1. From small home security firms and heating oil delivery services to major telecom providers, a growing number of companies are charging "manual billing" fees for sending paper bills and statements, sometimes up to $3.50 a month. Sign up for e-mail billing or check your statements online instead, and save up to $42 a year.
14. Banks charge $10 to $38 for overdrafts, with the median about $27, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data says. These fees are getting more common as debit card use grows. So be keep your account register current, and be mindful of debit card spending, ATM withdrawals and any automatic payments that you have set up
18. Pay your bill late and expect to get socked with a fee of $30 or even $45. If you're prone to forgetting the due date, set up an automatic payment through your bank account.
19. Rather than decline a purchase, credit card issuers now are just as likely to allow you to go over your limit and charge you a fee, typically about $35, says Adam Levin, chairman and founder of Credit.com. You'll get charged even if you're just a few cents over your limit, and even if it's something like a late payment fee that puts you there.
The last three are pretty much iterations of a basic principle: "check your bank statements every once in a while." It doesn't take that much time to go online every couple days and check your balance, see when your payment is due, and make a payment if it is.
The whole list is full of useful tips, and is worth checking out in its entirety.
Aim that Rage Against the Corporate Fee Machine [AP, via U.S. PIRG Consumer Blog]
(Photo: frankieleon)
CSR said he would only be able to take off $14. We persisted. Finally got them to drop the charge, then got lectured on not being late. They told us they'll only take off one late charge per year.
This scam has got to stop.
]]>You mean, if I monitor my debit card usage, I'll avoid overdraft fees?? I'm so glad you link to this article, I'd have never known!!!
]]>i recently got medieval on my wireless provider's ass when they charged me a $35 selling fee when I bought a $300 phone, unbeknownst to me until i received my monthly statement. I threatened to charge them with credit card fraud and they dropped it.
]]>I don't like using the autopay on my credit cards since the amount is variable and they are the accounts most likely to get compromised. If somebody fraudulently maxed one of my cards out and it slipped by in autopay, it would overdraw my checking account. I've screwed up once transferring money to the wrong account and got nailed with overdrafts before I found out what happened. Don't want to repeat that again!
]]>Go green is their way of saying "more money for us".
Remember when banks used the Paperwork reduction act to not mail you your checks anymore? What did they do? They mailed you photocopies of your checks that used up more paper than if they just mailed you your checks. It was their way of saving money on processing and of course the savings were not passed on to the consumer.
]]>I only use it to receive the bill, I don't auto pay, but if you centralize it somewhere it's a lot easier to manage and you don't have to worry about a company randomly drawing from your accounts, you just have to worry about your bill being inaccurate or you bank giving your money away.
]]>Express Fee: for us to actually process your fee when you pay it online rather than wait a few days for no good reason.
Customer Service Fee:(for calling customer service) Because it wasn't enough that you had to deal with our underpaid, undertrained customer service phone jockeys...
I think I actually got a fee once for declining a service in a bundle.
I didn't want the land line so instead of paying the 25 a month for it ($10 for the service and $15 for "taxes and fees") they made me pay $5 a month extra and delineated it on the bill.
]]>Those convenience fees annoy the crap out of me - I'd love to put it all on Discover and get 1% cashback on utilities. And if I could put my mortgage on it... :-)
]]>I asked about it with PNC and they said that they have a feature but it would cost me like $20 a year and they would still charge $30 every time it happened. Why would I do that when they have the $36 overdraft "Feature" for free, especially when I haven't overdrawn in a year. (I was inquiring just to CYA in case something were to happen)
]]>I found out you can have Capital One remove the ability to go over the limit. Appearantly when you sign up you also agree to a service that allows them to accept charges that exceed your credit limit.
]]>@Eldritch: Well, there is a way to actually balance your checkbook and not spend more money than what you have.
]]>Side note, my credit line on my BoA CC just got cut in half; when I called they said it is due to the economy and they are reevaluating the amount of credit that they're giving out; the guy basically admitted that they had been irresponsibly giving people way too large of credit lines when the economy was booming.
]]>Simply unbelieveable - companies that do this oughta be put out of business. My internet company Casair (small co in central Michigan) has the audacity to charge a few bucks for mailing out a paper bill, but then again these are a bunch of clueless techies with their head in the clouds, no idea how to run a business, and an even worse sense of customer service or answering phones. I can't freaking wait til my contract is up with them, it's nothing but greed and complete obliviousness when companies try to nickel & dime their customers like this.
]]>Consumerist could do whatever the hell they want, this is their site.
]]>However, most people don't keep this in mind - OD fees are typically created when transactions POST, not when the charge is authorized. So, you may have the balance available when you swipe the card, but it may not be there when the charge posts. A few banks are now charging fees if the balance is not there upon authorization, but by and large it is still when the charge posts.
As someone who has worked in the financial services industry for 12 years, I can tell you the best way to avoid NSF and OD fees is to keep a transaction register, reconcile your account regularly, and spend according to your balance, not what the ATM or automated service tells you. Relying on a zero OD matrix is not the answer.
