New, Lower Credit/Debit Card Fee To Save Customers $4 Million Annually

RICHMOND, Va., March 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion Virginia Power residential customers will save about $4 million a year as a result of a new, lower convenience fee when using a credit or debit card to pay their electric bill. The fee is charged by a third-party vendor that processes these transactions. No revenue from the fees goes to Dominion Virginia Power.

Effective March 1, residential customers will pay only $1.65 when using a credit or debit card to pay their bill.  This is a 58 percent reduction from the previous fee of $3.95. The amount that can be charged per transaction was also expanded to better meet customer demands.  Residential customers use credit and debit cards about 1.8 million times per year to pay their Dominion Virginia Power electric bills.

"We listened to what our customers were telling us," said Gianna Clark, vice president-Customer Service Operations.  "This is a service they use and value. The lower fees are a result of changes made with our payment processing vendor and reflect our continued focus in providing our customers with easy transaction channels at the lowest possible cost."

Customers have many options to pay their bills, including:

• Free, same-day payments through Manage Your Account at www.dom.com, the company's online portal for electronic transactions. This option is available to eBill customers paying from their bank account.
• Automatic bank draft payments available for free. The exact amount due each month will be deducted from customer's bank account. This can be coupled with Budget Billing, which equalizes the amount due each month.
• Check payments via US mail sent directly to Dominion.
• In-person payments at Authorized Payment Centers located throughout the company's service area. A $1.50 convenience fee is charged by a third-party vendor.
• Electronic payments through Web and phone offered by a third-party vendor with the reduced convenience fee of $1.65 and a transaction limit of $1,000 for residential customers. The commercial customer convenience fee remains at $14.95 with a transaction limit of $15,000.

Of the various payment methods, Clark highlighted the advantages of eBill for customers because it is fast, easy and free, and payments post to customer's account the same day.  Notification of the monthly bill is sent by email. A video explaining eBill can be seen at  https://www.dom.com/dominion-north-carolina-power/customer-service/your-bill/ebill.jsp

Dominion Virginia Power is a subsidiary of Dominion (NYSE: D), one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 23,600 megawatts of generation, 10,900 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline and 6,400 miles of electric transmission lines.  Dominion operates one of the nation's largest natural gas storage systems with 947 billion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves retail energy customers in 15 states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's website at www.dom.com.

SOURCE Dominion Virginia Power