What does the city pay?
The municipality is not billed a software subscription. That is the price commitment. There is no single national convenience-fee percentage. When council adopts a resident fee, the resident sees that city’s amount before paying. If policy forbids a resident fee, the city absorbs processing as a budget line. Confirm who pays, and the annual price-change rule, in the agreement.
| Model | Who pays processing | Best when |
|---|---|---|
| Convenience fee | Resident, disclosed before payment | The city wants card acceptance without a processing budget |
| City-absorbed | City | Policy forbids a resident surcharge |
| Software at no cost | Bundled with the payment program | Permits, portals, or websites are included in the processing relationship |
Ask for the year-over-year price change in the proposal, not only year-one pricing. Clerks rank cost and total cost of ownership ahead of feature lists.
There is no single national fee
GovtPortal does not use one convenience-fee percentage for every city. Councils adopt different schedules, card and ACH are not always priced the same way, and a fee that is allowed for a utility bill may be written differently for a court payment. The number a resident will see belongs in that city’s agreement and on the payment page before the resident submits.
What is consistent is the packaging. In the common model the municipality is not billed a software subscription for the portal. Card acceptance is funded by a convenience fee the resident pays, disclosed before payment. If policy forbids a resident fee, the city absorbs processing and that cost is a budget line, not a surprise on the first invoice. Permits, sites, and related software are often included in that payment relationship at no separate software cost. Implementation tasks that are custom, including data conversion, are quoted as work, not waved through as “free.”
What to verify in the proposal
- Who pays: resident, city, or a split by payment type.
- The fee for card and the fee for ACH, and whether a flat amount, a percentage, or both applies.
- Refunds: is the convenience fee returned, and who approves the refund.
- Chargebacks: who responds, and which funds are debited.
- The annual price-change rule, not only the first-year number.
- Any minimum, statement fee, or device cost that is outside the convenience fee.
How a clerk should read “no cost to the city”
It means the city is not buying a software seat license in the common convenience-fee model. It does not mean the resident pays nothing, and it does not mean the city has no staff time. The city’s costs that remain are policy, reconciliation, and any equipment or telecommunications the agreement leaves with the city. Ask for those lines in writing.