone call. Businesses are also being encouraged to switch to the Direct Debit habit as this is the cheapest way to collect payments.
Anyone interested in switching to paying by Direct Debit, should contact a member of the Revenues Team on (01473) 825798. Details on setting up a Direct Debit are also available on the Council’s website. |