Gainesville accepting online payment of utility bills

GAINESVILLE - Gainesville Public Utility customers can now pay their utility bills online.

The Public Utilities Department has added a new feature to provide another payment option. A link to UBPayments is available on the city's Web site, www.gainesville.org.

After creating a login and password, "you'll see 12 months worth of history, your payments and you can look at your billing information," said Tina Wetherford, finance and administration division manager for the Gainesville Public Utilities department.

Customers will also be able to make a payment using their Visa or MasterCard with no convenience fee. The online payment will also allow customers to set a preference to receive their bills electronically.

"We've had a lot of customers who want to pay by credit card because they want to earn some points or save up for a vacation through their credit card," Wetherford said. "We figured this would be a more convenient option for them."

In other parts of north Georgia, Habersham County recently began allowing online payment of taxes, and Hoschton started allowing traffic fines to be paid via the Internet.