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Verizon Wireless Confirms $2 Fee for Making One-Time Payments

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Why I Won't AutoPay or allow ACH

Reighvin

Dec 29, 2011, 3:34 PM
This is just Verizon's way of "passing the buck". They have to pay a fee in order to accept credit cards, and are passing that fee on to the consumer. That is wrong. In fact, both Mastercard and Visa have in their merchant contracts that they can offer a discount for cash, but can not charge a fee to use a credit card. (http://www.merchantcouncil.org/merchant-acco unt/operation/pass-fee-customer.php) I'm sure Verizon will get around this by making sure they call it something else since you don't get charged a surcharge for paying by credit card in person.

So my choices are Auto-Pay or ACH, neither of which is something I will do. I prefer to know ever bill that comes through and pay for it myself, when I want to. If something has caused m...
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yarmock

Dec 29, 2011, 3:48 PM
There are other options if you read the article again, its confusing but there are more scenarios where they dont charge the fee. You can always pay on your own from your banks site, for example I have Chase, so you can just make payments whenever from chase.com and its free of charge.
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HawkeyeOC

Dec 29, 2011, 4:32 PM
yarmock said:
There are other options if you read the article again, its confusing but there are more scenarios where they dont charge the fee. You can always pay on your own from your banks site, for example I have Chase, so you can just make payments whenever from chase.com and its free of charge.


This is what I do. Pay it from your bank's site. Save time and hasten the demise of the USPS a little more. There are a lot of options here.
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Versed

Dec 29, 2011, 10:53 PM
Tell me, whats the difference if I pay though my checking account on VZW OWN FRIGGIN SITE, or me using my banks site to right the same check from the same account. I'm not using any credit card. This is insane and a ripoff.
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HawkeyeOC

Dec 30, 2011, 1:12 AM
Versed said:
Tell me, whats the difference if I pay though my checking account on VZW OWN FRIGGIN SITE, or me using my banks site to right the same check from the same account. I'm not using any credit card. This is insane and a ripoff.


There is no difference. The article says you aren't charged using either of those two methods.

"Verizon said that the fee will be waived in a number of circumstances, including: electronic checks sent through My Verizon Online, My Verizon Mobile,..."
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Rich Brome

Dec 29, 2011, 4:18 PM
You can pay your bills via ACH from your bank's web site, and then it's just an electronic check. That's how I pay all of my bills.

There doesn't need to be anything automatic. You can receive a paper bill, examine it for any billing errors, then go into your bank's online bill payment tool, and schedule a payment for the exact date and amount you choose. You have full control and you're not handing any extra info to the biller (Verizon.) It's just an electronic check. It's much faster and easier than writing a paper check, without losing any control.
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yarmock

Dec 29, 2011, 4:19 PM
Exactly. Thank you Rich.
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Jayshmay

Dec 29, 2011, 6:44 PM
I'm trying to understand this. Most companies ONLY charge for paying over the phone with a customer service rep. I make my payments by dialing 611 from my handset, follow the prompts over the automated system, and make my payment using my debit card.

Does this apply to my payment method?
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Anxiovert

Dec 29, 2011, 9:16 PM
It sounds like it does, since you're paying by "telephone"
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Jayshmay

Dec 29, 2011, 9:19 PM
Are you a Vzn rep?
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Versed

Dec 29, 2011, 10:55 PM
RIch, Again, whats the difference between using vzw's site with my checking account, or my banks site. Please there is no justification for a normal business expense.
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Globhead

Dec 29, 2011, 6:27 PM
Reighvin said:
This is just Verizon's way of "passing the buck". They have to pay a fee in order to accept credit cards, and are passing that fee on to the consumer. That is wrong.


I don't think your description is entirely accurate (it seems to be an issue of making a payment via a voice call and/or not setting up automatic payments, not about whether or not a credit card is used).

Regardless, the major premise of your statement, that it is wrong for a carrier to pass fees on to their customers, doesn't make sense as a rule. Costs MUST be passed on to the customer. That's why our phone bills are not $0.

Maybe you could argue that everyone should share in the costs of payment processing equally, ev...
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Reighvin

Dec 29, 2011, 7:06 PM
Merchants choose to accept credit cards as a matter of convenience for the customer. To do so, they have to accept the Terms Of Service set by the credit card companies. As such, they are not allowed by both Mastercard and Visa from charging more or fees for using a credit card, but they can give a cash discount. They are essentially charging me a fee to use my credit card to pay for my service. This is done so that consumers will USE their cards. If every merchant decided to pass on the fee's to the consumer, people would go back to cash and checks more often. That is what the card companies do not want to happen.
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Globhead

Dec 29, 2011, 7:36 PM
But those are just rules made up by the credit card company. That could be a legal argument, but not a blanket "that is wrong".

And again, it is not based on credit cards entirely, it is based on how the payment is initiated.
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Versed

Dec 29, 2011, 10:58 PM
Actually thats not really true, I've seen cash and credit prices at gas stations, I also don't go to them, and don't feel one bit bad when one of them goes out of business.
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