OLIVE BRANCH, Miss. (AP) — Olive Branch has begun accepting credit card payments on utility bills.

Mayor Sam Rikard tells The Commercial Appeal (bit.ly/QUmQaE) it's a service the people have asked for.

Rikard says more than 100 people have used the new service in the past week.

Olive Branch mails 18,464 utility bills each month. About 10 percent of customers pay their bills through automatic bank draft, but the majority of payments are received through the mail.

A drop box outside City Hall, however, is continually used. Security cameras reveal that motorists drop their payments in at just about every hour of the day and night.

Rikard says online credit card payments provide similar immediacy.

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Information from: The Commercial Appeal, http://www.commercialappeal.com