Ohio Edison now adding surcharge on to all customers who pay bil

Ohio Edison now adding surcharge on to all customers who pay bill from bank account without autopay

Customers who pay their electric bill with a credit card are used to having a surcharge added to the bill to cover the cost tacked on by the credit card companies.

However, FirstEnergy, the parent company of Ohio Edison, is now adding a surcharge to customers who pay their monthly electric bill from their checking accounts. The new policy started in January.

FirstEnergy spokesperson tells 21 News the company recently switched to a new third-party electronic payment processor — ACI Speedpay — part of parent company Western Union.

The new vendor is charging Ohio Edison Customers a 50-cent per transaction fee for all one-time payments, which includes people who paid their bills from their checking or savings accounts.

Previously, customers who provided their bank routing numbers but were not on an autopay plan to Ohio Edison were not charged any service fees.

FirstEnergy spokesperson Hannah Catlett tells 21 News that residential customers enrolled in automatic payments, including AutoPay Credit Card and AutoPay Bank Account programs and commercial customers enrolled in the AutoPay Bank Account program will not be charged fees.  

The Ohio Edison spokesperson said, “By processing electronic payments through a third-party vendor, we can more seamlessly maintain compliance and better serve our customers by continuing to offer additional payment options.”

Ohio Edison says it is now giving customers more options to pay, including using services like PayPal and Venmo. 

According to Ohio Edison’s website, there are more than one million Ohio Edison customers in northeast and northcentral Ohio.

Ohio Edison customer service line is 1-800-633-4766 for anyone with questions or concerns about the new surcharge to customers or you can email them with concerns.