HOA Dues - Coupon vs. Bills

This one is for the board members here.
As we move towards the new budget year I was wondering if the association has ever considered sending out bills (even a postcard) versus the coupon books. It makes it easier on all of us to get the monthly reminder, in my opinon, versus remembering to pull out the coupon every month. Just for the argument - I'm not a big fan of auto payments.
Just a thought - in previous HOA's we found the cost was even/to slightly higher to do bills versus the coupons.

 

I'm not a board member but I don't see how monthly reminder mailings (i.e., postage, staffing, envelopes) are cheaper than the one-time coupon book. If you're not a big fan of auto payments, then you might consider setting up a monthly reminder in Outlook or on your calendar to remind you. Just a thought.

 

As a Board member, I'm with GCyr on this. 11 additional mailings a year times 2500 homes times the postage cost equals a large additional expense that is not necessary.
We are about to start up the Armstrong Connect service which I believe will allow you to make payments on-line.

 

This was just a thought and I have set up the reminders - but sometimes I'm traveling and miss the reminder at the office. Not to disagree with you - but we did look into and did go to mailings at the last HOA because it was just as cost effective.
I'm simply asking the question - which maybe is more for Armstong, but wondered if the board had looked into.

 

As a Board member, I can say we've looked into this and the cost of the one/time printing and mailing is much less than monthly mailings. FWIW .. Armstong does offer a EFT option that you can sign up for.


Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

either EFT or just set up auto pay through your online banking.... time to move into this century and stop paying bills the old way =)

 

How about an annual payment, with a discount for pre-paying? Armstrong only has to process one payment - certainly that saves a little money. No coupon books for those residents, another savings (printing, postage).

Why not offer it on a trial basis.

Certainly, I'd rather send one payment an save perhaps 5% off the cost....



Dawne

 

Outstanding idea! I support it too.

 

Dawne-
There can be some possibly sticky issues with prepayment discounts.
The full budget amount needs to be collected. If some are given a 5% discount, then the money has to made up somewhere else. Somebody else has to pay for the money you save.
A similar analogy is when you pay your taxes. You are required to pay the county the full amount owed, so if you want to use your credit card, you have to pay the credit card fee.
Cliff

 

Couldn't the difference be made up in both, interest earned on the lum sum and the savings realized by not printing the coupon books?

 

Not that much of a difference as it cost less to print the book, then to give a 5% discount which would be $24 this past year on the common area assessment alone. A second problem would be how to determine who not to send books to when they're printed up in late November, early December.





Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

plus you wouldn't need as many letter-opener people, which is the biggest cost I'm sure. =) I say force an all-electronic payment system... it's time for people to move on from envelopes and stamps.

 

Actually, they use a machine to automatically open the envelopes.

Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

What about setting up a monthly auto-payment by credit card? I'd love to use a credit card that gives me either reward miles or cash rebate reward. However, the rewards might be offset by Armstrong's management fee to process the credit card, if they pass that fee back to the residents.

Companies (like MCI) offer a $1 or $2 discount each month for their customers - if a customer automatically pays the long distance phone bill by credit card each month through an autopayment system.

Wishful thinking...

 

Doesn't necessarily have to be a 5% discount...I just threw that out there.

Say, for example that I get a $10 discount for paying the full year in advance. So instead of $702 for the year ($58.50x12) I pay $692. (This also saves me $4.07 in stamps, if I usually mail in my payment each month 37¢x11).

Now, Armstrong sticks that in an interest bearing account...at only a 3% APR, the HOA would have $713 after one year...more than my original full payment if sent in month to month. Granted, the HOA would need to use some of that money as the year went by, so they wouldn't realize the entire interest amount - but I doubt it would be at a loss.

Also, they wouldn't be processing 11 payments from me. And, in years 2+ they don't need to send me coupon books - giving me the option to reinstate coupons at my option by contacting Armstrong in advance.

Of course....could be that our HOA is "not allowed" to put these operating funds into interest bearing accounts...but imagine the sort of return you could get if you pooled many residents' advance payments into short term, laddered CD's....

Just a thought...



Dawne

 

And then we would have to pay Armstrong Management a fee for collecting/processing/banking advance payments.
You don't need to use stamps today. You can use EFT or pay your full year in advance and save the additional 11 stamps.
If we REQUIRED some form of EFT payment and eliminated coupon books altogether, then the HOA would save some money. What do you all think of that?

 

flynnibus-
I'm not sure what your point is. I was saying that if we offered a discount for prepayment as well as continued to allow people to send in monthly payments, then Armstrong would have to manage BOTH systems.....monthly checks as well as banking/accounting for prepayments. I can't imagine this would not result in additional expenses.
If your point is to abandon the monthly coupon book payment system as I mentioned, then I agree with you.
Convenience is available now. You can send in the payment all at once or you can set up an EFT like other payments and forget about it.

 

exactly, and if coupon books are eliminated, the processing costs should decline... though I'm sure we wouldn't be passed on any savings..