Verizon will charge fee for paying bill
Shades of Bank of America or Netflix: Verizon's new $2 fee for paying a bill with a credit card has customers fuming.
Could Verizon Wireless be following the likes of airlines and big banks -- nickel-and-diming customers with new fees for things that used to be free?
Starting Jan. 15, Verizon will charge customers at $2 fee if they pay their bill with a credit card online or over the phone. There are lots of ways to avoid the fee -- and Verizon users should take advantage of them -- but the backlash is already building. Post continues below.
Mashable reader "Ryan Smith" wrote, "I think they missed Bank of America (and other banks) and Netflix's bad PR with trying to implement new fees. Don't companies learn from others' mistakes?"
Verizon offered some justification for the fee, but Paul Miller on The Verge isn't buying it:
Verizon claims that the fee covers its ability to "continue to support these bill payment options" (you know, because all your regular bill dollars are being used entirely to improve your wireless service) but there's no way it's more costly for Verizon than processing the old fashioned, handwritten paper checks we used to pluck out of furrowed fields and send to Big Red on the Pony Express.
At least you can avoid the fee, by:
- Yes! Paying the old-fashioned way, with a check in the mail.
- Enrolling in Verizon's AutoPay, allowing the company to tap a credit, debit or ATM card or bank account on file. This appears to be Verizon's preferred option.
- Paying by electronic check at a Verizon website.
- Using your bank's online bill pay.
- Paying at a kiosk or Verizon store.
- Paying with a Verizon gift card or rebate.
Before you're assessed the $2 "convenience fee," you'll be offered other free options, a Verizon memo says. (You can find the company's press release on Engadget.)
Don't you hate this stuff? Did processing your single online bill payment suddenly increase in cost? We deserve more explanation from the company.
Marguerite Reardon offered some speculations at CNET:
My guess is that the company that clears these payments is charging Verizon a fee that Verizon is passing on to customers. Still, it seems ridiculous that paying a bill online or by phone could cost Verizon more than processing a hand-written check or money order that is sent to the company through the regular mail.
Mashable says AT&T charges a fee if you call a customer service rep to pay your bill. Sprint charges some customers an extra $4.99 if they don't use its autoplay plan.
A comment by "Mo Bile" at Mashable summed up customers' frustrations:
Paying a fee to pay the bill online?? Have these companies completely gone off their rockers?? ATMs were brought in to save money from tellers and the next thing you know there are ATM fees. Online bill payment was brought in to save processing costs for paper bills and now they want to charge for that??? Someone wants their online presence to have a bill pay "revenue" stream apparently. Unbelievable.
What do you think. Tempest in a teapot, or is this another tone-deaf company taking unfair advantage of customers?
More on MSN Money:
Large corporations have set profit margins they have grown accustomed to. They are attempting to maintain these profit margins regardless of current economic conditions. Consumers are naive to think that many of the largest corporations in the US are automatically reducing expectations of profits merely because the economy is relatively poor and people are spending less.
The solution, as many responses in this forum has alluded to, is to not purchase the particular goods and services being provided. As long as consumers have a sense of entitlement and expectation for specific products (i.e., cell phone service), large corporations will continue to have an expectation of specific profit margins. Banks, cell phone companies, insurance providers, airlines, and others can continue to operate in an environment where their products have become expected, rather than optional.
I've been with AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and now Verizon. In my own personal experience, Verizon has the best coverage, customer service, plan choices, and most reasonable prices. Businesses who accept credit cards pay high fees to credit card processing companies for their services. Some of those businesses have already calculated those fees into the prices they charge. Others who have not included those fees in their prices have a choice to either increase their fees to everyone who subscribe to their service OR pass the fees on to only their customers who pay by credit card. Verizon has obviously chosen the latter. Of course there is another option and that would be to stop accepting payment by credit card.
Most people who have posted don't understand this because they have never been in business for themselves. I will always pay all of my bills through bill pay because it is the least expensive way to pay them AND it's also the safest. The bank sends out the checks for me (I pay for no checks or postage), payment is guaranteed to be received by a certain date, I always have a record of when and how much was paid if a dispute arises, AND none of my personal financial information transfers through the mail or is received on the other end.
At least you can avoid the fee, by:
- Yes! Paying the old-fashioned way, with a check in the mail.
- Enrolling in Verizon's AutoPay, allowing the company to tap a credit, debit or ATM card or bank account on file. This appears to be Verizon's preferred option.
- Paying by electronic check at a Verizon website.
- Using your bank's online bill pay.
- Paying at a kiosk or Verizon store.
- Paying with a Verizon gift card or rebate.
This is just another rip off like the big banks have done… When Wells Fargo charged me one dollar for calling the bank to question a charge on my checking account, I cancel all my accounts and transferred to a local bank…
I guess these rich big business guys don’t get it… The general public are tired of being ripped off….
Now I know better NOT to buy Verizon products…
This is unfortunate. Although, there are many bills that I pay that charge a fee if I try to pay with some type of card. Just like all businesses, there is a credit/debit card fee for swiping everytime for a customer. Ameren, for example, charges me $2.75 whether I call in to them to pay it, or go to their website. If I pay with my checking account, it doesn't cost me anything.
If you have a debit card, then you have a checking account. It's not the end of the world if you have to pull out the ol' dreaded checkbook.
It'll cost Verizon more to process the old style check than it would to process the online payments. Hmmmm.
Seems to me that the consumer would be better off to send in a check and cost Verizon a lot more money. that might get the point across to them. Hmmm.
Want to really make the point? For the next three to four month or until they drop this stupid idea, all of the 90 million Verizon customers send multiple real paper checks totaling up to their billed amount. Bury their accounts receivable with a volume of checks that they just can't process quickly.
This will put a hitch in their get-along!!
Atm Fees, baggage fees, "convenience" fees it's all BS. They are just as bad as legal drug pushers - once your hooked they start charging whatever they want. Anyone old enough to remember the original concept of cable TV? Network TV was funded by "sponsers" and thus there were tons of commercials. By paying for cable TV - we were going to be the sponsers and there were going to be no commercials ... yeah right - Now we pay to watch commercials!!
Here in Illinois they started a "7 year program" in the early 60's called the tollroad. When they started it 50 years ago, the promise was that in 7 years it would be paid and the become free ... since then they have added dozens of tool booths and the fees are DOUBLING again Jan. 1 ...
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