Cookeville is making it easier for residents to pay and manage their utility bills with electronic billing.
Utility Customer Service Manager Candice Taylor said customers can go to the city’s website or download the city’s app to create an account and view their utility bill. Taylor said E-billing gives customers 24/7 access to their billing information.
“If they need a history of their bills, it’s all on there,” Taylor said. “They can print previous bills if they need to. They can view their bills as soon as we process them every month, and it just gives them, they can look at all of their usage history on there and everything like that.”
Taylor said one other unique feature of E-billing is the automatic text or email reminders. Taylor said the reminders will help people pay their bills on time and avoid late fees.
“They can set a reminder for however many days before their bill is due,” Taylor said. “It will let them choose a certain amount of days that it will text them a reminder, ‘Hey, you got a bill due in this many days.’ They have a reminder that if your bill goes past due, it will text you and let you know.”
Taylor said E-billing will also send notifications if there are any issues with a payment. Taylor said Cookeville has had the option of E-billing since it switched to a new system back in 2019. Taylor said the city decided to further promote E-billing to ensure customers get their utility bills on time.
“People are not getting their bills for various reasons in the mail,” Taylor said. “This just gives them an option that they don’t have to worry about it. As soon as it’s ready, it’s going to let them know, and they can log in to view it and not have to worry about waiting on it.”
Taylor said Cookeville will still use mailing as a way of billing customers. Taylor said those who would like to sign up for E-billing can call the Utility Department for further assistance.
