WORCESTER - The City of Worcester collected nearly $37 million in online bill payments while City Hall was closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving residents paying thousands in fees.
City Hall was closed on March 18, 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic until Sept, 13, 2020 and was closed again from Dec. 24, 2020 to Dec. 31, 2020 over the holidays. City Hall closed a third time from Jan. 4, 2021 to Jan. 24, 2021 after a spike in COVID-19 cases following holiday gatherings.
While City Hall was closed, the City instructed residents to make their personal property tax, real estate tax, sewer and water and other municipal bill payments online, at any People’s United Bank branch or by mail.
During the periods when City Hall was closed, 45,403 personal property tax, real estate tax, sewer and water online transactions were processed for $36.9 million, according to data provided by the City of Worcester.
See the breakdown here:
District 5 city councilor Etel Haxhiaj filed an agenda item for the next council meeting on Tuesday, asking the City for a report concerning the feasibility of creating a bill payment service that does not include a third-party vendor that charges fees associated with their services.
The City of Worcester uses UniBank for Government Banking to process each of the online municipal bill transactions. UniBank charges Worcester residents anywhere from $0.25 to $1,000 in convenience fees per online transaction, depending on the amount of the transaction and form of payment.
Paying by checking account would be a flat $0.25 fee and paying by Visa debit card is a flat $3.95 fee. All other convenience fees for transactions using MasterCard, Visa credit card, Amex, and Discover are determined by the amount of the transaction on a scale between $1 and $39,999.
During the time periods when City Hall was closed and residents had to pay bills online or by mail, convenience fees were collected by UniBank on each of the 45,403 online transactions.
The average transaction for property tax, real estate tax and sewer and water payments when City Hall was closed was $813, which would require a $27.50 convenience fee by UniBank.
ThisWeekinWorcester.com requested multiple times from UniBank for Government the total amount of convenience fees collected while City Hall was closed. UniBank acknowledged the request, but didn’t respond with the requested information.
While unlikely, if UniBank only collected the $0.25 fee for payment by checking account on each transactions, they could have collected just over $11,350 in convenience fees from March 18 to Sept, 13, 2020 and Dec. 24, 2020 to Jan. 24, 2021.
If each transaction was subject to the $3.95 flat fee for using a Visa debit card, Unibank could have collected just over $179,341 in convenience fees.
By using the $813 average transaction above, if each transaction used a credit card carrying a $27.50 fee, UniBank could have collected around $1.2 million.
ThisWeekinWorcester.com filed a public records request with the City of Worcester for any communications between the City and UniBank regarding convenience fees on online bill payments during the time periods City Hall was closed. The City replied no such communication existed. UniBank is not obliged to drop convenience fees at any time.
