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FOR RELEASE: IMMEDIATE
CONTACT: Angelica Carey, VP Corporate Marketing
(203) 356-4250; acarey@officialpayments.com
Lindajean Cooney, Corporate Publicist
(203) 356-4204; lcooney@officialpayments.com

 

Penn Manor School District, Lancaster, PA Can Pay Real Estate Taxes Online
or Via the Telephone



Stamford, CT – February 21, 2002 -- Official Payments Corporation (Nasdaq: OPAY) [www.officialpayments.com] announced today an agreement to provide a new service for the taxpayers of Penn Manor School District, Lancaster, PA. The service will allow Penn Manor School District taxpayers to pay real estate taxes by credit card over the Internet or via the telephone. This service agreement is part of a new business award. When the system goes live in early July, Penn Manor School District taxpaying citizens will be able to pay taxes via Internet by visiting www.officialpayments.com, or via telephone by calling toll-free 1-800-2PAY-TAX. American Express, Discover Card, MasterCard and Visa are the cards accepted by the program. Annually, Penn Manor School District collects $23.4 million in real estate taxes.

Official Payments has similar agreements with over 1200 government entities across the country. The Company has contacts with the Internal Revenue Service, 21 state governments including the state of Pennsylvania, to collect taxes, fees, and fines by credit card over the Internet and telephone.

“Offering our citizens the option to pay their taxes by credit card is part of our ongoing program of offering convenient and innovative services. In our due diligence in investigating this type of payment option, we found Official Payments Corporation Services to be reliable, safe and secure,” stated Business Administrator Stephen B. Skrocki.

Official Payments Corp. charges taxpayers a convenience fee for processing these credit card transactions. The fee schedule can be found on the Internet at www.officialpayments.com. For example, a taxpayer who owed the Penn Manor School District $1,500 in real estate taxes and charged their taxes would find a total of $1,549 on their credit card statement: $1,500 for the tax bill and $49 for the convenience fee. Taxpayers using credit cards with bonus rewards programs can, depending on their card’s program, earn rewards, points, and cash-back or airline frequent flyer miles for paying their taxes.


About Official Payments Corp. Founded in 1996, Official Payments Corporation (Nasdaq: OPAY) is the leading provider of electronic payment options to more than 1,000 government entities in all 50 states. The company has agreements to collect and process credit card payments with the IRS, 21 state governments (AL, AR, CA, CT, IL, IN, IA, KS, MD, MN, MS, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, VA, WA, WI, and WV), the District of Columbia, and more than 1,000 counties and municipalities. The company's principal business is enabling consumers to pay their government taxes, fees, fines, and utility bills by credit card, via Internet and telephone. In 2001, Official Payments collected and processed more than one million transactions totaling $1.2 billion in federal, state and local government payments. Thomas R. Evans, the former President & CEO of the Internet company GeoCities, became Chairman & CEO of Official Payments in the summer of 1999. Mr. Evans brought Official Payments public in November of 1999, raising $80 million in its IPO on the NASDAQ national market.

NOTE: Official Payments Corp. and the Official Payments Corp. logo are service marks of Official Payments Corporation. References to aggregate collection opportunities and/or historical collection experience in this release refer to the maximum potential collection opportunity (for taxes, fees, fines, etc.) for which Official Payments has been authorized by a government client to collect payments made by credit card, although Official Payments’ actual collections (which are a function of the number of people who choose to use Official Payments’ services to make such payments by credit card rather than by check or other means) have historically been, and are expected to be in the future, significantly lower than such maximum opportunity. Official Payments’ historical results can be found in the company's filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2000 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2001.
 

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