City of Baytown Card Fee Explanation

Credit cards are easy to use, but the extra fees to use them can be costly and it's not any different for the City of Baytown. Residents were recently reminded of the 4% charge for credit card or debit fees that was passed during the Fiscal Year 2025 budget. Did you know it's actually an effort to save money?

While they appeared to be free for residents to use, the City had to subsidize these costs before the 4% fee was approved. In 2023, the City had to pay a vendor more than $424,000 for residents to be able to use credit cards for payment. In 2024, that increased to more than $600,000. The 4% transaction fee will allow the City to recover about 94% of this amount.

For example, a $1.00 transaction fee would be included on a $25 charge.

There are still ways to avoid the transaction fee. You can pay by cash or check, but you can also set up an auto-draft using your bank account. City officials believe residents will understand the effort to minimize the impact to services and operations.