MERTHYR TYDFIL COUNTY BOROUGH COUNCIL

Transcription

1 MERTHYR TYDFIL COUNTY BOROUGH COUNCIL DATE WRITTEN 22 nd March 2007 REPORT AUTHOR Hugh O Sullivan COMMITTEE Council COMMITTEE DATE 4th April 2007 ITEM NUMBER TO: Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen CREDIT AND DEBIT CARD CHARGES PURPOSE OF REPORT: For Council to consider levying charges when Debit and Credit Cards are used Introduction 1.1 The report attached at Appendix 1 was presented to Cabinet in September 2006 and it was agreed to take forward the e-payments solution outlined in the report. 2.0 Paragraph 2 of that report identified the costs associated with the use of debit and credit cards. These costs are currently being borne by the Council as part of the pilot programme. 3.0 This pilot has proved to be very successful and will now be expanded. A decision is now required as to whether or not this Council will pass on the costs associated within the use of debit and credit cards to the customers who use them. 3.1 Councillors will be aware that in virtually all areas where debit and credit cards are utilised any charges associated with the cards used is passed to the customer who is making use of the card payment facility. 4.0 Financial Implications 4.1 If Council decides to levy the charges associated with the debit and credit cards as outlined in the attached report then there will be no financial implications for this authority. 4.2 Should Council determine not to levy the charges then these costs will be borne by the Council. 5.0 Recommendation 4.1 I recommend that Council determines to pass on to customer any costs associated with the use of either debit or credit cards.

2 HUGH O SULLIVAN CHIEF OFFICER, FINANCE, AUDIT AND RISK MANAGEMENT INTERNAL REPORT CONSULTATION: The following officers have been consulted in respect of the proposals and recommendations set out in this report. Chief Executive Integrated Children s Integrated Adult Community Centre BACKGROUND PAPERS: Title of Document(s) Document(s) Date Document Location

3 APPENDIX 1 MERTHYR TYDFIL COUNTY BOROUGH COUNCIL DATE WRITTEN 21 st August 2006 REPORT AUTHOR HEAD OF SERVICE COMMITTEE DIVISION COMMITTEE COMMITTEE DATE Ellis Cooper Ellis Cooper Portfolio Cabinet 6 th September 2006 TO: Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen E-payments Solution PURPOSE OF REPORT: To provide information on the preferred E-payments solution for Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council and to recommend a decision be taken in the near future on the current Credit Card payment arrangements. 1.0 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 1.1 A working group consisting of ICT, Audit, Revenues and Accounts has evaluated 4 leading e-payment solutions for their suitability for implementation within M.T.C.B.C. A preferred e-payments system has been chosen supplied by Adelante Software Ltd. 1.2 The chosen system will work in conjunction with MTCBC s Supplying Bank s E- payments gateway (HSBC) and thus will make the implementation and running of the service relatively straight forward. Since payment is actually made through HSBC on their own secure site no customer payment details are held by MTCBC significantly reducing the security overheads that would otherwise be required if client processing were done on-site. 1.3 Unlike its competitors Adelante s product allows future customisation or development of payment streams to be done internally by our own developers. This removes any future unexpected costs to add payment streams at a later date.

4 2.0 CARD PROCESSING ARRANGEMENTS 2.1 Currently a Debit Card payment costs MTCBC a flat rate of 26.7p per transaction. This charge is the only cost irrespective of the transaction amount. If a Debit card is used via the new E-payment system an additional 10p will be charged for use of the HSBC e-gateway making a total cost of 36.7p per electronic transaction. 2.2 To accept a payment via Credit Card costs MTCBC 1.668% of the transaction amount. i.e. If 100 is paid then 1.66 is paid by the Authority to HSBC to process the credit card. If a Credit Card is used via the new E-payment system an additional 1% of the transaction will be charged for use of the HSBC e-gateway. This makes a total cost to the Authority of 2.668% of the electronic transaction amount. Drawing a direct comparison to the Private Sector, if a payment is made on-line via credit card usually the processing cost of that credit card transaction is passed back onto the customer. E.g. purchasing airline tickets online. 2.3 Given that the take up of the Telephone payments system has been very successful for MTCBC taking over 600,000 in 2005/2006 and it is envisaged that the online E- payments system will be even more successful in terms of transaction volume, it is an opportune time to address the credit card process charge for the Authority. As the electronic payment methods become more successful, if process charging is not passed onto the customer then significant costs may have to be paid by the Authority to collect its own revenue. 3.0 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS 3.1 A follow up report on Credit Card Charging will be presented by the Chief Financial Officer. 4.0 RECOMMENDATIONS 4.1 That agreement is made corporately to proceed with implementation of Adelante s E- payment solution. 4.2 That a subsequent informed decision is made on whether or not to pass the cost of Credit Card payments on to the customer. JILL SHUKER DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE CENTRE

5 INTERNAL REPORT CONSULTATION: The following officers have been consulted in respect of the proposals and recommendations set out in this report. Chief Executive Integrated Children s Integrated Adult Community Centre Chief Officer, Finance, Audit and Risk Management BACKGROUND PAPERS: Title of Document(s) Document(s) Date Document Location