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August 6, 2008

Dave Druker
Scott Burnham

Jesse White and Alexi Giannoulias Add Payment Options at Drivers Facilities Statewide

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White and Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias announced that customers can now use MasterCard, American Express and Discover credit or debit cards to pay driver’s license and identification card fees, as well as vehicle renewals and registrations.

White initiated this project as part of his effort to continue to provide the public with additional, more convenient services.

“Customer service continues to be one of my top priorities,” White said. “We are constantly looking at ways to offer customers more options when it comes to serving their driving and identification needs. We believe that offering the public this additional payment option will enhance their experience with our office. We are very pleased to work with Treasurer Giannoulias to give customers the opportunity to pay for their transactions with their credit and debit cards.”

“The Treasurer’s Office is thrilled to play a role in Secretary White’s effort to make it easy and convenient for Illinois consumers to make payments at Illinois’ driver’s license facilities throughout the state,” said Giannoulias. “Just like businesses, government has a responsibility to give its customers the widest possible array of payment options. This partnership demonstrates good government-to-government business that allows the state to accept credit and debit cards at the point of sale without the risk of paying high processing costs.”

Beginning in mid-July, 137 Secretary of State facilities began accepting the bankcards. So far over 30,000 transactions have been reported. The office is projecting that two million customers will use credit cards in 2009.

The processing fee for using the credit card is 65 cents or .021 percent of the amount of the transaction, depending on which is greater. For example, a $10 transaction would cost $10.65, while a $78.00 renewal would be $79.64.

The Treasurer’s Office operates the E-Pay program, which holds a master service contract for credit card acceptance. The Treasurer’s Office offers credit card technology to all agencies and municipalities in the state. By negotiating and holding the master services contract, the Treasurer’s Office can negotiate the best pricing for the services, technology, software, training and maintenance for no charge to our more than 500 users. The SOS is the largest user of the program.

The Secretary of State’s office, which handles renewals and registrations, reports over one million transactions in the vehicles department in a month. The office’s drivers department, which handles driver’s licenses and identification cards and renewals, reports over 350,000 transactions a month.