• Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    9 months ago

    How about fucking “convenience fees” when I do shit like pay my fucking rent?

    Always real “convenient” that there’s a charge for paying your bills.

    • KoboldCoterie@pawb.social
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      9 months ago

      We used to pay our rent in 15-20 installments, one every day or two. The office of the apartment building we lived in was on the way to our apartment, so it wasn’t any inconvenience for us to just drop a check in their drop box when we passed by, but I like to think it was mildly irritating for them to have to deal with the book-keeping. They asked us not to on multiple occasions but their only online option had a small “convenience charge” attached, so… No, thank you. I’d be happy to use it if they paid me a “convenience fee” for not making them process 20 checks every month.

      • mipadaitu@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        That sounds like a nightmare for bookkeeping… I’m not sure if it’s genius, evil, or both.
        How did you keep track of which checks were cashed, and which ones were pending???

        • KoboldCoterie@pawb.social
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          9 months ago

          Our bank had a really nice web interface for that. We could just go to the website and see all of the checks, the amounts, and the dates they were cashed, and we weren’t using checks for any other purpose, so there wasn’t anything else diluting the list. They could have made it a hassle for us by selectively “losing” some occasionally, I suppose, but they never did.

            • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              So my bank will mail a check for me, on my end it’s similar to setting up a transfer. I know WFH and BoA also offer this, so I assume it’s common.

              This method also means they have to open an envelope.

    • pixelscript
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      9 months ago

      Maybe you do know, but in case you don’t, the “convenience fee” is (usually) just the price the vendor has to pay to process a credit card transaction. Because in order to accept credit cards as payment in the first place, they have to pay the credit card network for the privilege.

      Providing the exact same service to you is more expensive for them based entirely on the method you use to pay. You bet they’re going to pass that extra expense onto you. The alternative is raising their service charge to eat the cost and screwing over people who pay with check or cash. Which is what most retail stores tend to do.

      Though, I agree, I’d rather they just do the fucking math and charge a rate that covers their operating expenses. It’s shouldn’t be my problem to pay their itemized expenses. Just know that if they did so, we’ll be charged the same total either way.

      It’s a similar argument with tipping culture. “Oh, you have to tip, employees rely on it to make ends meet!” Sure, but why is that my problem? If the business can’t create a business model that properly pays for the expenses it needs to function, they should go out of business. Raise prices. I’ll pay the same as the tip, fine, just stop playing these frivilous smoke and mirror games with my bill.

      • bleachisback@programming.dev
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        9 months ago

        We have a flat $5 convenience fee added on to our rent regardless of using credit card or bank transfer. Credit card gets and extra % fee on top of that.