We here in California, land of constant bliss, are able to pay our vehicle registration online. “Fine” say’s I, who have gotten over my initial fear of internet financial transactions. But when I go to do so, I see they charge a $4.00 “convenience fee”. WTF? Doesn’t me paying online actually save them money in admin. costs? All the other folks who are after my money practically beg me to use billpay services.
What gives? Have I deluded myself? Has Arnold the Vague found another way screw me?
Peace,
mangeorge
Yes, this type of thing really grates.
In Australia (and most likely over your way too), most utilities and other billers have spent the last decade begging and pleading for us to have our bills direct debited from our bank accounts - the advantages to the biller are obvious. Now, they’ve gone one step further and some of them are placing a charge against customer accounts if the customer doesn’t apply for direct debit.
Nothing ever really changes though. All this does is remind me of the days when self-serve petrol/gas stations started up (to save wages), and we were told how “convenient” it was going to be for us.
My bank offers a “bill pay” service online. You tell who, what, and when to pay, and they take care of the rest.
For $5.95 per month.
For the 4-5 companies I pay online, I can go to their website and pay at no charge.
Yep. I’ve pulled this off successfully at three publishing houses.
We take the pub electronic, thereby eliminating two of out biggest expenses (paper and postage) then offer it to the subscribers at a premium price for the ‘convenience’ of the new media.
My record convenience fee was $750 per year.
Feel free to abuse me. I’ll be laughing on my way to the bank.
My company offers over-the-phone credit card payments for a $3.95 “convenience fee.” Yes, we actually have to tell customers it’s a “convenience fee.” It’s not really our fee; it’s what we’re charged by our payment processing vendor so we pass it on 100% to the customer. No one’s required to pay by phone with credit card so no one ever has to pay the fee. I don’t understand why anyone would throw money away if they don’t have to but it’s not my money so I really don’t care that much. Some customers grouse about it but those who grouse are usually the ones who have let the bill go for so long that if they don’t make a minimum payment they will have service disconnected, which means they will have to pay more of their balance to be reconnected and will also be charged a $25 reconnection fee.
All I ask of my fellow Dopers is that if you ever do find yourself speaking with a rep who tells you of a convenience fee, don’t say “that’s not very convenient.” Almost everyone says it and it’s not funny.
Otto, they’re not trying to make a joke. It’s not funny because it’s true. Might as well get used to it.
It’s $21.05 more convenient than the reconnect fee.
Nope. Online registration and the conventience fee have been around for at least a couple of years. I was going to register a vehicle online a couple of years ago, and was shocked that I was being asked to fork over $4 “for my convenience”. By last summer I had forgotten about it until I logged onto the DMV site again and was reminded. Bollocks to that. I’ll spend 37 cents on a stamp.
In any case; no, it’s not something The Governator came up with.
[sub]Not that it matters to me now, since I no longer live in CA and vehicle registration here is $30 instead of $130. 
[/sub]
Long ago, I learned one useful rule:
If someone says they’re doing something “for your convenience,” it means they are really doing it for their convenience. This is especially true if it involves a fee. 
There are many examples of this. Going back, the phone company used to charge more for a touch-tone phone even though it was cheaper for them to provide touch-tone than dial service.
I also see it with the IRS, who want people to file electronically, but require a charge for it if you make more than a basic amount (not to mention that you need to pay for the software in order to get your own money. :rolleyes: )
Used to? I’m looking at my Verizon local phone bill right now and I see $1.50 for “Touch Calling” in the “Optional Service Charges” category. The switches still support rotary/pulse dialing, but for them to pretend that is still the standard and charge everyone for using the “optional” feature of Touch-Tone dialing is just plain greed. I’ve often been tempted to get a rotary phone just to spite the bastards and save $1.50 a month($18 a year). It is far more likely that I’ll just cancel the phone alltogether and go with a cell phone though.
Enjoy,
Steven
We have the same “convenience fee” for auto registration in Ill.
