This is un fucking believable!

[William769]

My mother went into the hospital last Month from a fall & then was transferred to a rehabilitation center.

I spent today paying my mothers bills ( was paying all her bills in cash), I stopped into pay her cell phone bill (verizon) and the clerk informed me that if I paid the bill in cash there would be a "convenience Fee"! WTF! Since I paid her bill in cash it cost me an additional three dollars.

I'm still scratching my head over this.

[valerief]

1. Any reason to nickel and dime you. nt

[meegbear]

2. I just read your post to a guy at work ...

and he said Sprint does the same thing.

Ridiculous.

[William769]

17. Thats putting it mildly.

[patrice]

3. Fiat Currency is eating paper curency. Interesting. nt

[Horse with no Name]

4. The Convenience Fee of cash is at least cheaper than the Credit Card fee

:(

I guess it is cheaper NOT to pay your bill?

Why isn't this shit illegal?

[William769]

9. I have a debit card on my checking account, but I didn't have it with me.

I keep a certain amount of cash on hand in my safe at home for emergencies & my mother keeps a certain amount there also for cases such as this.

I'm going to start treating my debit card like American Express. Don't leave home without it!

[Bandit]

33. Banks are going to start charging you a "Convenience Fee" for using your Debit Card also..

Bank of america and Wells Fargo are already doing so from what I hear...plus $5.00 a month just for having a Debit card...

[William769]

43. As far as I know & what my bank has told me, they have no plans to charge for debit cards.

[Zoeisright]

5. I HATE banksters.

They rip us off every day and in every possible way they can think of. Try to use a local community bank or credit union.

[William769]

16. What does that have to do with using cash?

[kenny blankenship]

47. Banksters hate it when you use cash. They want you to use credit or debit electronic payment

That puts them in the loop of the transaction and gives them the "right" to collect a fee. We are probably less than 20 years away from the govt requiring you to have a bank acct and to use that via electronic credit or debit for all payments. (They will claim it is necessary to thwart Al Qaeda counterfeiters in the neverending War On Terror) You will pay for things by waving your smart phone (which always knows where you are) near a retailer's Point of Sale scanner and hitting "OK". Phones will be able to pay each other - but of course with the banks as the indispensable intermediaries in the transaction and collecting and storing information about it for the government. The government will phase out physical currency, eventually banning it. Then the banksters can look forward to collecting a "tax" on every transaction that happens inside America.

The days of being able to use your money for free are numbered. You also used to be able to vote in this country without having to purchase a photo ID. Scraps of paper and coin aren't "convenient" enough to base an economy on. You must accept the "convenience" of e-payment - and the benevolent and minute supervision of Uncle Sam over all your consumer behaviors.

[William769]

52. My bad sorry about that.

[reggie the dog]

66. how would people buy illegal drugs and guns????

[KatyMan]

29. er, verizon is a phone company nt

[jtrockville]

6. So there's no way to pay the bill without paying a fee?

Cash: fee to the vendor
Debit card: fee to the bank
Credit card: LOTS OF FEES

[William769]

11. There is no fee for debit transactions.

[Little Star]

36. YET. You forgot to say yet.

[William769]

40. I didn't think there was a need to.

[jtrockville]

42. Isn't that what the big BOA stink is all about? Debit card fees?

[CTyankee]

14. Send 'em a check by snail mail. How much is a first class stamp, 46 cents?

I drop it off at the PO substation on my way to do grocery shopping. Big deal...

[Horse with no Name]

37. Until they shut down the Post Offices...n/t

[AsahinaKimi]

15. That about sums it up ..

Maybe the reason BofA is down again today, are because of disgruntled employees (who are probably customers too.)

[Tesha]

58. Write a check. The only fee you *MIGHT* incur is the postage stamp...

...but that fee at least goes to a union shop.

Tesha

[jtrockville]

59. ^ smart move

[Hassin Bin Sober]

7. Sprint does this also. 5 bucks at non corporate owned stores.

They claim it's because some of the stores are franchised and not corporate owned. Of course, it's not mentioned on the website where it tells you were you can pay a bill.

