City of Salem Now Accepting Plastic For Payments

The city is NOT yet able to accept credit or debit card payments in city offices or for other types of payments such as planning and development fees, parking tickets, or court payments.

Salem-News.com

(SALEM) - City of Salem utility bill � $300 � now able to charge it to your credit or debit card � priceless.

The City of Salem is now using U.S. Bank`s Lockbox Service to process payments for parking permits, miscellaneous accounts receivable invoices and utility bill payments received in the mail.

Payments can be made using either MasterCard or Visa credit and debit cards.

The city is working to add American Express and Discover card payment acceptance.

Customers will see changes on their bill payment forms for these three systems so they can indicate whether they wish to make a credit or debit card payment.

The city is also sending out revised return mail envelopes to direct payments to the new post office box associated with this service.

Payments will be sent to a P.O. Box in Portland, from which U.S. Bank retrieves the mail beginning at midnight each day.

The payments are now processed by U.S. Bank throughout the day and deposited on the same day into the city`s checking account.

Salem Finance Director Tony Mounts said that after careful review, the city determined that using the U.S. Bank lockbox would provide a variety of benefits including reduction in processing time, significant cost savings and new payment options.

Mounts added that although the city is still working through some complex issues relating to initiation of these payments and the associated costs, card acceptance capabilities for most city services, fees, and fines should be phased in over the next year.

The city is working on accepting payments through the city`s Web site.