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Verizon Adds $2 Charge For Paying Your Bill Online

Posted by timothy on from the this-makes-me-unhappy dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from geek.com (based on a report at Droid Life) that makes me consider quitting or at least suspending the very expensive service 3G data service I get from Verizon: "With 2012 about to start, it seems Verizon has decided paying your bill online or over the phone is now worthy of an extra charge. So, from January 15, anyone choosing to pay their monthly bill using either method will incur a $2 charge. Verizon is classing the charge as a 'convenience fee' which translates into them deciding allowing you to pay either online or over the phone is a convenience. They also explain in the FAQ above that the fee allows them, 'to continue to support these bill payment options.' Really, Verizon? When did offering online payments or accepting phone calls from customers get so much more expensive?"

17 of 562 comments (clear)

  1. Ah, America! by InterestingFella · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is completely reverse to what companies in my country have started doing. For a long time companies have started pushing people to use internet billing, and if you still want paper bill then that costs extra (because it really does, with printing and mailing). Sending invoice or auto-billing via internet saves them a lot, so I'm not sure I understand why Verizon would want to do thi.. oh right, more $$$.

    1. Re:Ah, America! by cyberfunk2 · · Score: 5, Informative

      There's two obvious reasons for this: Points on my credit card (i.e. free money/miles/ etc), and convienience. It allows me to watch only my credit card bill and pay it once. Also, there's a little bit of money to made on the float (not much these days w/ the low interest rates).

    2. Re:Ah, America! by CaptBubba · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They really want you to set up an automatic funds transfer for the account instead of approving each payment individually. This is great for them and horrible for you because the funds are whisked out of your checking account regardless of if the billing is correct or not. It has the added benefit that most people will forget about it and then miss any rate increases.

    3. Re:Ah, America! by razorh · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Nobody said anything about living on credit. I do the same thing InterestingFella does. I use my credit card for everything bills/gas/food/etc. and then when it's time to pay my credit card off at the end of the month I do a direct one time transfer from my bank account. I'm not living on credit even the least little bit. I don't spend what I don't have and in fact keep a decent 'cushion' in the bank at all times. I haven't lived paycheck to paycheck in a LONG time. If you pay your credit card off every month there is no interest to pay, no fees, AND you get points/miles/extra cash/cheaper gas. I would say NOT doing this is stupid.

    4. Re:Ah, America! by jeffmeden · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's the complete reverse in the rest of America, too. Everyone else is pushing for online payment and electronic billing because it saves on paper and postage costs.

      Verizon is the first company I've seen try to pull an asshat move like this. I think why Verizon is trying it now involves a couple things. For one, large telecoms like Verizon and AT&T have for years felt entitled to licenses to print money hand over fist, and whenever revenue drops due to market changes or technological development, their biggest priority is to find somewhere else to recoup that lost revenue. My guess here is that Verizon noticed that a majority of their customers were already paying their bills online, so they decided to start charging a fee to do it, knowing that their customer base already appreciates the convenience of online bill payment and inertia would prevent them from paying by mail. Other service providers, public utilities for example, likely have much older, entrenched, and less 'tech-savvy' customers so they need to provide incentives to move towards online billing and its associated cost savings.

      A majority of their customers certainly pay their bills online, but they do it automatically and are hence exempt from this fee. Verizon is doing something very simple, encouraging their customers to prefer the automatic process over the manual one. There is undoubtedly a price break to handling the exact same payment method month after month vs handling a unique one each time, and they know they will save more money than they will lose in pissed off customers.

    5. Re:Ah, America! by trum4n · · Score: 5, Informative

      BUT, having a credit card, and using it, and paying it off is actually all but required in this country. Having no credit history is just as damning as bankruptcy in America. Right now, I'm applying for a mortgage. I was told by the bank that my $20k+ in student loans and my $18k car loan...help me. It's twisted, but true. Also, living on credit and using a credit card for ease are not the same. Also, many banks DO charge for external transfers of money here.

    6. Re:Ah, America! by virg_mattes · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, in our world, for one. Not paying a debt until it's due doesn't constitute credit, it's called "float" in financial circles. If someone sells you a good or service and doesn't require payment until the end of the month, then it's not "buying on credit" to hold off paying until that date. So, in short, you're right that it's not length of repayment that's a factor, but whether you're being extended credit (buying something for the promise of repayment against future income) or whether you're being given a float to allow you to gather the funds in the form agreed upon (which is why so many businesses started offering due dates for purchases in the first place).

      Virg

    7. Re:Ah, America! by jaymz666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Giving every company access to your bank account is stupid. With a credit card I can call the card and dispute a charge and have that money back while the card company and the billing company duke it out. If VZW or anyone else takes money directly from my bank account I have to fight with the bank and VZW until they refund my money, if ever.

    8. Re:Ah, America! by Theaetetus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's still credit even if you pay it off once a month. How quickly you pay it off doesn't matter. You're buying things and paying them off later, that's the definition of credit.

