Making a card payment by telephone is easy and you can do it at any time.
You will need a touch-tone telephone, but most modern phones are of this type.
Accepted cards
Most major debit or credit cards.
Please be aware that if you choose to pay by credit card for council tax and business rates, an additional charge of 1.8% will be applied to cover the council's bank charges. There will be no charge for debit cards.
Payments available
The payments you can make and the card types accepted are as follows:
| Payment |
Reference |
| Council tax |
Billing reference number. The 9 digit number which starts with 4 and is shown on your bill. |
| Business rates |
Your billing reference number is an 8 digit number which starts with 6 and is shown on your bill. |
| General invoices |
Invoice reference number |
| Penalty Charge Notice (Parking Ticket) |
Vehicle Registration Number and Penalty Charge Notice Number which is the 8 digit number which starts GS and is shown on the Penalty Charge Notice |
Have your payment details ready
Before you make the call you will need to have your bill or invoice to hand, as you will be asked to enter an "Account Number" for each type of bill you wish to pay. The number to enter is the account or reference number shown on the bill, or in the case of general invoices, the invoice number.
When you have this information ready then call 0845 245 0682
Calls are charged at the local call rate.
Instructions
Follow the instructions, using your telephone’s keypad to enter the information you are asked for.
There are four steps
- Select the type of payment
- Enter your account reference or invoice number (use * to replace any alphabetic characters)
- Enter the amount you wish to pay (use * to separate pounds and pence)
- Enter your card details
Authorisation will take a few seconds. If authorisation is refused, no transaction will take place. If the card is authorised you will be advised that your payment has been successful.
Cancel the transaction
If at any point you no longer wish to continue, just replace the receiver.
A payment has only taken place if you receive a spoken confirmation.