Legal?

[Dover]

Maybe some of you have experienced this too.

I have recently received a notice (strongly worded request) from two companies that I make monthly payments to, to provide them with a credit card number so they can make automatic monthly redrawals.
One of them claimed that it was essential to reduce their costs in these hard economic times.

I stopped using a credit card quite awhile ago and have always paid with checks. I don't
use automatic bank payments for any bills because I don't want my bills 'out of mind', I want to
reveiw them each month, and don't mind sitting down and writing checks.

I can understand their point as regards their costs, but do not choose to go that route for my
own very good reasons. Can they legally require payment in the form they choose or am I only required to pay them on time in the way I choose? It seems that this ought to be illegal,
and surely not everyone has a credit card anyway.

A few years ago when I DID use a credit card a company tried to do this without asking me and I threw
a FIT! They quickly backed off.

Your thoughts and experiences would be appreciated.
And if anyone knows the law on this, PLEASE let me know.

[glowing]

1. Ask those companies for a discount, paper checks are costly on a business.

For your inconvenience, ask them to lower the fee for services.

[CrispyQ]

2. Recently, some DUer posted a horror story about her incident with

Discover card - they took all the money out of her account. I think it was eventually resolved, but until it was, she was without funds.

I have a few set auto-deductions for some charities that I give to monthly, but no bills. I don't think they can demand you do this, but I'll check back to see what others say.

[aquart]

3. Tell them no way in hell will they raid your accounts at will.

[MercutioATC]

4. They can offer incentives, but they can't demand automatic withdrawals.

...notice that their communications, however strongly worded, are only "requests".

[Dover]

Yes I noticed. But then I began to wonder what kind of footing I was on in

denying their 'request'. You sound sure of your answer. Hope so.

[Dover]

9. Yes I noticed. But then I began to wonder what kind of legal footing I was on in

denying their 'request'. You sound sure of your answer. Hope so.

[Warpy]

5. First, the credit card costs them a service fee

but they might figure it's less than paying someone to add checks up and bundle them into bank deposits. I don't think that's the real reason, though.

Second, nobody said we are absolutely required to have credit cards. I've done without them nicely for 17 years now. I do have some automatic payments set up from my checking account but I keep a very close watch on what those payments are. I do it for my convenience, not theirs.

Their insistence is bogus. They're just trying to get paid on time and in a manner that provides the least hassle to them. I imagine a lot of people are getting later and later on their bills thanks to inflation. They're just trying to ding credit cards for timely payment, damn the cost to the customer.

They don't have a legal leg to stand on.

[Dover]

8. How do the automatic bank payments work?

Do they show up on your monthly balance sheets or is it separate.
My concern is that they are easily forgotten and unmonitored if they are automatic.

[Warpy]

10. My bank statement shows "electronic withdrawal"

with the company name and amount. I use the same junk account I use for my ATM card so if somebody's fingers get sticky, I won't be out that much. I keep a close eye on it to make sure I have enough money in the account to cover what I want to do and to make sure nobody's gotten frisky with my money. I check the withdrawal amount when I check the statement the company sends in lieu of a bill.

[Dover]

13. Thanks for 'splaining that...n/t

[MadrasT]

6. Two things:

1. No way would I ever do this.

2. In the scenario that you describe, what are people who don't have credit cards supposed to do? :shrug:

[LonelyLRLiberal]

7. Why don't you set up your bank account so you can make electronic payments?

That way, you control the payments and they get paid electronically and don't have to handle paper checks.

[varkam]

11. Look at your contract.

If there's nothing about it in the contract that you signed with them, tell them tough cookies.

[Dover]

12. That's pretty much what I said....only a little nicer. It wasn't in the original contract and I'm

not sure if it would even be legal to write it into one.

Can a company say we only take credit cards customers? If that were the case
then it seems companies could force people to have cc when they might prefer
not to.

[varkam]

14. They can say that...

but I don't think it would pass muster in a court - especially not if it wasn't written into the original terms that you agreed to.