It's only to offset charges whatever banking institution Verizon uses to accept online payments. Every bank charges a fee to company's that accept online payments, or even your local mom and pop shop that accepts credit/debit. It's always a percentage of whatever the total transaction is. Verizon thinks this will offset the charges the bank utilizes of them using their service, which is true, but I'm sure Verizon is pocketing some of this money, because $2 is more than what they have to pay for each online transaction.
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VZW will charge $2 "convenience" fee for bills paid online or over the phone.
- Thread starter wordoflife
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What a rip-off!
Now we are charged for paying our bills!
That's an even more outrageous "nuisance fee" (closer to reality than Verizon's "convenience fee") than Bank of America's debit card fee.
No, even when you pay through your bank online you have to pay the $2.
Only bank draft, and, weird enough, check payments are exempt.
This is obviously just hitting the most popular payment methods and is just for fast cash generation.
I could understand a fee for last minute over the phone processing. But this would not make enough money for Verizon, so they go the rip-off route.
Now we are charged for paying our bills!
That's an even more outrageous "nuisance fee" (closer to reality than Verizon's "convenience fee") than Bank of America's debit card fee.
No, even when you pay through your bank online you have to pay the $2.
Only bank draft, and, weird enough, check payments are exempt.
This is obviously just hitting the most popular payment methods and is just for fast cash generation.
I could understand a fee for last minute over the phone processing. But this would not make enough money for Verizon, so they go the rip-off route.
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No you don't get charged the $2 when you do online bill pay though your bank. When you do this, your bank is just sending a check with your name on it or sending a bulk electronic payment with a list of names. Only time this charge is applied is when you use a card on a no recurring schedule directly through verizon.
You know that permitting automatic monthly payments is probably a bad idea, right? It's basically the equivalent of handing over a stack of signed blank checks and permitting the biller to fill in whatever amount they choose and cash the checks whenever they please. If there's an erroneous charge or other billing snafu (which happens quite frequently, actually), Verizon has your money,whether it was rightfully earned or not, unless and until you manage to successfully dispute, appeal, or sue.
No thank you. "One time" payments are commonly done because it's the only way to maintain control of when a bill gets paid, and how much the payment is.
Yeah, that's the company line and apparently you've bought it. However:
1. Banks charge a fee to merchants for credit card payments regardless of how they are handled: in the store at a Point-of-sale terminal, online as a one-time payment, or as part of an automated recurring payment system. The $2 "convenience fee" would be uniformly applied to ALL electronic payments no matter how they come in, if this truly were for the purpose of recouping bank fees.
But, they aren't applying the fee uniformly to all credit/debit card payments. Which means this argument doesn't hold water.
2. We seem to have forgotten (or at least Verizon likes to hope we've forgotten) that online payments were at one point encouraged because it costs them less money to process than it does a paper check. I also frees up staff at stores who would otherwise have to accept your payment, or staff at customer service centers who would have to open your mailed payment and process a check. It also means fewer trips to the bank (again tying up paid staff) to deposit those cash and check payments.
It's this same reasoning that motivates employers to pay their employees via direct despot whenever possible: banks charge more to process paper checks than they do to handle the same payments electronically. Imagine if your employer suddenly decided to charge you a "convenience fee" for direct-depositing you paycheck? It's the same principle.
It's just as "convenient" for Verizon to accept your credit card payment over check or cash, as it is for you. This is nothing but a blatant cash grab, pure and simple.
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This would be logical.
But the New York Times article mentions that only bank draft online payment will be "free".
Paying with your online account counts as one-time payment, and you will be charged $2.
That's the whole nonsense of this thing.
If that's not illogical enough, the NYTimes article isn't complete. From Verizon's official announcement, credit and debit cards can be used via auto-pay and not incur the $2 fee. Same is true if paying by payment kiosk at their stores. Thus making this completely inconsistent, and even more illogical.
Well... I guess they'll get away with it. Pretty much the only time I ever pay online or through the phone is when the following scenario occurs...
Doesn't happen very frequently, but for the few times it did, I was very glad to have the option to pay online/via phone. I'd probably gladly accept a $2.00 "service charge" knowing that the late fee and potential credit damage would cost me a ton more.
Hypothetical Payment Scenario said:
Doesn't happen very frequently, but for the few times it did, I was very glad to have the option to pay online/via phone. I'd probably gladly accept a $2.00 "service charge" knowing that the late fee and potential credit damage would cost me a ton more.
