Payment Processing Services

The vendor is required to provide payment processing services for debit and credit cards, ach payments, electronic checks and other forms of electronic payments as a form of payment, whether through in-person, pay by phone, or online transactions.
- The city will perform its due diligence in ensuring that debit and credit card transactions and other forms of electronic payments are conducted in the most secure, efficient, and cost-effective manner.
•    The city to engage a full-service company experienced in the development, installation and operation of a credit and debit card, atm card, ach payment and electronic check processing service for tax collection purposes. 
•    The company must provide a competitively based discount for the processing of the major credit cards: visa, Mastercard, discover, and American Express. 
•    The company’s systems must be compatible with the quality data systems and QDS 5 tax collector system (“QDS”) used by offices for the billing and collection of real estate, business personal property, and motor vehicle taxes, sewer use charges, and various other fees. 
•    There should be no cap on utility payments. 
•    The service shall allow the city to authenticate cardholders by using the card’s magnetic stripe or chip to authenticate the cardholder and to authorize and capture the transaction in the tax collector’s office. 
•    The system must be web-based, and operable on a mobile device. 
•    the system should have the ability to set automatic payments and email reminders with content specified and approved by the city, and sent only at the discretion of the city. 
•    The system should offer the ability to pay online though Venmo, PayPal and similar platforms. 
•    The system should provide payment, settlement and refunding services. 
•    The system should provide the customer a transactional receipt that contains only the last four (4) digits of the credit card number, and that does not show the expiration date. 
•    The system should provide immediate and direct deposit of all payments made by a customer, into a designated city of bank account through a city-approved banking partner. 
•    At no time should any customer payments flow through the company’s or a contractor’s bank Account(s). 
•    The system should provide online daily transaction and account reconciliation reports by major credit card and by merchant id. 
•    These reports must be compatible for import into the city’s various systems.
•    Any reports furnished to the city by the company must be compatible with the city’s various systems 
•    The company should provide, at no cost to the city, on-site technical service as may be required in the event of operational difficulties related to the transmission of daily transactions and any equipment and software failure or malfunction. 
•    Be regularly engaged in the acceptance and processing of debit and credit cards and other forms of electronic payments, and in providing on-line reporting services, with at least five (5) years of experience. 
•    Demonstrate to the satisfaction of the city that the company has adequate financial resources, experienced 
•    Personnel, and significant experience in processing debit and credit cards and other forms of electronic payments. 
•    Provide documentation to support the qualifications criteria as part of the response to this RFP; 
•    Provide a consistent, single point of contact for customer relations with the city. 
•    Provide live, interactive customer service support during regular business hours, such hours to be specified by the company, accessible via a toll-free number for users (taxpayers and customers) to call if they are having trouble using the company’s system. 
•    This toll-free number must be accessible and available on all the payment platforms and on all marketing, materials promoting use of the system for the city’s transactions. 
•    Under no circumstances will the city employees be expected provide the above-described telephone-based customer support service to users of the system in lieu of the above. 
•    Provide real-time, web-based reporting of transactions by department and location. 
•    Be fully compliant with all payment card industry (PCI) security standards as established by the payment card industry standards council. 
•    Provide seven (7) days per week technical support. 
•    Provide on-line resources for retrieving, reviewing, printing and downloading transactions and settlement data in a format compatible for importation into the city’s various systems
•    The ability to provide multiple city users with access to on-line reporting
•    Provide initial and ongoing training as is necessary.

- Contract Period/Term: 1 year
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: August 19, 2025