The discount rate for VISA/MC is probably between 2 & 3.5 % and then they usually have a per transaction charge, like .28 or something, so 2 dollars difference would be very close to the credit card processing fees.
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What's the strangest fee or service charge you've ever seen?
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The discount rate for VISA/MC is probably between 2 & 3.5 % and then they usually have a per transaction charge, like .28 or something, so 2 dollars difference would be very close to the credit card processing fees.
The strangest collection of fees or service charges I've ever seen has to be all those junk charges that started showing up on my utility bills after deregulation began to kick into New York State. Like a fee to tell you how much your bill is. Seriously. These are from my March bill:
45 cents for merchant function charge (i get tapped this only because my supplier, NYSEG, is also the deliverer of my electricity. It is theoretically the administrative cost to the deliverer of obtaining the supply. So since my supplier is my deliverer, what, the guy spins around on his office chair and sez, hey... send her a few hundred kwh of the best juice we got, ok? Spins around again and sez roger, wilco. So then kaChing kaChing, the 45c merchant function is accomplished).
89 cents for bill issuance charge (yah, even if you get it online and pay online and even if you read your own meter every other month and phone it in so they don't estimate your bill in those months)
-35 cents for transition charge (reflects the cost of making the electricity industry more competitive... since it's a credit, one could ask a whole lot of questions about this)
41 cents for SBC / RPS charge The SBC = system benefits charge, to fund energy efficiency, assistance to low income customers, and research. The RPS = Renewable Portfolio Standard charge to fund renewable energy projects established by the Public Service Commission. We do not get a breakout of what's allocated to SBC and what to RPS. So maybe I am paying for the PSC honcho's residence to have geothermal cooling installed before the Fourth of July, who knows.
OK so the total of these wacko charges is only a buck forty in the average month. Some of the charges are usage-based so it varies. But that times 12 times however many customers they have is some big yummy pile of pennies statewide by year-end.
45 cents for merchant function charge (i get tapped this only because my supplier, NYSEG, is also the deliverer of my electricity. It is theoretically the administrative cost to the deliverer of obtaining the supply. So since my supplier is my deliverer, what, the guy spins around on his office chair and sez, hey... send her a few hundred kwh of the best juice we got, ok? Spins around again and sez roger, wilco. So then kaChing kaChing, the 45c merchant function is accomplished).
89 cents for bill issuance charge (yah, even if you get it online and pay online and even if you read your own meter every other month and phone it in so they don't estimate your bill in those months)
-35 cents for transition charge (reflects the cost of making the electricity industry more competitive... since it's a credit, one could ask a whole lot of questions about this)
41 cents for SBC / RPS charge The SBC = system benefits charge, to fund energy efficiency, assistance to low income customers, and research. The RPS = Renewable Portfolio Standard charge to fund renewable energy projects established by the Public Service Commission. We do not get a breakout of what's allocated to SBC and what to RPS. So maybe I am paying for the PSC honcho's residence to have geothermal cooling installed before the Fourth of July, who knows.
OK so the total of these wacko charges is only a buck forty in the average month. Some of the charges are usage-based so it varies. But that times 12 times however many customers they have is some big yummy pile of pennies statewide by year-end.