Veco eases bills payment with 7T TPAs nationwide

Subscribers of Visayan Electric Company (VECO) can now pay their bills literally anywhere in the Philippines with the power firm’s close to 8,000 third party agent (TPA) partners across the country.

"We are constantly finding ways to make it easier for our customers to pay for their electric bills. The increasing number of locations of our third party agents is a very welcome development that will help us achieve this goal," said Engr. Mark Anthony Kindica, VECO AVP for Customer Service Group.

VECO now has a total of 7,820 TPA affiliates nationwide, further strengthening the Cebu-based utility’s bid to make it more convenient for customers to pay their electricity bills.

Since 2008, VECO has been partnering with TPAs to process bills payments in a bid to promote ease of doing business for more than 422,800 customers within its franchise area.

Around 98 percent of VECO’s customers now pay through TPA partners, which include Bayad Center, Cebuana Lhuillier, M Lhuillier, 2GO, ECPay, SM Hypermarket, SM Department Store, Savemore Market, and SM Business Services.

VECO bills can also be settled even outside Cebu where these TPA partners have branches, be it in Manila or in Davao and many other locations across the country.

Customers just need to make sure they know their account number and how much is due for the period covered, Kinsida added.

This year, some of VECO’s existing partners have increased the number of their affiliates which, in effect, also expands the electric utility’s reach for more convenient bills payments.

One example is Bayad Center’s tie-up with POSIBLE.NET, an online platform that seeks to empower micro businesses for digital transactions.

"While we want to partner with more banks, as well as online payment methods, we are keen on looking for more partners for cash payments since more than 50 percent of our customers are unbanked,” Kindica explained.

VECO, the country’s second largest electric distribution utility, has earlier shifted the focus of its existing service centers toward the processing of new applications, reconnections, bill deposit updating, and complaints, among others, to encourage more customers to pay through TPAs.

The TPA initiative as well as its net metering and underground distribution system projects, among others, all contribute to fulfilling the company’s drive to provide the best customer experience.

VECO, owned and managed by publicly-listed Aboitiz Power Corporation and Vivant Corporation, serves the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Talisay, and Naga as well as four municipalities in the greater part of Metro Cebu--Liloan, Consolacion, Minglanilla, and San Fernando.—