]]>my favorite part was when the representative said they made a little oopsy. lady, my bill is <$50. if a $550 error is a "little oopsy", i'd hate to see what you folks call a big oopsy.
bill payer is free or super-cheap at most institutions these days...i started using that. i can set email reminders when i get near due dates, establish auto-payments from my end so the death star doesn't vaporize my checking account at their whim & even review more than a year's worth of payments (which makes budgeting a breeze). that's what i'd recommend.
]]>Since I use the internet to pay each month I do not get hit with that bogus charge but the people who do not have internet access and do not trust Comcast to automatically charge their card are stuck paying.
I'm not sure how things will go (hell, Comcast might even try charging that "convenience fee" for internet payments after reading my complaint) but if they do they will have one less customer. In addition I might seek out a law firm who specializes in class-action lawsuits.
]]>The credit union is Verity, formerly Northwest Federal Credit Union.
]]>The only autopay I have is Netflix. So far, so good.
]]>I have that on my desktop but I never update it. What I need is to put it on my laptop (which is now my primary computer) and make GREAT BIG reminders!
]]>Of course, these fees may be combined.
]]>Second thought, I'll buy the feathers too.
]]>@James Sumners: I use a Mac, and have to jump through hoops to run Quicken 2007 on it. I've been looking at getting Moneydance when my online support "sunsets" next year. I liked the demo.
]]>Put your receipts into your wallet every day, and, when you get home at night, put them into Money/Quicken/Mint/Excel/Calc/checkbook-register/whatever.
There is no bad system as long as there is a true system that is better than "Well, I check my balance every day."
Not good enough. When are people going to get it?
It's not the bank's job to keep track of your balance. It's their job to keep an accurate balance only as much as they can track your valid payables, which you are obligated to do on your own.
]]>@Eldritch:
I can't see any rational reason to ever pay for anything with either a check or debit card. I pay for everything with a credit card, in my case one that gives me cash back, and then I pay off the credit card every month, so no interest fees. That way I also have the credit card company backing me up on every purchase I make, so when a retailer/PayPal/whatever tries to dick with me, eventually I can just ask for a chargeback and that's the end of it. It is vastly too easy to get screwed over when you use cash/debit. Not worth it in any sense.
]]>mint.com does more than quicken and ms money and does it for free. I'd highly recommend it -- I've been using it for almost 2 years. It catalogs everything. Credit, Checking, Savings, CDs, investment accounts, IRAs, 401ks, Asset management, everything.
]]>Exactly. Can you imagine if every time you went to a retail store they charged you a couple of dollars for ringing up your purchase and counting out the cash?
]]>I do that too. The ones that are due at the end of the month (beginning of next month) I never have a problem, but I have three that come at other points in the month and it messes with me.
]]>@unpolloloco: See #19 - This happened to me with my Capital One card, and I got hit with a $35 overlimit fee.
]]>@Yossarian: Yeah, "high interest" is pretty laughable these days. I think my HSBC savings is down to about 1.5% these days. The more money I put in, the lower the rate goes.
Oh well, it still beats the ~0.25% I'd get walking into a local bank.
]]>@Xerloq: So, what other options exist? Either they spend the postage and paper to send you a paper bill or they email a notification about the bill being ready for review. And they charge you for that email notification message? Yikes!
Can you select "please phone me at 2am to tell me the amount"? That way you just mail them a paper check (minus your fee for a 'convenience check').
And how about letting us know the name of that enlightened company?
@captadam: I think the fact that you've even heard of OpenOffice might already be evidence of your geekdom. (Did I spell that right?)
]]>I am absolutely sick of any billing fees to begin with. It's completely asinine -- though I understand that there is a cost associated with billing people (paper or electronic) and then processing the payments -- how else do they expect to get their money? It's a cost of doing business for companies, and it should just be built into their normal revenue streams.
But no, they charge a separate fee for the billing, and then raise our rates anyway (not just talking about utilities here).
]]>Maybe ticketmaster runs your gas company.
]]>I haven't missed a payment or come close to over-drawing my checking account since I started with that method, and I don't need to keep my register balanced.
@Yossarian: Having 10 variable-amount-and-time debits to my checking account every month would make it difficult for me to keep a running balance. (I added the "-and-time" part because some of my bills are on a monthly cycle, others on a 28-day cycle, and others seem a little less predictable).
]]>I prefer to avoid direct debits from my checking account on principle and have them go on my credit card instead when possible, but a couple of places still won't charge a credit card.
]]>To anyone having trouble balancing their checkbook or keeping on a budget: Buy a money management program (such as Quicken). It'll be the best ~$50 you've ever spent.
Be diligent about updating your transactions. Be strict in following a reasonable budget. These things can be done without spending money on the software, but programs like Quicken make it easy. (And dare I say, fun?)
Most any brand of money management software will do, just give it a shot. I probably wouldn't have become as financially responsible as I am without trying it.
]]>@ScottRose: I hate auto-debit for the same reason - so instead I set up recurring reminders on my work calendar/blackberry to remind me 48 and 24 hours before the due date for every one of my bills. That way I can't forget but I don't have to deal with the auto-debit mess.
]]>I believe some banks allow you to opt out, but most don't
]]>However for my credit cards I have auto-debits set up for the monthly minimum + a few bucks (I use $50). I go into my account and pay the full amount online, but this way I can't get socked with a late-payment fee because at least the minimum is always covered.
(End 2 cents communication).
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