Easy

The crooked assholes call it a "convenience fee". Seriously? How is charging me extra me for sending a bill a convenience to me? Before someone says "go paperless and pay it online" know that even people who only get cable TV and have no internet access are charged this so-called "convenience fee". I consider any billing costs the company has as just part of being in business and I truly think these practices are despicable. Has any other company started charging a fee for billing?

rduncan

I'm not sure but I found out State farm Insurance is now charging me $1 a month to pay them automatically on a direct debit each month. Yep, they charge me $1 for the privilege of having them take the $$ out of my bank each month. I guess for some it's easier than a 6 month bill all at once but really. I really need to shop for insurance.

mndtrp

I've had several entities in the past give me a slight discount for going paperless, which is essentially the same thing. I would have to recheck whether or not I still get that discount, or if it's just standard practice to be paperless, and they now specifically say they'll charge me to get paper.

TheBang

Yeah, an ISP I worked at started charging a $1 mailing fee for paper bills 10 years ago. Quite simply, it cost us more to mail a bill than to e-mail bills, when you factor in paper, envelopes, postage, and labor. We converted everyone to e-mail billing by default, and those who still requested/required a paper bill for some reason paid $1.

That sounds stupid, but I guess maybe it's to reduce the number of possibilities for NSF drafts (and thus, more work to collect the fees).

But it reminds me of what our phone company did. They decided to start charging a convenience fee for paying bills online. There was also an existing convenience fee for paying the bill over the phone or in-person. So the only non-fee way to pay was by mailing in a check. That seemed stupid to me, because manual check processing is pretty much the most labor-intensive way and most customer-inconvenient way to accept payments (besides in-person payments).

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

If you think that's bad, wait until you open a bank account. There's all kinds of convenience fees.

jjcool

My insurance company charges me $2 to split my 6 month payment into two 3 month payments. They have been doing that for years.

If one wants to talk bullshit "convenience" fees, how about the fees that you have to pay if you buy concert tickets online? They charge you for the "convenience" of using your own ink, paper and printer to print the tickets.

tonyc3742

Yep. My insurance company charges a 3.00/payment split fee.
When I paid all six months at once, they then sent me a refund check for 3.21 or something.

Ticket fees - yep. "Free print at home!" Not really. You used to mail the tix for free (I'm sorry, 45 cent stamp.) AND there's ads and weather that I sometimes can't elect not to print. Thus costing me more.

My bank charges if I want a paper copy of a statement, either as a one time reprint or ongoing. They have at least 12 months of PDFs stored on the site so I can always print if I need, and I do get a paper statement for my credit card from the same bank.

My HoA pushes online payments - with a 3.00 fee each time. Nope, you're getting a check in that case. Which I send free from my bank's billpay.