Benton looking into online bill pay

The city of Benton is looking into providing the option to pay certain fees owed to the city with credit or debit cards through an online portal.

Currently, the only way to pay fees, such as privilege license payments or permit fees, is with a check or cash.

“I went out an surveyed other cities,” said Chief Financial

Officer Mandy Spicer. “The city of Jonesboro currently uses a product that is made by INA, Information Network of Arkansas. It’s a really good program.”

INA will build the online system that will take the payments at no cost to the city.

“The fees will actually go to the customer whenever they pay,” Spicer said. “If you are coming in for a plumbing permit that’s $100, you’ll pay 3 percent off of the $100 plus $1.”

There will continue to be no fees if payments are made by check or cash. The charges will only be for online payments.

Spicer told the Benton City Council Finance Committee that no action is required on their part, she simply wanted to keep everyone updated on the new options.

INA and the city will work together to design the platform to best fit the city’s needs, including features such as automatically calculating breaks for paying A&P taxes early or penalties for paying late.

“They will actually build it to be able to calculate all of those things in which is really, really good,” Spicer said.

No timeline has been established as to when the system will be ready for the public to use.