I suppose if you want to live your life paranoid like that. I don't, and I'm good that way. I'll deal with the risks.
So make the payments through your bank's website. Same process, different website. *so hard to do*
I actually don't have Verizon, so I couldn't honestly care less about this fee. I just get annoyed when people complain about stuff without reason, which is what people are doing here.
Here, let me save you your reply: *whine whine whine*
Everyone is poor right now. People get their paychecks at different times. Maybe someone gets their paycheck 2 days after the automatic payment is due and if they use automatic payment they overdraft their banking account forcing them to pay even more fee's, not only to Verizon, but to their bank.
Paying your bill within the monthly allotted period at their leisure, as long as it's not late, should be a right, not a privilege. Customers being charged an extra fee to pay their bill, on time, mind you, but at their discretion is crappy regardless of what large corporation it is.
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1) No, not everyone is poor right now.
2) I actually would be considered "poor," but I still have no problem making sure my bill is covered every month when it gets deducted.
3) YOU CAN STILL PAY VIA YOUR LEISURE THROUGH YOUR BANK'S WEBSITE.
Stop whining and be smart consumers.
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Give'em hell guys!! I'm on ATT, but if this works on Verizon it won't be long before ATT sees a windfall too. Monkey dumbass see, monkey do.
Ask for a hard copy bill and pay via snail mail with a check. That way they have to print and mail the bill and handle the check. Tell them you would like to pay via phone but the network is too unreliable.
Can y'all hear me now?
Ask for a hard copy bill and pay via snail mail with a check. That way they have to print and mail the bill and handle the check. Tell them you would like to pay via phone but the network is too unreliable.
Can y'all hear me now?
If that's the case call Verizon and have them move your bill due date. You have the freedom to do so (with any bill mind you). It's about personal responsibility. Pay the bill from your bank or CU website instead of VZW. It's really not that hard of a concept to grasp is it? So much complaining here over something so trivial affecting 1% of users.
That doesn't mean it's not illegal. I know bodegas and gas stations do it all the time in NYC... but they're not supposed to. Maybe illegal isn't the correct term but Mastercard and Visa prohibit their merchants from doing it, so they are breaking the TOS by doing so. How do they get around it? They call it a "discount" for not using the card.
http://www.think-creditcards.com/can-a-merchant-charge-more-for-use-of-a-credit-card.html
Check out the convenience fee.
"Surcharging customers for paying with a credit card is considered discrimination based on payment type. A convenience fee is a charge for offering customers another payment option that is separate and in addition to standard payment methods."
http://www.merchantcouncil.org/merchant-account/operation/convenience-fee.php
I don't care how long you write an explanation or try to make this logical it's not right. Should we also cover Verizon's operating cost just because we decided to choose them as our wireless provider too?? If you go into business and want to accept electronic payments, unless you process them yourself you know there is a fee associated with this. What makes it acceptable to pass this on to the customer and make it so OBVIOUS?
But I have the option to sign up for auto-pay, when my bill could be incorrect? I wouldn't even wanna know the hoops i'd have to hop thru just to get a refund. Gee thanks, why don't I just pay the life of the contract upfront when I sign up?
But I have the option to sign up for auto-pay, when my bill could be incorrect? I wouldn't even wanna know the hoops i'd have to hop thru just to get a refund. Gee thanks, why don't I just pay the life of the contract upfront when I sign up?
It's not about paranoia. It's about being able to determine when MY money ends up in someone else's hands as opposed to giving someone carte blanche to dip in as they please.
It's also about well-documented, frequent cases of site hacking and stealing of this information.
However, if you're perfectly fine with as many different billers having your bank account information, and have that much money that you don't care who can go in and take it, well that's on you. Whatever floats your boat.
And some people will do this. that still doesn't make the practice reasonable.
I don't have Verizon either, but I do care because recent history has shown that the carriers like to collude. If one carrier introduces a new fee or adds a new plan restriction, the others have a tendency to follow suit.
When a company charges its customers more and gives a BS reason for doing it, that's plenty of reason to complain. Acquiescence only gives such entities motivation to go further and charge more. Maybe you like to needlessly spend money, or spend extra time going through hoops to avoid such fees. Some of us don't.
