Will County Clerk’s Office Enters 21st Century Accepting Credit Card Payments

Will County Clerk Lauren Staley Ferry is pleased to announce that her office has begun accepting credit card or debit card payments from visitors who purchase copies of birth, marriage, or death certificates.

Staley Ferry had promised to modernize operations in the interest of convenience for local taxpayers before she took office in December. One of her first steps after the Consolidated Election was to open discussions with GovPayNet, an Indianapolis-based company that is a leader in accepting credit and debit card payments on behalf of government agencies.

“The County Clerk’s Office had been turning away visitors for years if they weren’t prepared to pay for copies of these important records with cash,” Staley Ferry said. “Although there is an ATM across the lobby outside our office, I felt this added step was a terrible inconvenience for customers who were ready to pay at our counter with their credit or debit cards.”

She added: “I could not believe that a government office of our size conducting business in the 21^st Century did not accept credit or debit cards.”

After finalizing an agreement with GovPayNet and organizing the training of her staff, the County Clerk began accepting credit and debit card payments on Friday. The first visitor to use a credit card Friday morning was Ashley Granlund, who came to the Clerk’s Office to pick up copies of her marriage certificate.

“I am so happy we can offer this convenience to our visitors,” Staley Ferry said. “The decision to accept credit and debit card payments was simple to make.”

Cardholders pay a small service fee at the time of their transaction. The fee is $1.50 for payments of up to $50, and it increases as the purchase amount rises. The fee schedule is clearly posted at every customer station. There are no charges to the County Clerk’s Office for participation in the GovPayNet service.

GovPayNet accepts Visa®, MasterCard®, American Express® and Discover®. “Each business day, we reconcile the previous day’s payments with the government agency and then electronically forward the cardholders’ payments in full to the agency’s bank account,” said Mark MacKenzie, CEO of GovPayNet. “We also handle all cardholder calls and inquiries about any payment issues.”

GovPayNet has a fully staffed, bilingual call center available around the clock.

More than one million cardholders annually make payments to more than 2,000 agencies in more than 40 states through GovPayNet. The company safely and securely processes nearly $200 million annually in payments to government agencies.