Verizon Adds $2 Charge For Paying Your Bill Online 562
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from geek.com (based on a report at Droid Life) that makes me consider quitting or at least suspending the very expensive service 3G data service I get from Verizon: "With 2012 about to start, it seems Verizon has decided paying your bill online or over the phone is
now worthy of an extra charge. So, from January 15, anyone choosing to pay their monthly bill using either method will incur a $2 charge. Verizon is classing the charge as a 'convenience fee' which translates into them deciding allowing you to pay either online or over the phone is a convenience. They also explain in the FAQ above that the fee allows them, 'to continue to support these bill payment options.' Really, Verizon? When did offering online payments or accepting phone calls from customers get so much more expensive?"
Fee is waived for certain cases. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Ah, America! (Score:2, Informative)
It's about getting people to sign up for autopay (Score:5, Informative)
The fee is waived for autopay.
The economy sucks, they want all their accounts on autopay so the phone bill gets taken out before other bills if the customer's money can't pay them all.
Beware of autopay. Once you bill is autopaid you have a lot less leverage in billing disputes.
Re:Arent online payments actuallt cheaper for them (Score:4, Informative)
Cash and cheques don't incur the same fees as online processing, which usually entail VISA/MC/AMEX/etc taking their 2% or more of the transaction in fees. In addition, they are Non Qualified transactions. This is because the card is not present, thus there is a higher likelihood that there could be a charge back, so the processing company charges an additional fee.
I think Verizon is idiotic for adding this surcharge that is so obviously a cash grab, but I would like to dispel the idea that the online transactions are inherently cheaper. They have staff at retail outlets for sales already, so the fixed costs for the rentals are already taken into account.
Re:Ah, America! (Score:4, Informative)
This is completely reverse to what companies in my country have started doing.
Oh, that's very much the case here in the US as well. To the point of being obnoxious.
I still opt for paper bills and mail in checks for the folks who don't take credit cards.
Perhaps it's because someone at Verizon Wireless was bothered at how much they were paying for credit/debit card transaction fees, and figured this was the way to recoup that cost.
Re:Ah, America! (Score:5, Informative)
There's two obvious reasons for this: Points on my credit card (i.e. free money/miles/ etc), and convienience. It allows me to watch only my credit card bill and pay it once. Also, there's a little bit of money to made on the float (not much these days w/ the low interest rates).
Re:Ah, America! (Score:5, Informative)
Mail them a cheque (err, check, my American friends) and make a point. If millions of customers did this, their payment processing costs would go through the roof.
Verizon does ACH bill pay (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Ah, America! (Score:5, Informative)
It's the complete reverse in the rest of America, too. Everyone else is pushing for online payment and electronic billing because it saves on paper and postage costs.
Verizon is the first company I've seen try to pull an asshat move like this. I think why Verizon is trying it now involves a couple things. For one, large telecoms like Verizon and AT&T have for years felt entitled to licenses to print money hand over fist, and whenever revenue drops due to market changes or technological development, their biggest priority is to find somewhere else to recoup that lost revenue. My guess here is that Verizon noticed that a majority of their customers were already paying their bills online, so they decided to start charging a fee to do it, knowing that their customer base already appreciates the convenience of online bill payment and inertia would prevent them from paying by mail. Other service providers, public utilities for example, likely have much older, entrenched, and less 'tech-savvy' customers so they need to provide incentives to move towards online billing and its associated cost savings.
A majority of their customers certainly pay their bills online, but they do it automatically and are hence exempt from this fee. Verizon is doing something very simple, encouraging their customers to prefer the automatic process over the manual one. There is undoubtedly a price break to handling the exact same payment method month after month vs handling a unique one each time, and they know they will save more money than they will lose in pissed off customers.
Re:Ah, America! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Ah, America! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Ah, America! (Score:4, Informative)
Credit cards or checks are not involved at all at least in Finland. I don't know if using them is even possible. The company sends a bill by email or then the monthly amount is directly charged from the given bank account. The customer, bank and a company can have a direct charging agreement. I'm also able to postpone the due date without an extra charge at least with my provider. Practically all of the bills are paid online and there isn't a culture of credit in the same sense as in the US. Anything paper related comes with an extra charge. The bank I use doesn't even provide cash services in their offices.
