Customers are afraid to pay their Lake Worth utility bill after recent breaches say they've found another way to pay that offers more peace of mind, but it's also going to cost them.
"My husband went in to drop the payment off and the representative at the desk told him if he was there to drop it off and have it posted immediately and receive a receipt for the payment there would be a two-dollar charge," said Caryn Martin of Lake Worth.
If you drop off your check in a payment deposit box outside of the City Hall annex, paying by check is free, but Martin wants peace of mind that the bill is posted and paid and that service has a $2 convenience fee.
"I feel more comfortable (paying inside) because they give me a receipt," said Estela Urbino in Spanish.
Martin said she used to bill pay through her bank, but the vendor was posting the payments weeks after she was paying her bill and charging her late fees.
"Again, it's just more frustration over how to pay your utility bills; all you want to do is pay them and keep your utilities on, but it seems like it gets harder and harder every day," said Martin.
The city said you can still pay with your credit card over the phone for free and the payment is not processed through the third party vendor system that was breached.
"It might be antiquated and people laugh at me because I'm still taking the physical check, for me, it's still peace at night not thinking that somebody's going into my bank account and taking money," added Martin.
Martin said she believes the city should work with residents who were impacted by the breach and are facing hundreds of dollars in fraudulent charges. Many of them have been sounding off that they are still seeing fraudulent charges on their accounts as recent as last week and are having to order new bank cards.
"For the meantime, let the $2 be waived and let people be comfortable and paying their bill in person," said Martin.
City Commissioner Andy Amoroso said the convenience fee was put in place to cover the walk-in service and take the burden off of taxpayers. The fee has been in place since 2015.
