Due to new industry standards introduced to combat online card fraud, we are experiencing an increase in the number of transactions being declined for those trying to make online card payments.

The majority of people should still be able use their cards online and this remains the quickest and easiest way to make payments to the council.

If your card has been declined it may be due to the requirement for you to provide proof that you are the card holder when making an online transaction.

• As a first step, please get in touch with your card provider, who may be able to help you to resolve the issue

If they are unable to help, there are other options available.

Payments for services such as Council Tax, non-domestic rates, housing rents, licences and planning fees

For most transactions you can make a payment using our automated telephone payment service. Make a telephone payment by calling 0845 601 7297. This call will cost you 5p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge.

Garden waste subscriptions

For subscriptions to our garden waste service only, if you are unable to pay online please telephone our customer services team on 01524 582491

Due to an increase in the number of calls we are receiving, please bear with us and try again during a quieter period.

• The cut-off date to guarantee a continuous garden waste collection has also been extended until Thursday 31st March so there is still plenty of time to subscribe

We apologise for any inconvenience this issue is causing. We are working with our payment service provider to rectify it as quickly as we can.

• Council tax
• Non-domestic rates
• BID levy
• Debtor invoices
• Housing benefit debts
• Housing rents
• Fixed penalty notice
• Planning fees: planning application | pre-application advice | building control
• Licences: hackney carriage | private hire | dual driver | scrap metal | premises | personal alcohol | small lotteries
• Wheeled bins and recycling boxes
• Market stalls and pitches

You can register for an online account which will allow you to view personalised account information, payment history and messages. To do this:

• Go to the eStore online payment system.
• Select My account followed by Register.
• Enter your registration details, including a password, memorable date and a secret question and answer.
• Enter your address and contact details.
• Answer the Registration Check questions (these are to test that you are not a robot, to prevent spam submissions).
• Registration will then be confirmed and you will be sent an email containing a link which you need to click on to activate your account.

Once your account is activated return to the eStore website and log in, you can then select the service you need and make a payment.

If you do not want to register, you can still pay for individual transactions as follows:

• Go to the eStore online payment system.
• Select the service you want to make a payment against
• Key in your reference number (if required) and amount to be paid.
• Select the Add to Basket button.
• Complete your personal details and card details. If you need a receipt, make sure you enter your email address.
• Complete the transaction.

Your payment history is only available if you have registered for an online account and you have signed in to the eStore website. For a payment to be recorded in your history you must signed in to the eStore before you make the payment. Without signing in each time your history will not be recorded.

Our online payment system (eStore) is hosted by our payment partner Civica UK Limited. When you click on a link to make a payment you will be redirected to the eStore on our Civica hosted online payment system.

eStore is normally available 24 hours per day 365 days per year but there will be certain times when the system is unavailable due to planned maintenance. If the system is unavailable for any planned maintenance, we will add a notice to the Council website to inform customers about this unavailability and also advise when normal service will resume.

Unfortunately, during these periods of maintenance, we are unable to take any payments online until the maintenance period has concluded.

If you are having problems with your account or do not wish to register, you can still pay for individual transactions as follows:

• Go to the eStore online payment system.
• Select the service.
• Key in your reference number and amount to be paid.
• Select the Add to Basket button.
• Complete your personal details and card details. If you need a receipt, make sure you enter your email address.
• Complete the transaction.

On our eStore website your username is always the email address that you used to register for your account.

Your email address (username) is unique to your account and cannot be changed. If you no longer have access to the email address or you want to use a different email address for the eStore website, you will need to register a new account using your new email address.

If you cannot remember your password, you can reset it using the forgot password service.

Go to the eStore online payment system and select the Forgotten password button on the eStore homepage. Complete the Forgotten password form, making sure you include the answer to the secret question you created during the registration process.

A Forgotten Password Request email will then be sent to you. Follow the link in the email to reset your password and to log in to the eStore website.

When choosing a new password please note that it must have a minimum of 7 characters and can't be one of your previous four passwords.

The password requirements are:

• minimum length of 7 characters
• alpha and numeric characters
• upper and lower case.

A secret question and answer are needed as part of the registration process for security purposes.

Because of strict financial rules, if you have forgotten your password and secret answer you won't be able to get access to your account. You will need to re-register using a different email address. Or you can pay for individual transactions without registering.

Please make sure you are not accidently pressing the backspace key on your keyboard.

Also, for financial security reasons, if your WiFi/internet connection drops, your transaction will end, and you will be taken back to the online store (eStore) home page. Please try again when you're sure you have a secure internet connection.

Devices sometimes store all web addresses visited. This is called a cache. You should also try clearing out your browser cache, as it may still be storing the last page visited. This is usually done by pressing the CTRL + F5 keys at the same time on a PC or laptop or by selecting settings and deleting the browser history (including cache) on mobile devices. This will clear out your previously visited pages and may then allow you to go to the webpage you want.

Once you have registered for eStore you will receive an email containing an 'Activation' link which you need to click on to activate your account. The activation link is only available for a limited time so if find that clicking on the link results with an error message being displayed, saying “Activation Expired”, you will need to start the registration process again from the beginning.

Unfortunately, this payment has failed your bank's security verification through our online system. We have an extra level of security for Visa and Mastercard payments, which protects you from unauthorised use of your debit or credit card.

After you enter your card details in our online store, you will be asked to provide your personal security code, (often 3 or 4 characters from a memorable word or password set-up with the bank), this would have been sent through to your bank to be authenticated and the payment authorised.

If you have not registered with Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode your payment may not be accepted. This failure can also occur if the password has been entered incorrectly.

We encourage customers who pay online and have encountered this problem to contact their bank for further details and to set-up a password.

When you have finished entering your card details, and confirm you want to continue with the payment, there will be a short delay while your card details are validated. If your payment is successful, a receipt will be displayed which contains a transaction reference number. Please make a note of this number in case you need to contact us about your payment.

If an error occurs, your payment will not be processed, and a message explaining why it has failed will be displayed.

The online payments portal encrypts data to ensure that the information you send over the internet is as secure as possible*.

Traditional website addresses begin "http" - the address for a secure site will always begin with "https" and the padlock icon located in the bottom right of your browser status bar indicates that the page being displayed is using a secure connection.

You can check that you are using the official council's online payments web site. Do this by checking the address box at the top of your screen which should only display:

• https://www.civicaepay.co.uk/LancasterCityEstore/estore/default

Estore emails will be sent from:

• NOREPLY.Lancaster.City.Council.payments@civicaepay.co.uk   

For information about how we use your payment data please view our Payments Privacy Notice

Check that you have used the correct web address and that you are using the most up-to-date version of your web browser.

*We recommend that, where possible, you only use trusted wi-fi (home) or data connection as these guarantee an extra level of security when sending information over the web.

You can use the following cards when using our payments system; Visa, MasterCard, Visa Electron, Visa Delta, Solo, Switch and JCB.

Yes

To make a payment you must use a currently supported web browser. If you cannot access our payment page, please update your browser to its most recent version.

Payment cards must be registered with either Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCard

If you see a ‘System Unavailable’ message on our eStore page this could be because:

• If prompted, you have not accepted the cookie settings,
• You have cookies blocked,
• Your virus software is automatically blocking cookies.

Please review your cookie settings and try again.