Vital Information Regarding Third-Party Bill Pay Companies

Recently the Marlborough Collectors Office has seen an increase in late payments received for all Real Estate, Personal Property, Excise, and Water and Sewer bill payments.  Often this issue arises when “third-party bill pay companies” are utilized with assisting our taxpayers in making these payments.  Such as bank automated checks and the postal system.

We highly recommend that if you choose to use one of these third parties to issue your payments you allow yourself a minimum of “at least” 10 business days.  These payments must be received in the Collectors office “on or before” the due date to avoid any type of late fees.

Most banking institutions offer a bill pay option as part of your membership to their establishment.   As the payer, although this process is electronic for you, it’s not electronic for the city. Your financial institution employs a third-party check writer, who they have already paid with your funds. Though you may see the debit from your account, that only means that a check was funded. This does not mean the city has received your payment.  The city does not take the date you initiated payment as your payment date, the city uses the date it received the payment according to Massachusetts General Law. We also do not accept postmark dates as a time of payment.

We understand that this can cause some frustration for you as taxpayers. Many of you have lived here for many years and have not had issues in the past. Though we can appreciate that, we cannot control or be responsible for any delays caused by third-party bill pay companies or the delivery from the Post Office, and we must treat every taxpayer the same.