City utility JEA has reinstated pass-through fees for customers paying with credit and debit cards, but with a cheaper top-tier rate than initially announced.
The rates, which went into effect Sept. 30, are $2.35 for payments up to $400; $8.95 for payments between $400.01 and $1,000; and $40 for payments between $1,000.01 and $2,500.
JEA initially announced in early September that the fee would be $150 for payments of $1,000.01 to $10,000, with the same $2.35 and $8.95 fees for other customers with less expensive bills.
In an email, JEA spokesperson Karen McAllister said the utility worked with its processing vendor, Kubra, to adjust the top-tier fee and cap the maximum payment. The fees are charged by Kubra, with JEA not profiting off of them.
The initial fee schedule drew criticism from Jacksonville City Council member Raul Arias, who said the price for payments in excess of $1,000 would hurt small businesses that are already operating on a tight margin. He said it would amount to a 15% fee for some, which he called excessive. Arias said he would support a fee level that paid for the processing costs, but no more.
Under the new plan, a customer with a $1,000.01 bill will pay a fee equivalent to 4% while a customer with a $2,500 bill would pay 1.6%.
During the JEA board’s Sept. 24 meeting, Chief Customer Officer Sheila Pressley said 95.6% of credit card payments to the utility are for bills less than $400, 3.9% are for bills from $400.01 to $1,000 and 0.5% are in excess of $1,000.01.
JEA stopped charging the fees two years ago in reaction to a significant increase in customers’ bills. That increase was tied to a steep rise in the cost of natural gas, which JEA uses to produce the majority of electricity from its power plants.
McAllister said that during those two years, JEA absorbed more than $9 million in fees.
Those costs were distributed to all customers, including those paying through means other than credit cards and debit cards.