Gee, ya think they could work the customer service piece in to the franchise agreement?


edit to add: the fee at sprint was for cash. They would only accept cash. So the fee was for the bill payment.

[qb]

8. To me it actually makes more sense than charging a fee for electronic transactions.

How is paying employees to handle cash transactions more efficient than automated electronic transactions?
I also scratch my head when told I must pay extra to e-file taxes while sending in hand-scribbled forms for employees to decipher by hand costs me nothing.
Fees on electronic transactions are just a convenient greedy money grab.

[MADem]

19. Why should you have to pay AT ALL for the "favor" of purchasing something, be it

a product or services?

The scary thing here is that anyone might see the logic in that. The banks have done a great sales job!

The banks USE our money and get interest from it, way more than they give back--if they give anything back. The vendors provide products and services for a price; they should be expected to be able to handle a simple sales transaction as part of that process.

It's egregious.

[littlewolf]

10. I would try to find a company that doesn't charge a fee

for cash transactions .... I use a Tracphone which works for me ....

[William769]

13. I personnaly don't use a cell phone.

But my mother does, I'll tell her that.

[CTyankee]

12. I tried to pay my bill at the Verizon store and got the same song and dance.

I walked out of the store and paid it by phone instead...

[Freddie Stubbs]

18. Verizon bills can be pain on the web with a credit or debit card with no fee

[Earth_First]

20. Been that way for some time now...n/t

[FSogol]

21. Ask them to waive the fee. They almost always will. n/t

[William769]

24. As simple as that sounds, I must admit I'm guilty of not doing it.

Thanks.

[barbtries]

22. somebody somewhere

spends all their waking moments thinking up ways to screw the average citizen out of as much money as possible. no particular reason. greed. but you know someone will have to travel to the bank and personally deposit that money. what gets me is how many other places will fee you for paying with your debit or credit card.

[William769]

25. This was with cash.

[barbtries]

26. i know.

i read your post :)

[William769]

28. Oops. Sorry.

:blush:

[kickysnana]

60. I swore there was a department of free parking elimination in St Paul

Back when I lived there and occasionally had business downtown or wanted to take the kids to an indoor park they had or the science or history museums I had a pretty good idea where free parking spots could be had if you were willing to walk a short distance but by 2000 they had found all of them so I just stopped going downtown St Paul.

[sinkingfeeling]

23. Guess Verizon doesn't buy, "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private."

[William769]

27. Thanks!

Thats an argument I won't ever forget to use again. I guess the shock of it just had me stunned.

[unblock]

34. they're accepting it as legal tender. they're just charging for not paying online.

these days, a cashier handling cash is much more expensive than processing a payment online or even by automated telephone.

it's certainly obnoxious to charge for this, but it's also certainly legal.

[lynne]

39. Verizon accepts cash as legal tender for debts so that dog won't hunt -

- While I don't agree with it, they're adding a fee to accept cash payments. Having worked in a non-cash office, I understand why. It's costly to do business in cash. It requires you to keep change and the change box tallied out weekly and someone must do that work. Then it requires you to do cash receipts. And cash must be physically carried to the bank and that's an expense.

Cash is so very 20th century and those using it will incur additional expenses. It's a brave, new world - like it or not.

[sinkingfeeling]

69. And banks charging for the use of debit cards, will cause me to revert back to cash and checks.

[SoCalNative]

30. Verizon has been like that for years

They don't care about customer service and maintaining clients in their retail stores. All they are concerned with are making sales. That's why they don't make repairs or have parts for the phones they sell anymore.

[FarCenter]

31. Cash transactions are actually fairly costly

Cashier time, counting and preparing deposits of cash, auditing, and possibly fees charged by the bank for cash deposits by commercial customers.

Plus counterfeit and theft losses.

[RegieRocker]

32. Safer to close business, no fees.

[progressoid]

35. uhhhh...

