Sometimes I just feel like we — aka consumers — are being nickled and dimed to death.
Supposedly, we live in an age of convenience as well as an age in which let me do pretty much everything online. Supposedly, this is also the dawning of an age of prosperity.
A lot of the companies I deal with — including commercial banks — are always pitching the idea that I should ”go paperless” and doing so is for my ”convenience,” as well as to save trees. Fair enough... in theory.
Recently I finally succumbed to ”going paperless” with our phone provider, and to receive our monthly statements by email, rather than snail mail. Fine.
Of course then I come to go pay my bill online, and what do I discover? That there is a $3.95 "convenience fee" for paying online!
WTF, over...?
Rip-Off Alert!
Essentially the whole "paperless" thing now feels like a big rip off that has nothing to do with trees or my convenience and everything to do with the fact that the phone company now saves the money on not having to print and mail a statement to me and they get to charge $3.95 every time I pay their stupid bill!
Now in case you think this sounds a little unusual, of course it doesn't "have to" cost me money to pay my phone bill... as long as I sign up for “autopay.”
Which I'm not about to do as the autopay presumes that you always know that you have money in your bank account to meet your bills on a specific day which, in turn, is predicated on a greater system under which it is assumed that everyone works for some large company and they get a regular paycheck for the same amount, every two weeks or semi-monthly or whatever.
One Size Fits (Not!) All
As a self employed person, I not only get paid whenever somebody pays me which could be three times in a day or once every three weeks... and I have no idea whether that will be $10 or $500.
Consequently, I have no idea ahead of time when I'll be able to pay a bill... it could be tomorrow, or after 45 days and a late fee... therefore I like to be the one who controls when I pay my bills, not some autopay system.
And this, in a nutshell, is why I just can't wait for a better and less expensive paradigm for doing business, and for paying bills.
Crypto to the Rescue?
Since the very early days, I was always hopeful that cryptocurrency was going to provide some solutions to a whole bunch of different world problems — including such things as having to pay extra in order to make a payment online — but sadly, it really hasn't... yet.
But, as many as the wise people say, these are still early days.
In the meantime, I feel very tempted to go back to getting paper statements mailed, so I can at least send a check in payment, for the cost of a first class stamp!
A check? What's that? Who uses checks, anymore? Yeah, I know, I'm an old fossil!
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your weekend!
How about YOU? Encountered any annoying fees, lately? What's the most ridiculous and meaningless "surcharge" you have had to pay? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20220416 21:42 PDT
0553/1799
I send paper checks after I get online bills. But I keep getting paper bills as much as possible.
My gripe right now is with my cable/internet/phone/cell phone company. If I have any kind of problem, I have to call them. I don't think I have one single call to them that lasted less that 1 1/2 hours, and every single time I got off the phone, a new problem would appear. So, another call to the company. I dread calling them, and have to make sure I do it when I have a lot of free time. This past time, I called simply because they were over charging me. They fixed that, then changed my service in a way that I did not want. When the bill came, THERE WAS A $50 CHANGE OF SERVICE FEE! It was their mistake, but I have to call and waste a couple of hours to fix it, and just hope some new problem isn't created, for me by them.
Reminds me of a joke that was going around 20 or so years ago
I just hate the way the big corps works. They are only for profit. Circular Economy would be much better! and fair wages from their employees x)
Oh, $3.95 as convenience fee is too much I think. I do hope crypto becomes widely accepted as a form of payment then it would really be awesome. I also pay my bills online but usually, the convenience fees are waived or if any, just about $0.10 so it is very negligible, but $3.95, ughh!
You have one of those low cost phone companies? That could explain it. They get charged quite a bit if people use credit cards. My auto repair shop just went to charging five dollars more if you use a credit card. He said the cost for his shop to accept credit cards was running a thousand a month. In return though if you pay in cash he gives a reduction on your bill. It was no where near the five he'd charge people for using credit cards. I paid him cash the other day on a bit over four hundred dollars and he gave me a whole dollar something for paying cash. lol. Usually the larger phone companies only charge if you use a representative otherwise you can use either electronic check or credit card at no additional fee. I always like though those who say "a convenience fee" for using a credit card, when is it ever convenient to pay extra.
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I have resigned myself to paying most bills online. I, too, detest autopay. I prefer to have a much more direct idea of where my money does every time I spend it. I also avoid debt like credit cards.