Verizon Wireless To Start Charging $2 Convenience Fee Starting January 15

[jroc]

What we can all do is require VZW to send us paper statements monthly, meaning opt out of paperless billing....that should get their attention....

The way I look at it is that I was doing them a favor by going paperless, now they want to do this idiocy??, well then they can send me a printed bill if they want a printed check from me...

All in all though I can easily just pay them thru my online banking, no worries...but it'd be funny if everyone all of a sudden demanded paper bill statements via USPS...lmao

Exactly.....how much does it cost them to send out paper bills? Or are they charging for that too. I know Bank of America does with a specific account. Going paper-ess waives the fee at BoA. Verizon is getting like the banks now huh....

That said...$2 is not too bad. But it is annoying.....

Yea, sorry to ruin the hateraide, but this isnt new, just an increase. They have charged $1 for credit/debit cards on the website for at least a couple of years now. Ive been paying with e-Check since the first time they hit me with the $1 'convenience fee'.

Damn didnt even know....well now....lol. And that $1 was totally missed by me. Well if I can forget about this thread.....$2 will be missed by me too.

Unsubscribed as of now...lol

 

[Dusty]

They're totally gaming their customers for extra cash.

They know that A LOT of people pay their bill the day it's due, just before the late fees kick in. So now to process a payment immediately you basically have to pay an additional two dollars to avoid a late fee. WIN VZW.

If I'm not mistaken, paying by a bank draft takes a day or two to post. So, if you're paying right at the due date it won't process until the late fees are charged. WIN VZW.

Autodraft sucks in the respect that you're giving them the power to reach directly into your pocket monthly, and if they mess up the onus is on you to catch them. If not... too bad. And, then if you do catch them in error the best you'll get is a credit the following month. That is the billing equivalent of, "Oh. My bad. I just won't take as much money next time. See you later, bro." WIN VZW.*

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]HOWEVER, if YOU make any mistakes during a billing cycle they'll hit you with additional service & late fees. WIN VZW.[/FONT]

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]YAY for a level playing field for the consumer.[/FONT]

[FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]*The reason I'll NEVER do an autodraft is this... last summer I returned a TB for equipment replacement. The FedEx tracking and the repair center records showed that they received the phone, but for some reason they charged me $500 for an unreturned phone. It took them 30 days to update my billing charges. Then guess what. The following cycle it appeared again as "unreturned" and it took two more weeks to correct. The second week was AFTER the end of the following billing cycle so it appeared as an unpaid $500 on my bill until the credit was applied. That would have been TWO months of auto-pay where they would have pocketed an additional $500 in error. If I were paying with automatic bank drafts I would have been soaked for $1000 and the best I would get would be a credit for the following months service. Forget what I would have spent that money on over the course of two months. It would basically be their money at that point. I can never bring myself to allow a company access to my bank account when you have no recourse except to wait 30 days for a billing credit if they mess up.

Sorry long post.[/FONT]

 

[dja1980]

Really isn't a big deal... you pay ACH by entering your checking account information into myverizon. Simple, don't use your credit/debit cards.

I want my cash back rewards...

Correct. It's an attempt to avoid paying those credit card fees. Which with as many customers as they have, probably add up to quite a tidy sum annually. Think 2%, but it could be higher. For 2010, based on service revenues of $55 billion, if all those were collected via credit card, that's ~$1 billion in processing fees.

while I agree with and plan to call for credits over the outage I have to say i'm a bit surprised at people. Ranting over a fee that is easily avoided? Some of the excuses make me chuckle..."I want my rewards!!!" Then you'll pay for that privilege.

The way I read it, you can still use your credit or debit card without paying the fee...

"The fee is waived for bill payments made by electronic check (also referred to as "ACH") and for all bill payments made on accounts that are enrolled in AutoPay with any payment method (credit/debit/ACH card or electronic check).

This really isn't that big of a deal. In my industry, many of our carriers change $10/mo. for paper payments, and $5/mo. for manual electronic payments, and people don't think twice about it. Verizon is simply trying to motivate people to go automatic.

 

[Narsil]

Disregarding Verizon and looking at all the "convenience" fees around, I keep asking myself, "To whom is this more convenient: me or them?" The answer always comes back that of the two parties involved, they are receiving the greater convenience. They ought to be crediting us rather than charging us. :frown:

 

[TheOldFart]

Unless I'm missing something here, I don't see the big deal. You can still pay by credit card if you sign up for auto pay. Why would you want to pay manually every month when there is auto pay? I've been signed up for it for as long as I can remember. I have a number of bills payed by auto pay to the same credit card and I still get my rewards. As to getting paper bills, doesn't Verizon charge for a paper bill, or is it just a detailed paper bill?

 

[tommyz]

The way I read it, you can still use your credit or debit card without paying the fee...

"The fee is waived for bill payments made by electronic check (also referred to as "ACH") and for all bill payments made on accounts that are enrolled in AutoPay with any payment method (credit/debit/ACH card or electronic check).

This really isn't that big of a deal. In my industry, many of our carriers change $10/mo. for paper payments, and $5/mo. for manual electronic payments, and people don't think twice about it. Verizon is simply trying to motivate people to go automatic.

This is exactly what I do... It is a credit card transaction so I still receive rewards on the card.

No big deal for most people.

 

[TheOldFart]

This is exactly what I do... It is a credit card transaction so I still receive rewards on the car.

No big deal for most people.

Correct. Some people just like to cry about everything.

 

[Speeding Wheels]

for people who are on tight budgets and have to pay bills when the cash is in their accounts it is a HUGE deal.

personally I'll just go into my local VZW corporate store and pay in the little kiosk thingie... and then I'll grab an associate and ask them countless questions I could really care less about the answers to. just waste 30 minutes of their time like they are wasting my time.

 

[Durania]

Paperless bill deactivated.

Add me to the list as well.

 

[LegalAmerican]

Really isn't a big deal... you pay ACH by entering your checking account information into myverizon. Simple, don't use your credit/debit cards.

It actually IS a big deal. I work for a Credit Union and giving people your ACCOUNT NUMBER instead of your Card Number creates all sorts of extra problems. When someone has your acct number, it's a lot more difficult to sever ties with that company down the road cause unless you change your whole acct number, they can continue pulling money. I've seen this so many times, that I have to wonder if Verizon is doing this for a reason.........

 

[Bullitt6996]

Interesting

I've been with verizon for a while, but this type of charge I've never agreed with. I'm getting a little tired of businesses figuring out ways to get their hands in my pockets. I've had some terrible experiences with Verizon this year, so I don't know if I'll stay with them past my contract. Probably just go month to month with another carrier that doesn't charge so much for services.:frown:

 

[nlinecomputers]

Is this charge the kind of change that qualifies as a change of contract terms? I would LOVE to break contract with VZW but the fees are too much. But if they have technically changed the contract terms by adding a fee and I didn't sign up for can I now break contract without penalty?

 

[Quicksilver7714]

Wow. That's really lame. The whole idea of going paperless was so you could A.) Pay your bill in an easier manner and B.) Verizon was saving money by not sending you a bill paper bill in the mail.


Does Verizon charge if you request a paper bill? If so this would be a stupid double standard.

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[captclueless]

yeah douchey move on verizons part, especially to announce this a day after a huge nationwide outage.
i pay with my banks online bill pay, so it wont affect me, but still.

 

[Distracted]

Well this gives me the perfect opportunity to finally stop procrastinating and set up online bill pay through my bank.

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