I just got a bill from AT&T for -get this- $0.66. I can understand they want to collect on their accounts, but I never even signed up with these yahoos. Isn’t there some ‘slush fund’ where big companies can roll over the $0.01 - 0.25 charges instead of wasting the stamp?
I just wanted to know, and I just wanted to start a new thread. It’s sunday and I’m kinda bored. The topic: Rediculously low bills, the cost of the company to mail them, and your cost to mail 'em a check back. Discuss.
I don’t have any ridiculously low bills to contribute, but how about asinine payment amounts?
I have a piece of a piece of a piece et cetera of oil company shares. I’ve quite often gotten checks for as little as a penny. Even when the check is up towards $1.00, the postage on the package (with all of the accounting details) is usually close to three times the amount of the check.
Evidently I’m not the only one that doesn’t bother to get these to the bank…recently they’ve included letters begging everyone to cash their checks because the books are getting mucked.
:rolleyes:
BTW - have you ever tried to cash a check for a penny? I can say from experience that bank tellers don’t appreciate it!
Funny you should ask. I just got two bills in the mail on Friday from Qwest. One for $28+ and another for eight cents. The bills were both were made out on the same day. Why they didn’t just add the eight cents to the larger bill is beyond me.
I often get dividend checks for 22-32 cents each, every quater. The problem I have with them is cashing them at the bank. Since my parents are also listed on the checks, the bank usually gives me a hard time for not having their signatures (they live about 7 states away). Like I am going to embezzle money 22 cents at a time.
I was once billed for two cents. Reason: my total long-distance phone bill for that month was a dime. I mailed them a check, but apparently I missed the due-by date. So, the next month I was penalized for a percentage of the ‘delinquent amount’, minus what I’d paid, which added up to two cents.
For my second payment on my new mortgage, I misread a 9 as a 5 in the amount and underpaid by … 40 cents. I got a bitchy letter from the loan company (signed no less) demanding the fourty cents post-haste or horrible things would happen. :mad: I sent the payment back to them with a letter stating that I expected better service than this and if something like this happened again, I would find a new loan company.
They once billed me 26 cents after I switched long distance companies. Of course I threw the bill away. The next month I got another bill for 27 cents. I guess they included a late charge. Of course I threw that bill away too. Let them put 27 cents on my credit report! Like I care. I was not going to write a check for 27 cents and then put a 33 cent stamp on it.
The third month I got another bill and a letter about how they were going to begin collection proceedings.
I mailed them a quarter and a nickel and told them to keep the change.
Only last month I received a credit card bill for 12 cents (which if you converted it to $US atm would be… shudder)
I have a friend who overpaid an account once and received a cheque for 1c from the bank. He framed it and hung it on his bedroom wall.
I made my last mortgage payment a couple of months ago but my last reciept still showed a balance of one dollar. They explained that this was necessary to keep my file open on the computer till they finished all the paperwork, deed of trust etc., and told me to ignore it.
Sure enough, the next month, I got a notice that my payment of one dollar was overdue and they were adding a twenty dollar late fee, please remit $21 immediately. They took care of it and apoligized, but sheesh.
If I ever recieve a bill for less than $1 (or if I’m just really really mad) I am going to pay for it using nothing but pennies, just to piss the person off (or confuse them.)
from my cable company after I had stopped using them. For a 4 month timeframe I consistently was ordered to pay 0.00
And they even sent me a letter saying that they were going to send my ‘overdue’ owings to their collection agency and that it would have a negative effect on my credit history.
This got me pissed so I called them and explained the situation. They gave me a “ha ha you do not have to pay the bill and we will take care of it.”
Next month…00.00 now 4 months overdue.
So…I splurged. Wrote a check for 0.00, signed it, took it to a Fed Ex place and mailed it priority overnight along with the copy of the new bill and a note to ‘Eat me and the interest’.
Obviously, Mississippi Valley Gas never had the idea that someone would use so little Natural Gas during a month, that…
Well, it was July, early 90’s. We are making sandwitches, and otherwise avoiding turning on the Oven (no microwave, yet). So, at the end of the month, we get the bill. 4.86 cents. Then comes the credit, in the amount of $5 bucks. Which leaves us owning .16 cents. Due by 7th of next month.
