New York – Verizon Wireless, the country’s largest cellphone company, is introducing a $2 fee for every payment subscribers make over the phone or online with their credit cards.
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The company says this “convenience fee” will be introduced Jan. 15.
The fee won’t apply to electronic check payments or to automatic credit card payments set up through Verizon’s AutoPay system. Paying by credit card in a Verizon store will also be free, as will mailing a check.
Other carriers have tried to get subscribers to move to automatic payments through other means. AT&T Inc. offers a $10 gift card for those who set up AutoPay. Sprint Nextel Corp. charges subscribers who have caps on the fees they can rack up each month. Those people are charged $5 monthly unless they set up autopay.
What a disgrace…
Of course they want auto pay so that they can yank the false overcharges they routinely add to the fixed monthly service charge, out of your acount and hold them in their pocket while you argue for a refund, they have your charge. Stats show that 10% of all pre authorized payments over charching go unchecked, which means millions of dollars for Verizon in extra revenue income.
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER go on auto-debit for anything, including cell ;phone, cable, tv bills, car insurance, etc. Ask three friends, and two will tell you horror stories of overcharging and months spent trying to get refunded. In this day and age when every penny counts, a phone company charging your monthly bill of $75 three times in one month “by mistake”, and then waiting 5 months for the refund can break the bank.
Feel free to mail in a check, or walk into any verizon store. I say all Verizon customers take the time out to go into the stores to pay and overwhelm the staff, thus causing them to lose new customers. It’s the only way Verizon will be forced to cancel this “convenience” fee. Remember BOA’s $5 debit card fee?
Verizon claims they have to charge this to cover the cost of credit card processing. True, that is a legitimate cost, but a business rolls all costs into the fee they charge for their service. So when they charge you $100 a month for cell service, that includes their costs, including credit card processing. What will they say next, a $5 fee to cover their electricity bill?
Better yet, come to grips with the fact that over a 2 year contract, you are giving Verizon nearly $3,000!! Thats insanity. Unless you are wealthy or have an absolute need for business, you are literally throwing away money, nearly a year’s tuition in some yeshivahs. For what? So you can update your facebook status while sitting in a porta-potty in time square?
I have a prepaid plan that cost me $10 for three months of service. Thats $3.33 a month! I pay 10 cents per minute and 2 cents per text, and never go over.
I went through a crazy budget “spring cleaning” about a year ago. I got rid of the following:
Cell phone – Savings $1200 a year
Cable TV – Savings $1400 a year
Sat. Radio – Savings $200 a year
Gym – Savings $750 a year
Switched credit card balances to lower interest cards – savings $800 a year
Became a coupon crazy – Savings $2000 a year!!
TOTAL ANNUAL SAVINGS: $6350!!
My life is no worse, in fact its much better. I have a $3 cell phone plan, I go running outside for exercise and do pushups, and I am no longer living pay check to pay check.
Ripoff, I am cancelling my Verizon account today.
just put it on your credit card monthly. dont be a deadbeat.
If something is wrong you will argue for months to get your money back!! With interest!!
And I save money the following way
I never had a cable TV-1200$ a year
Never had a sat.radio-200$ a year
I signed up in the gym, I spent 500$ a year and save ten of thousands on doctors
I borrowed money from GMaCH and paid off all my credit card and now pay a low monthly payment to pay it off without percentage
Total saving 12000$ a year
It would be interesting if Verizon Wireless has just had a hand in saving the US Post Office from having to close down so many postal stations, what with the very possible future resurgence in mailing payments….especially if Verizon follows it’s wireless division’s example, and of course, Fios.
I know I won’t enroll in any auto payment plan. Time to start ordering checks again.