Oops: 3.20% fee to pay Somerville excise tax online? Yikes!

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

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. .  .

Comments

RE: $3 is for credit card payments

[gruene.livejournal.com]

"It's 2015. Bills paid online should be REDUCED, not charged a fee."

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

[spettacolo.livejournal.com]

And why do credit cards cost a "huge amount" to process? That's my point. Someone is making lots of money moving around ones and zeros. That's what's bullshit.

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

[gruene.livejournal.com]

Merchants that accept credit cards must pay interchange fees to the issuing banks. It's one of the most expensive ways to take payments out there. I'm glad the city charges people who use credit cards because I don't want my taxes paying interchange fees. Is that clearer? I agree that the fee should be reduced for electronic check.