DeKalb city residents are now able to pay water, refuse and sewer bills online.

DeKalb joined more than 450 other local governments and state agencies that have taken advantage of E-Pay in Illinois in mid-January.

“E-Pay is a safe and secure electronic payment program that allows you to pay bills 24 hours a day, seven days a week without leaving your home,” according to the Illinois State Treasurer’s Web site.

DeKalb currently offers E-Pay online bill paying and will soon be offering pay-by-phone opportunities with a speech recognition system.

Acceptable methods of payment are American Express, Discover and Mastercard.

All payments can be made out to the City of DeKalb’s Water Billing Division and three days should be allowed for payment to go through.

If a person is avoiding having his or her water shut off, the City of DeKalb’s Web site says the person must speak with a staff member from the Water Billing Division.

Although E-Pay is provided free of charge by the Illinois State Treasurer’s Office, payment processors charge a convenience fee that differs depending on the bill’s amount.

DeKalb decided to start offering the ability to pay online for a number of reasons.

“There was number of communities that were taking payments and customers were looking for expanded services,” said Ted Kozinski, comptroller and treasurer for DeKalb.

Kozinski also said the city had received some customer suggestions about offering online payments.

“We wanted to open up some new avenues for customers,” Kozinski said. “Prior to this they only had the ability to pay cash, check or money order.”

So far, fewer than 10 people have paid online through E-Pay since it began in DeKalb, but numbers are expected to rise.

“As the program becomes more known within the community, we think that the number of people using it will go up,” Kozinski said.

The city of DeKalb has been advertising E-Pay through their Web site and on utility bills.

“We are hoping to make our customers happy with the services we provide,” Kozinski said. “If they have a need, we try to meet it as best as possible.”