Correct references prevent incorrect account penalties
With rates letters due to be sent out soon, Waipā District Council is urging residents to check they have the correct reference details when using internet banking for payments.
Council’s chief financial officer Ken Morris said at the peak of rates payment deadlines, as many as 600 bank transactions are required to be manually allocated and without correct references this is time consuming for staff and sometimes leads to incorrect receipting.
“It's very important to get the references right, so we can ensure your payment goes to the right place. If it goes to the wrong place we don’t see it and you can be incorrectly penalised as a result,” Morris said.
Where payments to Council are referenced incorrectly, overdue payment notices often result which causes concern for ratepayers who believe they’ve paid their invoices correctly.
Staff must then undergo a manual investigation to determine what has been paid and where the payment was supposed to go. This can be avoided entirely by having the right details in the first place, Morris said.
Ratepayers will find references such as an invoice number, application number, or account/property ID on their accounts, and these along with the name in which the account is issued would help to ensure the accounts are allocated correctly, he said.
Where people are paying multiple accounts, Morris recommended setting up individual payments for each invoice with the correct references.
“For example, a water bill and a rates bill need to have different references so we can differentiate which account you are paying.
“This also stops people from receiving unintended penalties due to their payment showing up in the wrong area,” Morris added.
Ratepayers in Waipā can make payments via internet banking, credit card, or online through the Council website, or in person at a Council office.
“The Pay it Online portal allows multiple payments in a single secure transaction and can be used for dog registrations, water and property rates, resource and building consents, and more, we just need to have the referencing done right.”
Council’s payment portal includes prompts to avoid adding incorrect references, but payments made via internet banking do not, Morris said.
“We understand some people pay more than one property or account at one time, so I encourage those people to please double-check individual payments have the correct references, or otherwise email a remittance to our accounts team including a detailed list of the accounts being paid to the Council so we can manually allocate it.”
For more information on ways to pay, visit waipadc.govt.nz/payit.
