Ozark Border Electric Cooperative

Beware When Paying Your Bills Online

All aspects of our lives are becoming increasingly high-tech. And while high-tech advances offer convenience and ease, in a time when life seems to be getting more and more hectic, they don’t come without some degree of risk. A perfect example is being able to pay bills online.

There are all kinds of tools on the internet which will help a person pay their monthly bills. Some are available through your local bank’s websites. Others are an online service. Some will write a check on your behalf to the vendor, while others use ach transfers or require the use of your credit card.

The primary point here is that it is extremely important that a person educate themselves on the use of these tools before trying to use them. Who am I actually paying? If I’m not paying the vendor directly, will the bill be paid on a timely basis? Are there going to be fees associated with the payment? Does my vendor have a working relationship with the payment company?

Ozark Border Electric Cooperative has had members attempt to make timely payments, only to discover they have mistakenly used an online payment service. Some of these services even arrange the payment screen to look like it belongs to Ozark Border. Unfortunately, we cannot remove ourselves from these sites, primarily because the users of the website set up the vendor themselves.

Here are a few tips to help you navigate these tricky waters:

Do not make a random search on the internet, such as “Ozark Border Electric bill pay”. Our research indicates this can steer you to any number of sites, most of which are not ours.
If you are going to pay your Ozark Border Electric bill online from a pc, make certain you go directly to our homepage, http://www.ozarkborder.org/ , and click on the View/Pay Bill Online icon. If the website you go to has anything in the address other than what you see above, it isn’t ours.
If you ever feel uncomfortable about an Ozark Border payment you are about to make online, talk to our Billing Department first, at 1 (800) 392-0567.
Finally, if you wish to pay your Ozark Border Electric bill online, the simplest way is to use SmartHub, our new app which gives you FREE access to your account.