Coffs Harbour residents can now pay their rates and water accounts through a new digital payment platform designed to make bill payments easier and more flexible.
The City of Coffs Harbour has partnered with Payble, a digital payment platform that allows households to spread bills into smaller, regular instalments.
Payble enables ratepayers to set up automatic payments from a bank account or credit or debit card, choose weekly, fortnightly or monthly instalments, and receive SMS reminders before payments are due.
“Earlier this year I asked the City to investigate options for bill-smoothing and I’m wrapped that we now have in place an option which will give Coffs property owners unprecedented flexibility,” Mayor Nikki Williams said.
“The Payble option will be in place in time for the annual rates notice of the new financial year – and there will be a QR code on the notice to get you started.
“This will be perfect for people who prefer to pay smaller, more regular amounts instead of the more significant annual or quarterly sums.”
Williams said the initiative would help residents manage cost-of-living pressures while also improving the City’s internal processes.
“Cost-of-living for our residents is front of mind. That’s why the City is providing this bill-smoothing initiative for the community,” Williams said.
Payble Director of Corporate and Community Affairs David Tricca said the City joined more than 75 councils across Australia and New Zealand using the platform.
“Councils across Australia are facing increasing pressure from rising costs and higher community expectations,” Tricca said.
“We are proud to support the City of Coffs Harbour and their residents.”
City Chief Financial Officer Amy Mott said the platform would reduce manual processing while making it easier for customers to manage their accounts online.
Mott said the City already offered flexible payment arrangements, but the process had previously been cumbersome.
“Customers had to contact the City by phone or email to request direct debit or payment arrangements. Manual forms are currently used for direct debit setup, requiring City staff to enter data and process manually,” Mott said.
“The City could also only accept bank account direct debit payments due to Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements and there was no self-service functionality available for customers to create or apply for payment arrangements.”
Mott said the Payble platform offered several customer benefits, including:
- access to rates and water accounts using only a phone number or email address
- live account balances updated in real time as payments are made
- the ability to update direct debit details online
- QR payment codes included on rates and water notices
- automatic population of property numbers when using the QR payment code, reducing data entry errors by linking accounts to customer phone numbers
- a payment experience optimised for mobile devices.
Residents can get started by scanning the QR code on their first 2026–27 rates notice or by visiting pay.coffsharbour.nsw.gov.au.
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