      Oh, then if that's your definition, "living on credit is stupid" is entirely wrong. Living with interest charges is stupid, but living on credit without interest is incredibly smart.

    9. Re:Ah, America! by g0bshiTe · · Score: 5, Insightful

      CC or debit charges cost them more really? So instead of saving them man hours by using an automated system to pay my bill, you reason that the extra cc or debit charges are costing them the same amount and that is the justification for charging a "convenience fee", yet I can walk into any Verizon store and pay my bill with the same CC or debit card and not pay that $2 fee, but they are still paying the same amount to run the card.

      I disagree, this is sure looks like a money grab.

      I'd be more likely to believe the $2 fees they collect from people paying by phone or online are put into a trust in the event of a data breach. Sort of a "ok the bad news, there was a data breach and we are getting fined, the good news we set aside a trust fund by charging phone pay and online pay customers a $2 fee, so the fine is covered".

      --
      I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
    10. Re:Ah, America! by LordKronos · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You get convenience with banking too. I only watch over my bank account. I use visa/mastercard debit card too, so it is instantly removed from my account. Living on credit is stupid.

      Wrong. You are apparently too stupid to see the advantage of credit cards, even when someone directly points it out to you. Using credit card cash back, I make hundreds of dollars a year, and I don't pay 1 cent of interest or fees to the credit card companies. Most debit cards offer no cashback. There are a handful that offer up to 1% cash back, but none that offer more, wherase credit card companies often offer more. There are some that offer 2% on everything, and some up to 5% on various items. And occasionally there are even offers >5% .

      Additionally, if someone gets my visa card number and makes some fraudulent purchases, I simply dispute the charge, and since my credit limit is about 10 times what I actually use, my credit limit is slightly reduced but I never notice the difference. Meanwhile, my mortgage and car payments (deducted directly from my bank account) is completely unaffected. But for you, if someone gets your debit number, you certainly can disputed it, but your money will be missing for your account for up to 10 days. Meanwhile, you may incur overdraft fees, and your mortgage/car/other payments may bounce incurring fees. You may be able to get these fees reversed, but it's not going to be a painless process. You are going to have to spend time making calls/writing letters, sending documentation, etc. You can eliminate some of the overdraft fees by leaving a large buffer of cash in your checking account, but I generally consider that dumb since most checking accounts earn no interest, and the few that do only give you a tiny fraction of what you can get in a savings account.

      Finally, credit cards offer many additional benefits like extended warranties, replacement if items are lost/stolen. I know of no debit cards that offer these types of benefits.

    11. Re:Ah, America! by Shatrat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Miles/points and other gimmicks mean nothing to me. The big advantage to paying for things the way you do, and the way I do as well incidentally, is that if you have to dispute something through Visa, Mastercard, and Discover it's like having a best friend in the mafia. They get results. On the other hand, if the money has already left your bank account you're probably boned.

      I will say that NOT doing it this way is a little "belt and suspenders" in terms of financial responsibility, but for some people that's what it takes to stay out of trouble.
      There are plenty of people with self-control problems that are better served by just removing the ability to overspend.

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  2. Fee is waived for certain cases. by bongey · · Score: 5, Informative

    The fee is waived if you pay by electronic check or auto pay. This only effects last minute payments.

    1. Re:Fee is waived for certain cases. by dnahelicase · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The fee is waived if you pay by electronic check or auto pay. This only effects last minute payments.

      It appears this affects online payments, even if you make them early. Last minute has nothing to do with it. It's whether or not you give Verizon the ability to take money from you every month with blanket consent.

      It's not about saving transaction fees, it's about getting consumers to stop thinking about and analyzing their bill every month. That 1.99 data fee that was pissing everyone off? Now it's just a number on your statement that's pretty close to last month. Want to call an complain about it? They already have your money. Good luck getting it back. Most people are going to sit on the phone for 30 minutes to get back $1.99. However, many people will shortpay a bill when they are sure they aren't responsible for something. If you are a person that logs in to the website every month and views your bill and schedules a payment, you are probably looking at the details. If you are an autopay person, you probably aren't - and don't even remember your online password.

  3. It's about getting people to sign up for autopay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The fee is waived for autopay.

    The economy sucks, they want all their accounts on autopay so the phone bill gets taken out before other bills if the customer's money can't pay them all.

    Beware of autopay. Once you bill is autopaid you have a lot less leverage in billing disputes.

  4. NEVER give a creditor access to your bank account by schwit1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If a dispute occurs they have your money and you have little recourse. With a credit card payments you can do a chargeback if they take too much. Using your bank's online bill pay gives you positive control, which means you decide how much to pay as opposed to Verizon deciding how much to take.

    Never EVER give a creditor access to your bank account. This includes Paypal.

  5. Re:Verizon does ACH bill pay by devman · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you read the fine article you'd know ACH transactions are exempt. So are all payments that are set up as recurring in Verizion's system, including credit cards. The only thing that gets charged as far as I can tell (and I could be wrong about this) is one off credit card payments. This is really a non-story.