Re:Ah, America! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Ah, America! (Score:5, Informative)
RTFA to put this in perspective (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Ah, America! (Score:5, Informative)
Virg
Re:It's about getting people to sign up for autopa (Score:3, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Ah, America! (Score:5, Informative)
If that is your definition of "living on credit", then we need to understand that the term is not what is meant by most people who consider credit corrosive. When people talk about living on credit as a bad thing, it is carrying balances month to month and accepting the interest rates while only paying the minimum. That does happen all too frequently in the US and is a serious structural problem.
However, using credit as a float is a sound business practice that has been used for centuries to ensure that payments can be made as needed while waiting for your customers/employers to pay up on their due date. You then pay off the float when the influx of cash comes in on a monthly basis, for instance. You may incur charges or interest, but these are usually fairly minimal compared to what you would deal with by carrying a balance with no end in sight.
Re:Ah, America! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Verizon does ACH bill pay (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Ah, America! (Score:4, Informative)
Contrary to popular belief, neither Verizon nor any other business is required to accept pennies, or any other method of payment it chooses not to, for that matter.
The only entity that is required to honor pennies is the Federal Reserve and, by extension (I would assume), the government. So yeah, you can go down to the county treasurer's office and dump thousands of pennies on them, but show up at a local Verizon kiosk with 30 pounds of pennies and they are fully within their rights to tell you to go pound sand. They could even require you to pay them in gold if you signed a contract agreeing to do so. Hell, they could require you to pay in chocolate. There's nothing saying they have to accept the equivalent amount of currency in it's place, either; you agree to pay in gold, you are obligated to pay in gold.
Obviously, in the interests of customer service, most businesses don't start a hissy fit over things like this, but there are limits. In my days working retail I used to turn people away with large amounts of change all the time, because I did not have the time nor resources to spend counting out pennies or dimes, being the sole employee on shift at the time, nor was I under any obligation to do so. The same principles allowing a business to deny excessively small currency like pennies are what allows them to deny large currencies, as well; we also accepted no bills larger than $20 as do many convenience stores.
They might have a problem with this in NYS.... (Score:5, Informative)
New York State General Business Law Section 518: Credit card surcharge prohibited.
No seller in any sales transaction may impose a surcharge on a holder who elects to use a credit card in lieu of payment by cash, check, or similar means.
Any seller who violates the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed five hundred dollars or a term of imprisonment up to one year, or both.
Re:Ah, America! (Score:4, Informative)
This is nothing new, I've been paying a "convenience fee" to my electric company for paying online for years now. Ditto with my cable bill.
Hell, they even charge a "convenience fee" at the DMV office here in Wisconsin when you renew online, which doesn't make a single fucking shred of sense at all, considering that they're already understaffed at the actual DMV offices (based on the ridiculous wait I experience every time I am forced to go down there) and pay the people working the counters considerably more than most counter workers get paid. If anything, you would think that the state would be fully encouraging people to pay online, but it seems even the state isn't opposed to sucking a little extra money off the top with "convenience fees".
I'm not saying it's right, mind you, I'm just saying that this is nothing out of the ordinary.
No surcharges allowed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Phone Company? (Score:4, Informative)
Counter-intuitively, Verizon and Verizon Wireless are different companies. Verizon owns a controlling share of Verizon Wireless, but a huge chunk of VZW is owned by Vodafone. (VZW is actually a DBA (Doing Business As), the company's real name is Cellco Parnership. Go figure.)
Re:Ah, America! (Score:3, Informative)
Is it legal for a business in the United States to refuse cash as a form of payment? Section 31 U.S.C. 5103, entitled "Legal tender," states: "United States coins and currency [including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks] are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues." This statute means that all United States money as identified above is a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept currency or coins as payment for goods or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether to accept cash unless there is a state law which says otherwise.
Basically, if something can be sent to a collections agency (in this case the internal Verizon collections agency), the it is a DEBT and thus the creditor (VerizonWireless) CANNOT refuse payment. Since payment of a Verizon bill is frequently after some or all of the service has been given, their is debt (money owed for services previous rendered). Retail is different because there is no debt owed to the retailer since the merchandise ownership is only exchanges (barring a contract) after the payment has been given. (technically, it could be argued in some cases that a verbal contract has been established and thus a debt has been agreed to).