This will apply to all bill payments online, IVR (interactive voice response system through phone), and phone rep that isn't via electronic check (ACH). You're not effected if you are enrolled in autopay or still mail your payments (cavemen). Looks like they're looking to top Bank of America. http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/28/2667541/verizon-2-00-convenience-fee-for-bill Verizon has been on a roll this month. Release the Galaxy Nexus a month later than other regions, add their own bloatware to a Nexus phone and not support Google Wallet, three nationwide data service outages for the month, and there's still 2 days in the month left.
The worst part is that even though ATT is a separate company, it'll probably monitor how Verizon handles this and may eventually have a similar fee in the future.
No wonder that jackass from Verison was trying to pester me into signing a 2-year contract a month or so ago. Expletives were involved by the time our conversation ended, and I didn't even know about this crap. They evidently had big plans to screw me over long-term far beyond just giving me crappy service. How is Verizon's competition these days? Seems like a good time to switch. I'm getting so sick of this type of thing.
Verizon and ATT are the top dogs by an extremely large margin. As far as they see the mobile market, they are the only competitors to each other. They don't even consider Sprint or T-Mobile competitors. You'll get the best coverage (in general) and the fastest data speeds (in general) with Verizon or ATT but you'll be paying for it. If you want low price post paid service, you'll have to settle with Sprint or T-Mobile. Of course, coverage all depends on your home area. Everyone has different results. If you want extremely low price rate plans, go prepaid. Times have changed and prepaid isn't seen as a hobo lifestyle anymore. It's pretty much your only choice for getting mobile service with no contract. T-Mobile is capitalizing on this market and is offering very good plans. http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/monthly-4g-plans
At Sprint they made us pay if we paid over the phones and that was 4 years ago. This isn't really new as much as it is backwards. Most times it's the more 'archaic' methods that require manpower (ie not automatic) that should incur fees, IMHO, not an automated method! That just doesn't make sense. Oh and I'm told if you pay on time to att it actually boosts your credit rating.
I didn't think phone companies reported on credit. I thought they just shut off your phone if you don't pay the bill.
Yes, this is new. It is very new and horrible. The fee by paying over the phone that you're talking about is pretty much done by almost all companies now, not just mobile phone companies. Your cable bill, your power bill, etc. BUT, it's only charged when you are paying with a representative. It is there to deter people from clogging up the customer service queues just to pay their bill. You can pay online or via automated phone system (IVR) and it's still free as ever. This $2 fee by Verizon doesn't care. The only exclusion is if you are using an electronic check. You get charged whether or not you're paying with a person. Paying online charges a fee? da fuk? I pay every single one of my bills online (if there is no autopay method available) and if this catches on, I'd flip out. Mobile phone companies only report on credit if you are delinquent. And it's only if you're so delinquent that your service got cancelled and they sold your account off to a collections agency. So say you got pissed at ATT and say screw them, don't pay your bill, they cancel your account and then it gets charged off and sold off to a collection agency. You'll regret that decision later when you go buy a car or a house.
Speaking of AT&T, I don't know that they're that much better than Verizon. I've had cellphone, broadband, and landline service off and on with them for years, and they're the masters of hidden fees. The price they quote you on things in never anything close to the real price. Add about $10-20 to whatever they quote you and that's the real price. If I were signing up for a wireless company today I'd probably go with Sprint due to the low price, decent customer service, and decent network coverage. I've heard T-Mobile has good customer service, but I've also consistently heard that their network coverage is horrible. There's also all of the uncertainty over an AT&T buyout of T-Mobile. I got grandfathered into unlimited data and a very cheap texting plan though, so I'll probably never leave AT&T. Unlimited data on a good network is hard to come by these days, and I don't send a lot of texts, so the $5 plan I have is perfect.
I have a shared unlimited texting plan. 30 bucks for 5 lines. comes out to like 7 bucks each. oh and free mobile to any mobile! it's awesome.
That's what I thought until they upgraded their systems and my reception became barely functional. I really didn't have any choice but to get a new plan. The plan I had was fantastic, but it no longer worked well enough to bother keeping it.
Yea, usually services (not just ATT) will just quote you your monthly service charges. Taxes and other charges are not quoted as they are charged differently per county and state.. and then the required Federal service charges on top of all of that. Some states get owned really bad by these. I've seen some poor sap who lived in a state I can't recall who got charged $20 for taxes and other fees every month on top of his $60 monthly bill. Sprint is not all that less expensive than ATT and Verizon now. If you look at that their 450 minute everything data plan (unlimited data and text), it's $69.99 but there's the required $10 premium data addon that is required if you got with a smartphone. All of the sudden, you're at $80/month (prob more than what you're paying now). Not much less than a comparable plan with ATT. The value comes in when you break down what you get in the Sprint plan (such as unlimited minutes when on voice call with someone on any mobile carrier) vs. ATT plan. The ATT-Tmo buyout is officially dead so no worries about that. ATT already paid Deutsche Telekom the billions they owe for the failed buyout and already moved on.. paid like $2 billion for 700MHz spectrum from Qualcomm. I guess that was their plan B. And just like that, the FCC is going to review Verizon's fee.
OK, so I hit refresh on my rss feed and now I see that Verizon has already taken action and will not implement the fee on the 15th. rejoice
Ahh, the Sprint retention department used to be like Santa Claus giving out glorious gifts at contract end! They aren't as generous nowadays but I recently hoped to a retentions only $50/mo unlimited everything offer for smartphones.
What is it with companies making retarded decisions lately and then backtracking on them due to backlash?
READ: Make our executives richer without providing any improvements to the customers, who we were hoping to screw over.