Power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) will be re-imposing convenience fee (CF) for online payments of its customers using its Meralco Online and Mobile App, but this will come at a reduced rate of P15 starting June 1 this year.

In an advisory sent to customers, the company emphasized that the CF had been reduced from P47 per transaction previously. The last time that the CF was directly passed on to customer-users had been last year.

With its reinstated CF of lower P15, the utility firm noted that it can be applied even to multiple bills being settled, as long as these are simultaneously done in one transaction.

“This fee goes to our payment partners,” the company explained; while adding that “with Meralco online, you enjoy real time posting from the safety of your home.”

Meralco suspended the imposition of CF last year at the height of consumer billing complaints on its regulator-mandated “estimated billings” which had arisen because of the enforcement of strict lockdowns in Luzon around March to May last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Instead of passing on the CF as cost-burden to its customers paying online, Meralco decided to waive the fee and it just absorbed the cost so it can help ease the burden of the consumers.

The power firm had pointed out that payments via the Meralco app “go through a payment gateway operated and maintained by PayMaya, which is linked to the visa and mastercard networks.”

PayMaya has been previously charging Meralco the convenience fee of P47 per transaction, which is integrated in the payment that customers of the utility firm will have to settle as additional charge when they would opt to pay their bills via the app.

Meralco stressed that “no part of the convenience fee goes to Meralco,” and that “the charging of a convenience fee by a payment gateway provider is a common commercial practice in the online payment service industry.”

The use of the app for Meralco bill payments was launched in September 2018 to provide an additional round-the-clock payment channel that customers can use at their convenience and at the safety of their homes.

In addition to bill settlements, the Meralco online app “allows customers to perform filing of service application for both sales and after-sales, view their account/billing/payment records, report outages/concerns and access other value-added services, such as energy efficiency tips, appliance calculator and business center locator.”