For the first time this year, Jackson County residents faced with their annual property tax bills can just say: "Charge it."
Local officials will join a handful of Oregon counties in providing a credit card payment option they say will be a boon to customers short on cash - or those who just want to rack up frequent-flier miles.
"I expect the first year to have several hundred at least," said County Treasurer Gary Cadle.
Property owners will pay a 2.35 percent "convenience fee" or a flat $3 electronic check fee to use the service on all real and manufactured structure accounts, Cadle said.
Every year, several of the 110,000 property owners in the county have asked to pay their bills with credit cards, Cadle said. Until now, county officials resisted the option because they didn’t want to foot the estimated $5 million bill for processing.
By passing the user fee to consumers, they were able to launch the service, Cadle said.
"One of our main reasons for doing this is because of customer service," said Cadle, who noted that some taxpayers said they were interested in boosting their frequent-flier miles with the large payments.
Last year, Linn County became the first in the state to offer credit card payments, said Mark Noakes, county assessor and tax collector. But officials there didn’t advertise the option and instructions didn’t get printed on last year’s tax bills.
Overall, only about $100,000 of Linn County’s $91 million in collections was received through credit card payments, Noakes said.
"We mailed out our bills Friday and over the weekend we had $6,000 or $7,000 in payments already," Noakes said. "I think this is going to get well used."
Curry, Multnomah and Benton counties will also offer credit payments this year, Cadle said.
Jackson County collected about $171 million of the more than $174 million in property taxes levied last year, or about 98 percent, Cadle said. He didn’t know whether the credit option would increase collections.
Instructions for paying by credit card or electronic check are included in this year’s bills, expected to levy more than $812.5 million in taxes.
Property owners can’t pay bills with credit cards at county offices, Cadle said. Credit firms require transactions to be independent in order to avoid charging government entities for the service.
To pay, customers can go to any public or private computer terminal. Log onto jacksoncounty.org and then select the "Front Counter Application" from the right column.
Select "Front Counter Express," then click on "Account" and put the tax account number from the bill in the box. Then click on "Submit."
Select "Click to View Tax Info" button. The pop-up screen allows a customer to change the date to a future date to view a pay-off amount. Next, click "Continue."
A blue line that states "Pay Online Now with Credit Card or Check" will appear. Click on that line and follow payment instructions. If the blue line is missing, call the Payment Center at 774-6541.
It will take about 48 hours for account information to be updated.
To avoid penalties, property taxes must be paid by Nov. 15.
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