WW council will continue discussion on credit/debit card payment fees
By Dan Thesman on Friday, July 26th, 2024 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
WALLA WALLA – The Walla Walla City Council tabled a resolution Wednesday night to adopt a service fee for credit and debit card payments. A motion was unanimously approved to continue discussion and take action within a month.
According to city staff, the service fee may add an estimated revenue between $100,000 and $500,000.
The city accepts payments for utility bills, landfill charges, permits, parks programs, library services, general billing, and miscellaneous items at several locations within the city via cash, check, credit, and debit cards. The city also receives payments online for parks program fees and utility accounts via credit and debit cards.
In 2023, the city received $16,775,378 in customer payments using credit or debit cards. The city paid $936,276 in credit card processing fees, 5.58 percent of the payments. It used two processing companies, Global Payments, and Axia Med.
The city started using the online payment system in 2009-2010, and the number of payments has grown.
Here is a five-year history of online payments and fees.
2019: $6,084,008 in payments and $275,119 in processing fees.
2020: $6,788,170 in payments and $335,125 in processing fees.
2021: $8,446,705 in payments and $340,588 in processing fees.
2022: $8,928,915 in payments and $441,239 in processing fees.
2023: $9,652,975 in payments and $589,431 in processing fees.
