Welcome to You Ask, Patch Answers, a column in which you send us questions about something going on in town and we'll get them answered. Got a question? Send it in to krista@patch.com.

Question: Why are we being charged .25 cents when we pay our real estate tax online? I know it would cost me .42 cents to mail a check instead, but how is this costing Chelmsford money to get a electronic transfer from my bank? I don't get charged when I do an EFT from my bank to anyone else?

Answer: We pointed this question to town Finance Director John Sousa.His response is below.

This $0.25 charge is from our online bill payment processing provider.  The fees are charged by MCC (Metropolitan Communications, the name of our online bill payment/bill presentment provider) to defray the cost of processing the payments and for the software that allows us to offer residents the option to pay online or choose paperless billing.  After researching alternatives, this company provided the best value for residents and the town.

One advantage this service provides is that the ACH payment is transmitted electronically to the town and is credited to the taxpayer’s account more quickly. Many residents have made tax payments using their bank’s online bill payment feature and were surprised to learn that their bank sends that payment to us in the form of a paper check (usually from a location far away from New England).  This often results in delays of 7 days or more before we receive that paper check by mail.