The Christchurch City Council hopes to offer ratepayers the option of paying their rates online within a year.
The service is already available in other cities around the country and Christchurch is considering following suit.
Council chief information officer Gavin Till said it would save money, although he did not yet know how much.
He said people's appetite for making financial transactions online was increasing - the council had recently moved to allow dog registrations to be done that way - but he appreciated that paying online remained a worry for some residents.
