New system may be in place by December
By John Faucher
The Village of Hortonville will soon be using a new payment system for customers who wish to make electronic payments for bills, permits, fines, rentals and more.
The village began researching card service firms and payment systems several months ago, hoping to find a secure, uniform and low cost option for its constituents.
Village Administrator David DeTroye said Deputy Clerk Treasurer Nathan Treadwell, and Village Clerk Treasurer Jane Booth headed up the search.
Treadwell gave village board members an update at a Sept. 19 board meeting.
“We’ve sat through five or six presentations from different credit card companies trying to figure out a processing system for our constituents,” said Treadwell.
“All of them were not so good when it came to payment for our constituents and for us. So we kind of stopped looking,” Treadwell said.
He and Booth attended a recent presentation at Outagamie County and learned about MSB Group, the processing firm that the county uses.
“We were able to hop on through that contract,” Treadwell said.
Their service will allow the village to accept secure online payments, take credit card payments at the counter, and process eChecks, an electronic version of a paper check.
“The fee for eChecks will be 25 cents, and the credit card will be 2.2 percent, which is the lowest rate that we’ve seen,” said Treadwell.
The firm also offered to pay for any upgrades the village needs to run the system.
“Which itself is around a $2,000 cost,” said Treadwell.
DeTroye said once the integrated system is implemented it will make the paperwork flawless.
“It makes it user friendly for the customer, but also for our employees in the village,” said DeTroye.
Cost savings
Booth told the board, “The cost to the village is zero.”
DeTroye said a lot of systems the village looked at previously had good features but, “hit you on the back side with fees.”
He also noted that the system the village had in place worked but was not as effective.
“So we waited until the good one came and this was the right time,” said DeTroye.
He thanked Treadwell and Booth for their work in researching the village’s options.
Village department heads could see their first instruction on the system as early as next week, Treadwell reported.
“We’re hoping to get this up and running prior to December for tax season,” he said.
All village departments including, police, municipal court, water and sewer department, and the front office will be able to process those types of electronic payments once the system is fully integrated. The village can have up to five terminals.