Will County Treasurer Tim Brophy confirmed Tuesday that property owners have a free online payment option available and advised residents to avoid the high convenience fees associated with using credit cards for tax payments.

Appearing before the Ad-Hoc Ordinance Review Committee, Brophy and his colleague Julie Shetina addressed a concern raised by a board member about the significant cost of paying a large tax bill with a credit card. Brophy explained that while the county’s third-party payment processor charges a 2.28% fee for both credit and debit card transactions, a free option is widely used.

“There is a free way,” Brophy said, noting that about 50,000 taxpayers use the service each payment period. The free method involves an electronic check (e-check) or Automatic Clearing House (ACH) transfer, where taxpayers enter their bank routing and account numbers to authorize a direct payment from their bank account.

The 2.28% fee on a $30,000 tax bill, for example, would cost a taxpayer nearly $700. Brophy emphasized that this fee is charged by and paid to the payment processing company, not the county.

The discussion also touched on why consumer-facing payment apps like Zelle or Venmo are not suitable for tax collection. Brophy explained these services have low transaction limits, typically around $2,500, and do not collect the detailed information—such as name, address, email, and phone number—that the Treasurer’s office needs to track payments and resolve the 2% of cases that involve errors like double payments or non-payments.

Shetina added that the county negotiates the credit card rate and that the current vendor offered the ACH service for free to win the county’s business.