The city mails 90,000 water bills every month. The paper trail coming back will lighten.
By SHARON L. BOND
Published June 4, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - Residents of St. Petersburg now can pay their water and sewer bills online.
This feature is part of the city's revamped Web site, which was introduced this week. The city bill covers water, reclaimed water, sewer, sanitation and stormwater. The city mails out 90,000 of them each month.
To pay online, you must have an e-mail account.
In this month's utility bill, each recipient will receive a temporary personal identification number to use online. They will need it to get into the city's account payment section, where they will establish a permanent PIN. The city began mailing out the bills with the PINs on May 23. It will take about 20 business days for everyone to get their PINs.
Call up the city's home page at www.stpete.org On that page are four entry points, in addition to Mayor Rick Baker's welcome. Click on "Online Services."
Up comes a menu with eight selections. Click on "Pay a water/city utility bill." Understand that this is the city's water and sewer bill only, not the electric, telephone or cable bill, which come from other companies.
The next page offers instructions for first-time users and lets those who already have registered go straight to payment. Residents may use credit or debit cards to pay. There is no surcharge for the online service.
A click on the first-time users category brings up a page of instructions:
- Have the utility account number ready. The instructions say where on the bill it can be found.
- Have the temporary PIN ready and have in mind what the permanent PIN will be.
The page has detailed instructions for registering. After it is filled out, the customer clicks submit and then exits. An e-mail will arrive verifying the information. Click on the blue hyperlink in the e-mail, which leads to the Web page where bills can be paid.
The registration sheet includes a telephone number if the user has trouble or questions about getting set up to pay online.
