Starting October 16, all Verizon Communications landline, FiOS, and DSL customers will have to pay a $3.50 fee if they pay their bills by credit or debit card. (Currently there are no plans to apply to same to wireless customers). The only way to get around it is to sign up for auto-billing. Verizon says the new fee is because they have a new vendor for processing credit and debit transactions, and they’re passing on the lack of savings to you.
A fee to pay your bill? Yep [LAT] (Hat tip to Kody!)
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Just look at it as an increase in your monthly fee. They do it all they time anyway. No matter what they choose to call it is still an increase in your monthly fee.
I thought these surcharges were against their merchant agreement with Visa/MC.
I thought merchants couldn’t charge you a fee to use your credit card. Does this not count because it’s a bill rather than a purchase at a store?
Is this grounds for early termination?
Maybe this is for Verizon landline customers only?
There is no notification of this anywhere online when I sign into my Verizon Wireless account. Also, there is no notification of this on any of the last 3 bills I looked up.
And people wonder why I still pay my bills via the mail by checks.
Prepaid wireless FTW.
why did they choose a more expensive vendor ?
That is easy. Verizon privatized/sub contracted their electronic billing, so they will always be the good guy if you have billing problems. Most likely verizon is the parent company of the billing company, or verizon’s upper managment past or present is.
What the… If they start doing this to me, it’s back to postage and paper checks. I have a small-ish monthly bill, and one month it came with a “Pay Online!” insert. So I went to the website and started the process, only to notice there was a $5 convenience fee or something. So out came the checkbook. It costs less to process a payment online, I’m not sure why some companies have decided that it costs more.
I get a paper bill in the mail from verizon, pay it with a personal check, no fee except postage. All my bills are payed by check . I would also bet that the paper billing cost verizon much more than electronic billing. People set themselves up for these fees by going electronic.
PS. I have my checking and do all business through a credit union for the past 26 years. I only pay for the cost of the checks, never had any problems with things being screwed up, and they are more than glad to give me a loan anytime I needed it. Anyone who still does business with a bank needs therapy.
This appears not to apply to Verizon Wireless.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I sure am happy that I’ve gone prepaid. I get my $100 cards every 4-7 months when I just happen to be passing by the brand’s store on other errands and I never have to bother with any fees, taxes, or other crap. Just my 10 cents a minute and 5 or 10 cents per text, usually around 100-150 minutes and 30-50 SMS volleys.
This pertains Verizon Communications, not Verizon Wireless. Why is there a picture of a cellphone and why is this article tagged with the tag “CELLPHONES”? Quite a bit misleading, if you ask me.
How about we organize a month or two where nobody pays their damn bill and see how they like that.
I pay my FIOS through my bank but it’s not autobilled. I assume since it’s not a credit card or my debit card, just my bank account number that I will not be subject to this BS profit grabbing fee correct?
I simply have auto-payment from my online checking so they get an electronic check. No cards involved.
And the post office doesnt care if they’re urine soaked so long as the package doesnt leak!
http://consumerist.com/2009/03/no-you-should-not-pay-your-206-speeding-ticket-with-urine-soaked-coins.html
This is just like “paperless billing”, a complete scam.
I love how they present paperless billing as being environmentally friendly and saving paper. While it may save paper, I’ll bet it also saves that company tons of cash in postage (yet not one customer will ever see any of it)!
October 16? Nonsense! I got charged this fee when I paid my bill yesterday over the phone. When I tried to pay through their website, there was no fee but they were going to hold the payment for three days! (This is my first billing cycle with Verizon, so this is all new to me.) I have FiOS for TV & Internet. My cell phones are with Sprint, and they have never charged me a dime for any payment method.
seeing something similar in our company. our cc provider has jacked a lot of rates so a lot of things had to be modified to minimize impact.
Maybe I’m old-fashioned but I like getting bills in the mail and paying by check. Look Ma, no autopay fees!
Also, I never use checks for anything but paying rent, bills, etc, so I still have my same checks from when I opened the account in 2007. At this rate, I’ll have used them up by 2013!
Verizon’s FiOS portal has been unquestionably awful for me since we signed up. The service is spectacular, but the customer service is without a doubt ridiculous. There’s no way to scale back services without calling. Calling results in a 1hr + hold time for anything. So, our house has 3 TV’s but we’ve opted to scale back to 2, can’t do it. We’ve tried online, but no. Every time I go to return a box, the form has an expectation that you’re not returning something without buying something to replace it, which is moronic.
And calling is the biggest hassle of all. I can’t use their cryptically slow site (ironic considering how fast and reliable my connection is) so I must call. 1hr + wait and I HAVE to call during work hours, because their customer support and billing departments are ONLY available from 9am to 5pm. What the hell guys?
Per Visa’s merchant rules: “Always treat Visa transactions like any other transaction; that is, you may not impose any surcharge on a Visa transaction. You may, however, offer a discount for cash transactions, provided that the offer is clearly disclosed to customers and the cash price is presented as a discount from the standard price charged for all other forms of payment.”
Per Mastercard’s merchant rules: “A Merchant must not directly or indirectly require any Cardholder to pay a surcharge or any part of any Merchant discount or any contemporaneous finance charge in connection with a Transaction. A Merchant may provide a discount to its customers for cash payments. A Merchant is permitted to charge a fee (such as a bona fide commission, postage, expedited service or convenience fees, and the like) if the fee is imposed on all like transactions regardless of the form of payment used, or as the Corporation has expressly permitted in writing.”
Why do I have to set up for auto-billing? Old fashioned checks or having the money automatically transferred from my checking account no longer work?
You have to because Verizon came up with a lie whose veracity you cannot verify. Also because fuck you, give me your money.
This is crap… I pay my mortgage, car insurance, home owner insurance, electric, cable and car payments all online and the only one that doesn’t charge me a fee is my electric company. These fees range from $3 to $10.
They’re passing the lack of savings back on to you, and their new vendor is passing part of the lack of savings back to Verizon.
This is Bill Kula with Verizon media relations and an update on this topic I provided over our @verizon Twitter handle last week:
The proposed pilot test of a $3.50 per month fee for FiOS Internet and FiOS TV customers only without phone service from Verizon, and who live in California, Texas and Florida only, and who pay their bill via a credit card was scheduled to have begun on Saturday, Oct.16, but was not implemented as planned.
Verizon has communicated this update to customers who fit the criteria of the proposed test. For now, we’re evaluating the program before taking any further action.
I’m at william.kula@verizon.com. — Bill Kula, APR, Director of Media Relations, Verizon Communications Inc.