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Correction: the fee is 3.20% of the car's value excise tax with a $3. minimum.
Guess I've never paid my Somerville excise tax on-line.
Went through the steps to do that just now and discovered right near the end (through an alert - thank you!) that the fee is$3 3.20% of the car's value excise tax, with a $3 minimum. That seems kind of high – has it been that for a while? The city does it through an enity name Kelly & Ryan Associates
I pay all my monthlies on-line and only RCN charges a fee – that's a $1 and I'm lazy but $3 seemed a bit much, so it was back to my "forever" stamps. . .
Guess I've never paid my Somerville excise tax on-line.
Went through the steps to do that just now and discovered right near the end (through an alert - thank you!) that the fee is
I pay all my monthlies on-line and only RCN charges a fee – that's a $1 and I'm lazy but $3 seemed a bit much, so it was back to my "forever" stamps. . .
$3 is for credit card payments
Date: 2015-03-05 01:34 am (UTC)Oh, and for RCN - you can get rid of the payment fee if you set your account to autopay. Autopay with a credit card is still free - no fee.
no subject
Date: 2015-03-05 03:00 am (UTC)RE: $3 is for credit card payments
Date: 2015-03-05 06:04 am (UTC)"Thanks for your feedback. There is a convenience fee when using a credit
card, which is charged by and collected by the credit card company -
Somerville does not receive any of it. We do recognize the value of
online payments, and we actually removed the fee for an electronic bank
transfer - it was .40 cents, but is now free for real estate and water
payments. There are other benefits to online payments such as scheduling
payments in advance and email notification.
Regards,
Pete Forcellese"
I went ahead and mailed my bills in with a check and a stamp.
It's 2015. Bills paid online should be REDUCED, not charged a fee.
no subject
Date: 2015-03-05 07:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-05 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-05 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-06 01:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-09 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-06 02:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-06 06:36 am (UTC)RE: $3 is for credit card payments
Date: 2015-03-05 09:18 pm (UTC)Bullshit. Credit cards cost a huge amount of money to process. I'd rather the 3% or so go to city services and not to Visa/MC and the issuing banks.
RE: $3 is for credit card payments
Date: 2015-03-06 01:05 am (UTC)The 3% does not go to the city. It goes to the banks.
When I went to pay my $62 excise tax bill, a $3 'convenience fee' was added to the shopping cart before I even got to the page where I chose my type of payment. I tried to do an e-check through my bank and the $3 fee remained. I had no intention of paying with a credit card. Maybe there was just some glitch for me, but that was my experience. That's where I'm coming from.
When I said "Bills paid online should be reduced" I was referring to an e-check/bill pay transfer. There is no way it costs more to accept my money electronically from my local bank compared to having someone manually open and process envelopes and paper checks. I would think Somerville would prefer every single tax and fee be electronically swept into their accounts, rather than paying staff to handle paper.
RE: $3 is for credit card payments
Date: 2015-03-06 03:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-05 08:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-05 08:58 pm (UTC)Fwiw - I wasn't saying there shouldn't be a charge for the "convenience" – I was just surprised at the amount – and now even more surprised that it is percent-based. I have an old car with $41 excise tax – with a newer car @ $25. per $1000 – that fee can add up.
no subject
Date: 2015-03-05 09:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-05 10:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-05 10:41 pm (UTC)Is this right = (so a car valued at $10,000 would have an excise tax due of $250 (@ $25/1000) @ 3.2% = $8.)?
A. is high
B. Why should a "convenience fee" be percentage-based?
Anyway. . . I'm sticking with stamps and buying more "convenience fee" ice cream.
no subject
Date: 2015-03-05 10:44 pm (UTC)(And I'd still pay with my bank's online payment system, which doesn't cost me anything.)
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Date: 2015-03-05 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-06 03:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-06 02:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-06 05:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-03-06 12:41 am (UTC)But more to the point WRT this post -- be extra extra careful if you're doing that with ANY Somerville government office. The offices don't (won't!) talk to each other, and many addresses are quite similar, and the money goes in but it never ever comes out. And if you get it wrong, you get nastygrams from the office you were supposed to pay (which is why I know they won't talk to each other). Frickin' local government. We'd be less likely to bear the scars of interacting with it if we stuck our appendages into a lion's mouth each time we needed anything from them...