VECO, Citibank launch one bill facility

CEBU, Philippines - To provide added convenience for consumers to pay their electric bills on time, Visayan Electric Company and Citibank launched One Bill auto-charge facility for credit card customers.

Through One Bill, Citibank cardholders can already enroll their VECO accounts for automatic charging in their credit cards enabling them to settle their payments without lining up at payment centers and missing a due date with their recurring bills.

Tomas Yap, Citibank Global Subsidiary Group Vice-President, stated that the automatic billing helps VECO customers to avoid penalties, have fewer deadlines to meet for utility bills and need not monitor electric due dates every month.

VECO, the newest partner of Citibank One Bill, also expressed its eagerness to provide more convenience to their electric consumers by merging with the bank.

“We’re very happy and we welcome Citibank’s interest as one of our payment channels. We know that the Filipinos are still afraid to pay online due to computer fraud. That’s why this is a modified offering because we are using credit cards and CitiBank is very distinctive in Cebu,” Ma. Chona Tiu, VECO Chief Finance Officer, said.

Citibank Cebu branch manager, Babette Peña, added that the difference with One Bill is that consumers do not have to pay their utility bills online.

She said that as long as they authorize the payment, Citibank will take care to ensure that their monthly electric bills shall be paid on their scheduled due dates through their credit cards.

Peña also clarified that there are no additional charges for this automatic billing and payment due dates for their credit cards and their electric bills will remain the same as before.

Upon acquiring the One Bill feature, cardholders shall receive confirmation letters from the bank that their utility accounts have been successfully enrolled and may see a VECO bill appearing in their monthly credit card statements.

One of their aims as an electric company, according to VECO Customer Service Group Vice-President for Administration Ricky Lacson, is to use a reliable, trusted system as a payment option for their consuming market.

“We are always on the lookout for other banks as innovative as CitiBank and for other “consumer-friendly” payment options, we continue to go for it,” he continued.

For One Bill enrollment, Citibank cardholders can visit www.citibank.com.ph and log in to Citibank Online. They have to go to Citibank One Bill Enrollment banner and fill out the form. Lastly, click the “I Accept” button at the bottom of the page.

Consumers can also call the 24-hour Citiphone at 234-9999 (Metro Cebu) or 1800-10-995-999 to activate the feature by providing the utility company’s name, utility account number and contact number.

The One Bill feature can be accepted for all Citibank card types such as Silver, Gold, Platinum, Clear, Cash Back, Shell, Premier Miles, Mercury Drug, Rustans’s and Cebu Pacific.

Citibank, which is targeting 25,000 card holders in Metro Cebu, also accepts payments through One Bill for Bayan Telecommunications, Cablelink, Digitel, Dream Satellite TV, Global Destiny, Globe, Globe Broadband, Infocom, MERALCO, Mozcom, My Destiny, Net Direct, Pacific Internet, PLDT, SKYBroadband, SKYCable, Smart, Smart Bro and Sun Cellular.  (FREEMAN)