:wtf:

[tawadi]

38. Sign of the times

Self-help or no help.

[Scuba]

41. If you'd paid by check, the convenience fee is $5. Credit card is $6. n/t

[CTyankee]

48. I pay NO fee when I mail my payment by check! Has everyone forgotten about that option?

Incredible. It's a huge bargain by using the USPS...what's the matter with everybody? Your fingers broken, you can't write a check, stick it in an envelope, affix a stamp and drop it into a mail box?

Really?

[thelordofhell]

49. You pay 44 cents

[CTyankee]

50. Well, big whup! Good god, 44 cents!

If that's the deal, I think I'll take it!

Geez, people here are complaining about a $3 fee and they can't manage 44 cents! What is wrong with this picture?

[Scuba]

51. Why does paying my bill require me to incur a fee?

[CTyankee]

55. I hear you, but for YEARS we've been paying our bills with a simple mail stamp.

but OK, I'll take your question. It's because there are staff involved in paper work that do not result in a sale or a profit. Therefore, it is labor expended (with no extra profit) and must be recompensed. That's why.

But, seriously, I don't get the resistance over just less than 50 cents on a mailed bill...I mean, really...

[Scuba]

56. The bill is supposed to cover the costs. Such "handling" is a cost. Seems like double to me. n/t

[CTyankee]

57. Really, handling under 50 cents per bill?

Compared to $3 in the store?

What am I missing here?

[Scuba]

64. Why is there ANY extra charge for paying a bill? That's a normal cost of doing business...

...And 50 cents times 10 million customers times 12 payments a year is $60 Million.

[CTyankee]

67. well, you can call and have an electronic payment made to them.

I've done that when I've forgotten to mail the bill (or lost it) and had to pay that way. It is paid the very same day. My bank doesn't charge for that service and so far no company whose bill I've paid that way has either...

[kickysnana]

61. When SS pays you $679, rent is $550, untilities and phone $55, copay $45 those .44 cents matter. n/t

[Lizzie Poppet]

44. Next time, pay in pennies.

If you're going to get charged to pay in cash, make 'em earn it!

[Safetykitten]

45. All the Verizon stores here have machines for bills to pay cash. No surcharge.

[Enthusiast]

46. "There's just too much regulation on business!"

"It's stifling job creation." You know.

[workinclasszero]

53. If u eat inside some fast food joints

they charge you an extra tax for that!:grr:

Check your receipt sometime.

[William769]

54. Thanks I did not know that.

Checking all receipts from now on.

[Fire Walk With Me]

62. It's the same with shipping and handling charges that are more than the actual cost of shipping.

Someone had to take the time to do it...but that's still weird, if they're already standing there to take your money in any form...meh. Sorry to hear that.

[tblue37]

63. If you buy supercheap used books online (like the 1-cent ones or even $1 ones), ALL

the seller's profit comes from the excess in the S&H fees.

[Capitalocracy]

65. Convenience fee for cash from Verizon, convenience fee for debit from the bank.

Everything's just so goddamn convenient these days, don't you see?

[PatSeg]

68. I knew this day was coming

but it still blows my mind.

I guess it is easier and less labor intensive to use plastic to process payments. Cash involves preparing bank deposits and trips to the bank, which can be very time consuming. Too much cash in a store makes it vulnerable to theft both external and internal. When people use their cards, the computer and a bank do all the accounting.

Of course, I believe businesses will find any reason to charge more fees. A few years back a utility company I used charged an extra fee for using the Internet to pay their bill, when I know sending them a check in the mail would be far more work for them.

[Hotler]

70. Waste Management bangs me an extra $3.00 a period

for paying my bill with a check by mail.

[arikara]

71. They refused to take cash

at what used to be BC Tel, even years ago. I guess after Telus took them over, got rid of most of the offices and offshored the help line so that you have to go through the answering machine maze to get to India or somewhere for any assistance. Needless to say I got rid of them, they became a blight on the face of the earth.