For a city struggling to collect water bills what don't we have an auto payment option?

Submitted by Opposite_Selection_3 t3_y0qa5s in baltimore

The City has just rolled out an entirely new payment system complete with things like Apple Pay as an option yet I did not see an option for auto recurring payment for my water bill. For a city struggling to collect its water bills I am beyond confused why there is not an auto payment option? How do you go through an RFP process for a totally new payment system and fail to have an auto payment feature as a core requirement.

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coredenale t1_irtaqru wrote

I've wondered this as well.

Honestly though, while I love that for my other bills, Baltimore has a pretty bad track record.

I constantly hear stories of water bills being insanely high. That alone is not always a big deal, as that can be legit, but when it happens, it would make sense for the city to reach out to confirm, or at least give a heads up. Instead, the city appears to 100% rely on owners to catch any issues with their bill.

On top of that, the city recently got hacked.

It just seems like a bad idea to trust the city with auto-billing, which really should not be the case.

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mrm0324 t1_irtbvin wrote

I would be hesitant to put my water bill on auto pay for a lot of reasons. Ive heard many stories about extremely high water bills due to unknown leaks or for no good reason at all. Couple that with the recent cyber hack and lack of trust that most citizens have in the city government and I don’t think enrollment in auto pay would be worth it.

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rfg217phs t1_irtdf22 wrote

Given everything going on, I feel like autopay would just be a new exciting way to be out 5000 dollars in one shot

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AJackson904 t1_irteee4 wrote

I’ll piggyback on what others are saying: ain’t no way in hell I’ll trust this city with the ability to just pull money out of my account

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Significant_Jump_21 t1_irth9qw wrote

I agree this is a failure. BUT I'm with everyone else. I don't want the city to auto bill me for anything. They have a whole office of people just to look at the incorrect water bills. The billing is so bad they literally had a program to hire customer service reps to look at the incorrect bills.

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Opposite_Selection_3 OP t1_irti673 wrote

I see a lot of people hesitant to do it but I find it odd it is not even an option. If I was the city I would want to be collecting as much revenue as I could. I would even go so far as what most cell phone plans do and offer around a 5% discount for autopay. It's a big deal to be able to reliability establish cashflow. It just says a lot that the city is not even thinking this way.

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maiios t1_irtp7vh wrote

The press releases last week said this would have auto pay.

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zepp914 t1_irtphxm wrote

I pay them with a paper check. I don't trust them with anything else.

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rytis t1_iru3rmp wrote

Replying to mrm0324 (#73,311)

They could easily give you the option with autopay to stop if there's an increase of over 20% from the previous month, and notify you via email or text to affirm first within 10 days, or it proceeds with autopay, giving you a chance to investigate the issue.

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mrm0324 t1_iru43et wrote

Replying to rytis (#74,627)

Yeah but I think you’re giving Baltimore city too much credit if you think they would implement something like that and do it effectively.

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jimmy-jack-jones t1_iru5cn4 wrote

Even if we can't have or don't want autopay, wouldn't it be nice if the system recognized you, so that you didn't have to fill in your name, email address (twice), bank routing number, bank account number, etc.?

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TylerFL t1_irveg7v wrote

It's a fucking nightmare if you have more than one property too.

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megalomike t1_irvigb6 wrote

if you pay an erroneous bill you can kiss your 21 grand goodbye.

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Confident_Bridge9811 t1_irvo1yu wrote

I don't put anything on auto pay that can increase by 1000% because of a toilet leak.

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ziggy3610 t1_irvookw wrote

I have a recurring payment set up through my bank for my average bill amount. Sometimes it's a little over, sometimes a little under, but it works well enough.

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ScootyHoofdorp t1_irvq51u wrote

A monthly email with a summary of my bill and a one-click payment option would be fantastic

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Angdrambor t1_irw3bza wrote

Replying to Opposite_Selection_3 (#73,573)

>as a City badly wanting to increase collections this seems like a no brainer.

Absolutely not. The cost of lawsuits when your software malfunctions and fucks someone over is going to drastically outweigh any possible collections.

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K_N0RRIS t1_irwz0nl wrote

... but is the issue the payment method or availability of funds? Usually people who have the money to pay something just pay it however theyre told. I dont think adults should have to be reminded to manually pay bills

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Ambitious-Intern-928 t1_irx3s1m wrote

Replying to zepp914 (#73,954)

Lol! You realize half the low-level employees are crooks too right?! I don't use paper checks for ANYTHING, I'd rather pay a money order or certified check fee. Do people not realize how insanely insecure paper checks are? They've got EVERYTHING a person would need to do wire transfers, pay bills, whatever. It's got not just your account and routing number and name of your bank, but also your name and address, what more would a scammer want?

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MattDaCatt t1_irxqku9 wrote

Replying to Opposite_Selection_3 (#73,573)

Unless my water main breaks and I'm out $2000 due to auto billing, rather than being able to have it corrected first.

Also I don't trust BCIT to contract a developer to make the system not save my PIDs in an open format. I was contracted on the ransomware cleanup project and it was a shitshow

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