How nice it must be in your little world. I find it amusing that for someone who doesn't have Verizon service, you're working this hard to defend a corporate practice that seeks only to grab more money from people.
So to take the devil's advocate position, Verizon should instead pass the cost along in an obscure way, like increasing the amount of the "Verizon Wireless Surcharges and other credits" fee that they tack on to everyone's bill (which is in addition to taxes/gov't fees).
My AT&T bill never had an "AT&T Surcharges" fee. It was simply the total for the services + taxes/gov't fees.
Attachments
Not blindly assuming that corporations have your best interest in mind != paranoia.
So you complain about people complaining? Pot, kettle.
Except this also applies to people with their generic flip phones, who just make phone calls, which is what I used to have with Verizon, 4 years ago before I switched to AT&T because Verizon was too expensive - I pay $10/mo more to have 450 anytime minutes (and I end up with roll over that expires), unlimited data, and unlimited texts on my iPhone than I was paying to have the "free" flip phone with 900 minutes (because I kept going over by a few minutes, and they offered nothing between 400 & 900 minutes) and 200 text messages on Verizon.
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Welcome to America, where you're charged for the "privilidge" of being able to control your own money. The only thing I have automatically drafted from my account is my car insurance, and after having online banking send the payment the day before my paycheck hit, thus causing me to incur an overdraft fee despite being scheduled otherwise, I will NEVER do online bill pay through my bank again (I also can't verify that the recipients have actually received payments, since the funds come out of the account right then & there).
I find all the fee charging in todays business practice gross. Even if its not completely Verizon's fault its hard to swallow when they charge an arm and an ass for other services. If they didnt .5 & .10 in other areas this might not be so bad but collectively it weighs heavy on the consumers pockets.
The other BS is that businesses are always promoting "going green" and paying online saying trees AKA a way to save them an added expense for printing and mailing statements. And now to charge for online payments?? You would think going paperless would save money and allow them to absorb the $2 fee they are passing along to consumers. Just like in the Bank of America attempt to add debit fees, sometimes a business has more to lose then gain when trying to charge new fees. Small fees these days tend to burn the hell out of people.
Either way they will have to realize you cant have it both ways.
The other BS is that businesses are always promoting "going green" and paying online saying trees AKA a way to save them an added expense for printing and mailing statements. And now to charge for online payments?? You would think going paperless would save money and allow them to absorb the $2 fee they are passing along to consumers. Just like in the Bank of America attempt to add debit fees, sometimes a business has more to lose then gain when trying to charge new fees. Small fees these days tend to burn the hell out of people.
Either way they will have to realize you cant have it both ways.
You are doing the whining here.
About others protesting a nuisance fee.
Do you work at Verizon's billing department?
Auto Pay is a Bad Idea
Auto pay is a bad idea. It gets you out of the loop about where your money is flowing and worst of all it lets someone stick their hand in your pants and pull out money any time they want, even if you don't owe them. We did auto pay last year with something and they repeatedly double-dipped causing our account to go negative a couple of times. That incurred bank penalties fees for us. Fortunately this vendor fixed things, after many phone calls and wasted hours, and they even paid the fees we incurred. However, it was a huge hassle and it went on for months of them doing it over and over again. They just didn't seem to be able to get their system to work right and only take a single payment.
The result is we don't do auto pay where a vendor can suck money out of our account if we can at all avoid it. Fortunately in the case above we had setup a special bank account just for that purpose so their mess did not affect our regular bill paying. It would have really been nasty if they had drained down our bank accounts totally and they could have done that.
Auto pay is a bad idea. It gets you out of the loop about where your money is flowing and worst of all it lets someone stick their hand in your pants and pull out money any time they want, even if you don't owe them. We did auto pay last year with something and they repeatedly double-dipped causing our account to go negative a couple of times. That incurred bank penalties fees for us. Fortunately this vendor fixed things, after many phone calls and wasted hours, and they even paid the fees we incurred. However, it was a huge hassle and it went on for months of them doing it over and over again. They just didn't seem to be able to get their system to work right and only take a single payment.
The result is we don't do auto pay where a vendor can suck money out of our account if we can at all avoid it. Fortunately in the case above we had setup a special bank account just for that purpose so their mess did not affect our regular bill paying. It would have really been nasty if they had drained down our bank accounts totally and they could have done that.