[Susan Pardy]

Hi everyone,
As part of the end of year fees and charges process, we are looking at the option of charging for dishonoured payments (we have a lot of ratepayers on direct debit payments and we would normally have at least one dishonoured direct debit each day). Can you please let me know if you on-charge the bank fees and/or administration to process the dishonoured payment? And how is it feasibly done (ie. is it simply added onto the land rates)? And is it considered a deterrent or just extra admin work for the office staff?
I thank you all for your time and input in advance.
Cheers,
Susan

[Robert Hay]

Hi Susan

Kuringai charges a fee which covers what the banks charge plus the cost of admin (listed in Council’s fees and charges). This is charged to the rate account. I dont consider it a deterrent it’s just cost recovery. Council shouldn’t have to bear the cost of the ratepayers payment bouncing.

Robert

[Matthew Saunders]

Penrith City Council charges a dishonoured payment fee. It is presently $30 and is listed in our fees and charges. It is charged for dishonoured cheque payments and dishonoured direct debit payments and is for cost recovery more than a deterrant. We charge to the rates account also.

[John Towers]

Hi Susan,

NSC does similar to Kuringgai. It is a cost of providing the service when customers fail to honour their end of the agreement.

JT

[Tracey Walker]

Hi Susan,
Wollongong have a dishonour fee and it is an on-charge. So what we get charged by the bank is what we charge the ratepayer.

I consider it a cost recovery, the ratepayer should know whether they have available funds or not.

Tracey

[Brett Grunert]

Hi Susan

I know I am a bit late to the party but at Waverley we have only just introduced direct debits for quarterly rates instalments. This transaction may only be undertaken by credit card as it was seen to be a more reliable payment method rather than cash. At this time it is running at around a 10% declined factor of the total, however, we do not charge a fee, although a dishonour fee is applied to cheques.

My advice is to be very careful with applying a charge as class actions against ANZ Bank and other banks now require the fee to be reasonable and not excessive. Just make sure there is a fee incurred for the direct debit decline from your bankers. I have tried to make the process administrative easy as possible but I appreciate that you sick of the lame reasons from the ratepayers.

That said, John Towers, has stated I am soft and he has said it for many years.

Cheers Brett

[Peter Goddard]

Kogarah does the same as Kuringai but we have a different fee for cheque & direct debit dishonours and thats because our bank charges us different dishonour fees.
Peter

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