Mtgman: We had the same phone thing the last place we lived and I refused to get touch tone service. You don’t have to get a rotary phone. You just need one that works with both systems and position the switch for rotary. You can’t even tell you don’t have digital touch tone until you use one of those voice message systems. When you encounter those you have to push # or something before entering your choice, or do what I did and just wait on line for a person.
The funny thing was the phone company used to call me every month to tell me how much more “convenient” touch tone dialing was and urge me to switch. I always asked politely if there was a charge for this service and politely declined when told there was. I think I was the last person in the region to maintain rotary phone service. They did finally stop charging for the touch tone service when they decided to eliminate rotary dialing because it cost them more, hehehe.
I did not know that anyone even still had rotary style dial phones…
On my last car loan, if i wanted to pay online they would charge me 3.50 for the “convenience” of paying online. But I had to regularly pay online because they would never send me my statement ontime (I would get the statement 4 days before the payment was due) And I got charged if I did not send in the payment with their statment form in their envelope :eek: Friggin sheisters.
Anyway, now I have a new car and can pay directly online for free thank you Honda
I know he didn’t do it, Johnny. I was semi-kidding. For some reason I want to blame everything negative on him.
I also paid my $0.37, and mailed it in. I’m writing a letter or two, for all the good it’ll do.If we all would do the same they might drop the fee and still come out ahead.
So how is it up there? As good as you expected, I hope.
To each his own, I say. 
Back in the late sixties I did brake jobs (and other stuff) for a living. We charged more for disk brakes, even though they were easier than drum brakes. All service stations and shops did. My boss was a fanatic about honesty, and never sold a service that wasn’t needed. For one of us to do so was grounds for termination. But the price wasn’t based on difficulty.
Whatever the market will bear, huh?
This is not new, remember ATM’s (MACS, Time, etc…)? They were supposed to replace tellers to save costs, and make it something quick and convenient for customers. Now some places charge anywhere from $1.00 to $3.00 for convenience. Shouldn’t banks take on these these costs? They’re already making money by people having money invested in them with savings accounts, and didn’t they save money by laying off tellers? Such, such BS.
You are paying for the freed up time, the time that one would have taken to find a stamp and putting the paid bill in the nearest mailbox. Or traveling to the nearest bank. How much is the time saved worth to you? if you don’t think time is important, look at The Apprentice, where deals, that usually takes weeks to prepare and seal, have to be done in hours, from concept to handshake.
Is this pay direct through your bank account (EFT) or is it through a credit card. I can understand extra fees to use the credit card – it costs them money to let you use it, and logically why should they pay for something that is really only your “convenience”?
OTOH, account transfers cost almost nothing to process. Less than check processing costs in most cases.
The manner of payment makes no difference. “They” solicit the exchange. It’s up to me to give up the four bucks or not. They choose to call it a convenience fee, not the customers.
And capacitor, I know you’re kidding, but my time isn’t theirs to sell. To me or to anyone else.
I just finished reading an article in the Reader’s Digest (Christmas present) about this very subject. Since companies can’t raise prices because they will lose business to competitors, they “fee” us to death. Recently, I bought something in Canada (I live just over the border) like I’ve done many times, and was surprised to see a fee for converting CAD to USD. My telephone company is now charging me for it’s expense in allowing it’s customers to keep the same phone number. My daughter-in-law had to pay 12.50 for the convenience of making a payment on her car over the phone. My bank charges me 3.00 for making a deposit into my checking account (so I deposit it into savings and transfer it to checking). I pay 5.95 a month for online banking, but according to this article a lot of banks have dropped this because they found they actually get more customers when it’s free. The most ridiculous situation is when you can’t get your own money out of the bank without paying a fee. Once I paid three fees at an ATM because I was away from a Key bank. Of course you can still go inside a bank and get a cash withdrawal on your debit card, so that’s what I do now. Oh, and don’t let me forget when Key decided that I had to pay a fee everytime I used my debit card; so I started using it as a credit card and letting the merchant pay the fee. Well, it goes on and on…interesting article.