On Friday, January 7, 2011, the City of Saco began accepting credit cards as a form of payment for any transaction conducted in person at City Hall. All major cards: Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover, will be accepted.

With this new customer service feature, customers now will have four payment options: to pay by a credit or debit card, as well as by check or by cash.

The new service is provided by the State of Maine's InforMe "PayPort" system. InforMe also provides Rapid Renewal and other online functions for Maine towns and cities.

PayPort will collect a separate bank processing fee of 2.5%, or a $1 minimum charge, on all card transactions, both credit and debit. This fee is a standard banking fee associated with such card transactions.

However, in the government environment, the bank fee must be charged by a third party (and not the city) and must be presented as a separate charge so customers pay for the service received on its own and can see each charge type.

Until recently, state law prohibited municipalities from accepting credit cards for in- person transactions, but, once the law changed, the city acted to start this service. Many citizens have been asking for the city to accept credit cards as payment for a long time, and we want to say thank you to those customers for their patience.

The benefits of the new service include convenience for customers, who now have more choice on how to pay, as well as saved time, as the city staff will handle payments made by card transactions just one time.

We hope citizens take advantage of this new service soon -- part of our ongoing effort "to enhance our community through exceptional service."

If you have any questions about this or any other service we offer, please call Stephanie at 282 1032.