# Companies making it damn near impossible to pay them without paying a fee for the pleasure! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 30, 2012, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-making-it-damn-near-impossible-to-pay-them-without-paying-a-fee-for-the-pleasure/626792 "2012-06-30T09:45:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-making-it-damn-near-impossible-to-pay-them-without-paying-a-fee-for-the-pleasure/626792/61 "2012-07-12T13:17:52Z")
> [@grude](#): > > It isn’t the postal service that is fucking things up, it is the unethical companies. Did everyone not see where once it took three weeks from mailing date for a payment to be applied? Sometimes they don’t even apply it at all, the check is never cashed and they claim it wasn’t received. > > I had a bright idea one time to send it registered with sig confirmation, it got returned they weren’t going to fall for that:smack: > > Again unethical companies are purposefully being incompetent to either get the make payment fee, or the late fee out of you. It seems like their main income stream are these fees! They refused a payment that you sent via certified mail? I’m sure there’s a government agency out there that would be very interested in knowing that. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-making-it-damn-near-impossible-to-pay-them-without-paying-a-fee-for-the-pleasure/626792/62 "2012-07-12T13:22:14Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > They refused a payment that you sent via certified mail? I’m sure there’s a government agency out there that would be very interested in knowing that. No one was authorized to sign for it on behalf of the company was what we got. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-making-it-damn-near-impossible-to-pay-them-without-paying-a-fee-for-the-pleasure/626792/63 "2012-07-12T15:18:53Z")
My daughter’s college will not accept calls from parents re students’ accounts because some privacy law. So I got my daughter’s username and password, logged on, and tried to set up a payment plan, since they offered it for no interest. Finally found the right page, but it didn’t allow you to change the number of payments, which was pre-set for “1” and 100% due 7/31. Gee, thanks. Tried to log on again this morning, and I keep getting an error message. Changed the password, got an email confirmation saying my password was changed, tried to log on again, and voila! Error message. And, of course, I can’t call because I’m not the student. I’ve never had so much trouble trying to pay a bill in my life. ---
**Author:** ![ScarletNumber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@ScarletNumber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ScarletNumber)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-making-it-damn-near-impossible-to-pay-them-without-paying-a-fee-for-the-pleasure/626792/64 "2012-07-12T15:33:44Z")
> [@punditlisa](#): > > my daughter’s college will not accept calls from parents re students’ accounts because some privacy law. ferpa ---
**Author:** ![ScarletNumber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@ScarletNumber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ScarletNumber)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2012, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-making-it-damn-near-impossible-to-pay-them-without-paying-a-fee-for-the-pleasure/626792/65 "2012-07-12T15:42:19Z")
> [@cmosdes](#): > > Interest rates are hanging out around 1% to 3% these days. If they had $10,000 in savings and earned 3%, the difference in return between quarterly and monthly compounding is maybe $200 after a year. Sure, that isn’t just a couple of dollars, but it isn’t really “a big difference” compared with $10,000 principal. And good luck finding a credit union paying 3% on $10k. The difference between yearly compounding and continuous compounding on $10000 @ 3% is $4.55 Yearly: $10300 Quarterly: $10303.39 Monthly: $10304.16 Continuously: $10304.55 In other words, 3% as an APY of 3.05%. No big whoop. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-making-it-damn-near-impossible-to-pay-them-without-paying-a-fee-for-the-pleasure/626792/66 "2012-07-13T00:39:27Z")
> [@ScarletNumber](#): > > ferpa Excuse you. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-making-it-damn-near-impossible-to-pay-them-without-paying-a-fee-for-the-pleasure/626792/67 "2012-07-13T13:10:52Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > My daughter’s college will not accept calls from parents re students’ accounts because some privacy law. Does that mean they won’t come after you if the tuition isn’t paid? (Hah!) ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-making-it-damn-near-impossible-to-pay-them-without-paying-a-fee-for-the-pleasure/626792/68 "2012-07-13T13:32:44Z")
No, it means the next step in the development of this kind of predatory capitalism, (beyond, ‘service fee’, as revenue stream), is to manipulate things such that you’ll be effectively unable to avoid the, ‘late fee’, etc. Followed or preceded by the fees being jacked. What people should be really irritated about is that they also pay for huge bureaucracies that are charged with consumer protection. Nearly every industry has some controlling body, plus a government oversight committee. We’re getting screwed regardless, we ought to at least save that money - what a waste! ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-making-it-damn-near-impossible-to-pay-them-without-paying-a-fee-for-the-pleasure/626792/69 "2012-07-13T13:42:23Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > My daughter’s college will not accept calls from parents re students’ accounts because some privacy law. One of the things the school had my son do at registration was fill out a form authorizing us to access his bill and grades. He can revoke it, of course (but then he’ll have to come up with the cash on his own). This is a pretty paternalistic Catholic school, of course. I don’t recall if the older son’s school did that or not. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2012, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-making-it-damn-near-impossible-to-pay-them-without-paying-a-fee-for-the-pleasure/626792/70 "2012-07-14T21:37:57Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Does that mean they won’t come after you if the tuition isn’t paid? (Hah!) I doubt they’d come after anyone for missed tuition. If the student lives in a dorm, they lock them out of their dorm. Their second recourse is to withhold credit for classes completed. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-making-it-damn-near-impossible-to-pay-them-without-paying-a-fee-for-the-pleasure/626792/71 "2012-07-15T03:27:12Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > One of the things the school had my son do at registration was fill out a form authorizing us to access his bill and grades. He can revoke it, of course (but then he’ll have to come up with the cash on his own). > > This is a pretty paternalistic Catholic school, of course. I don’t recall if the older son’s school did that or not. I went to a state school that both had a waiver students could sign giving their parents accress to billing information and/or grades. I just never told my parents that. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Dano83860](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a4c791/32.png) [@Dano83860](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dano83860)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2012, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-making-it-damn-near-impossible-to-pay-them-without-paying-a-fee-for-the-pleasure/626792/72 "2012-07-15T04:20:14Z")
What the hell am I doing wrong? My credit card is due on the tenth. I log in to my account and tell them to draft the payment from my bank on the first. My bills come in the mail and I log in to my bank account on Saturday and use their bill pay to have bank checks issued on Monday. No late fees or service fees of any kind. I must be the luckiest SOB alive. :rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/companies-making-it-damn-near-impossible-to-pay-them-without-paying-a-fee-for-the-pleasure/626792.md?page=3)