Paying Navarro County property taxes online, and the fee that catches people

Pay your Navarro County property tax with a credit card and a 2.3% convenience fee lands on top, billed separately as a "Certified Payments" charge. On a few-thousand-dollar tax bill that's fifty or sixty real dollars. Run it as an eCheck straight from your bank account instead and the whole thing costs a flat $1.00. For any sizable payment, the eCheck is almost always the cheaper route.

The online portal is run through the Tax Assessor-Collector's office, and it'll pull up any account it collects for. Search by owner name (last name first), property address, account number, or the appraisal district's CAD reference. It takes Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express, and once your account is on screen you can also register to get certified tax statements by email instead of waiting on the mail.

Before you hit pay, make sure the owner, account number, tax year, and the taxing units all match what you're expecting. If an online balance doesn't line up with a closing statement or the bill that came in the mail, don't send money. Mike Dowd's office handles the collections and reaches at (903) 654-3081, and one call there beats chasing a payment that went to the wrong account.