By Elyssa Parnell

eparnell@civitasmedia.com

Regier
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/web1_Regier.jpgRegier

NEWBERRY — The City of Newberry is currently setting policies for availability of utility service prepayment options that would be in addition to the city’s current postpay billing cycles.

Utility Director Marc Regier said Wednesday night they were looking to change their billing system, adding that the current system the city uses will not support certain things they need to do.

“They’re not developing in the software anymore,” Regier said.

Regier said they were looking to move toward something newer age. Wednesday night’s meeting was held to update council on the new system. Regier said the new system will give additional options to customers.

The new system would allow customers to get meter readings on the hour for their water and electric usages and give them the ability to see what they are using. Customers would be able to pay for the energy as it’s being used as opposed to it compounding days of consumption,, resulting in a larger bill at the end of the month.

“It shows them how much they’re using per hour so they can change some behavior and they don’t have to come up with that much more money,” Regier said.

For example, if a city customer has a $200 bill, they would need to make a 20 percent payment of that ($40) to gain access to the prepay program. That $40 goes toward the customer now paying for their energy costs, Regier said.

After paying the $40 to join the program, the customer could then put $60 on the account. The city would then take 50 percent of that amount to pay the overdue balance and the other half would go toward recharging their account.

“That $30 would be them prepaying the next days usage,” Regier said.

Customers would also have the ability to come to City Hall to check on their bills as they do now, or could check online or get emails or text messages updating them on their usage amounts through an app on a smartphone or device.

Regier said co-ops have been using this type system and that many others were moving toward these types of systems.

The new prepay system was compared to Verizon’s ability to let customers know how much data they have used after a certain time period.

“That way customers are not waiting until the end of the month to be hit with a large bill,” Regier said.

Through research with other companies using similar programs, Regier said the average customer is reconnected within two hours after having been disconnected.

“They can go in every day and add money to their account,” Regier said.

The new program is customer based, allowing customers to also pay on their bills from popular locations other than City Hall including Walmart, Family Dollar and CVS. Customers can scan their City of Newberry bill at various locations, put money on their account and 50 seconds later, their meter is turned back on, Regier said.

“It gives them (customer) options outside of 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and gives them that convenience option,” Regier said.

Regier said the city hopes to be able to accept prepay payments by January 2016.

“This new plan will give customers more knowledge about their bills and utility usage,” said Mayor Foster Senn. “The pay-as-you-go method will allow customers who choose that method the ability to manage their own cash flow instead of one payment once per month.”

Reach Elyssa Parnell at 803-276-0625, ext. 1868, or on Twitter @TheNBOnews.