If you pay your Autopac fees through a monthly pre-authorization on your credit card, you won't be able to do so after May 23rd. Manitoba Public Insurance plans to eliminate that service.

Spokesperson Brian Smiley tells us credit card fees are a significant factor.

"This change also aligns MPI with other utilities," he says, "Gas, Hydro, and water. There are also issues relating to the handling of the credit card transactions. But at the end of the day, it's very important to note that for our customers, this should be a seamless transition. They'll be going to their Autopac agent to discuss this, and work out the payment options."

Smiley explains how it'll help MPI.

"We were looking at a one-time system upgrade, which was going to be several million dollars," he says, "These system upgrades would need to be implemented twice. This also avoids ongoing increases in terms of operating costs for credit card tokenization services, reducing credit card emergency costs."

Pre-authorized payments will still be accepted for lump sum and quarterly payments.