Gargle that corporate knob harder, man. Hope it tastes good.

Fees for processing payments used to be considered “a cost of doing business”. Now they’re being passed onto the consumer as the price of convenience and another profit vector for an already predatory industry.

To be fair those are some serious fees, and usually the seller eats some of it.

I would send a check, its more work for them in the end.

This has to be copypasta.

Because there’s no way a real human with a real job can have these feelings, unless they were the biggest fascist pussy bootlicker the sewers have ever vomited out onto the pavement

The fee isn’t for the payment method, it’s for “financing” the cost of the policy over six months. I’m sure that there is no fee if you pay in full.

I hope this BS leads to competition with Visa/MC. The fees they charge are ridiculous. Then you're paying for stripe or whatever on top. A govt run system that's not for profit would be awesome.

Domestic transactions in my country have zero fees. Because it's a fully computerised system. Because we live in the year 2026. Catch up.

And why is that "mildly infuriating"?

Charging a fee to accept payment is ridiculous. If a cost is unavoidable then it should be included in the price.

I accept that some payment providers charge more than others but there should be at least one that is free even if that means adding the cost of the cheapest one to the base price.

Ideally they would all be free and you’d just add the average cost of payment processing to the price.

There was a time in the UK when you could get a flight from Manchester to London for £8 but the final price ended up being ten times that due to additional costs that weren’t optional.

Financing the bill is figured into the total amount. This is a processing fee

I wouldn't be surprised if they don't accept checks.

People like you are responsible for the word "retard" making a comeback.

If there's an unavoidable fee for processing, it needs to be included in the initially advertised price of whatever you're purchasing. In this case, the price should have been set $2 higher and the bank account fee should be $0. Otherwise it is just false advertising, since you cannot actually receive the service for the initially advertised price.

Sadly nor would I but they may have to take them by gov regulation as this would be insane that you had to pay a fee to pay a fee. It counter intuitive from a normal mindset, not the mindset of a gouging insurance company. Make perfect sense to those idiot, lol

Why should I have to pay a fee for YOU to take my money? Do you not want my money?

I want to pay for services rendered at an agreed upon price. If you want my money for those services, then it's on you to pay those fees. End of story.

glad to see that visa fees are being disclosed now. for a long time visa wouldn't allow vendors to show the fees, and cash transactions had to cost the same as visa transactions.

If they don’t accept checks (because they can bounce) they should have to take a money order.

Incorrect. You don’t get the auto pay discount if you pay in full. Seriously.

Apple Pay is $5 because they don’t get any data from it.

biggest fascist pussy bootlicker the sewers have ever vomited out onto the pavement

I just learned how to tag people. I’m going to use this as their descriptor now.

Just bate

It's exactly what my father does for places. He can't stand these fees and if whatever service he is paying has them then a check will be sent. He says it's what hes uses to anyway since that is how he had done it most of his life.

I love that mentaility and wish I could do the same, but sadly I just want it to be known its paid right away and also since i live paycheck to paycheck waiting weeks on end for random checks to be cashed will be impossible for me to not accidentally use some of that money elsewhere.

I don't think the possibility of a check bouncing is a reason not to accept them as its been the primary way we pay bills for over 100 years.

But money order should be ok but they have a fee too.

Such a fee is absolutely normal, adequate, and simply human.

Interesting take, but also not accurate. ACH / direct bank connection costs merchants a fraction of a cent to use. Additionally even bank cards that are more expensive likely don’t exceed $1 in fees for such a transaction.

The merchant in this case is likely taking in more money than necessary to cover transaction costs i.e. they are making money on you paying them money (which is not normal, nor adequate).

And for 99.999% of utilities/etc there is no fee so paying online is great imo. But this is a BS money grab for the sake of being an easy money grab.

they may have to take them by gov regulation

🤣

I can usually pay in 5 different ways (including bank transfer) here in Germany and 0 of them cost anything.

We did have something resembling competition, maybe a decade or so ago, with the emergence of Venmo and Cashapp and Zelle - basically just digital front-ends for e-checks between bank accounts. They all hit major stumbling blocks, in no small part thanks to how Visa/AMEX/MC conspired to freeze them out.

Capitalism abhors competition.

I believe you should be grateful instead these exists

Omg, it's That One Guy! Can't believe I found one in the wilds of Lemmy.

Americans seem allergic to showing a simple single payable amount that the customer pays. It must be exhausting. It must be like trying to book RyanAir tickets, but with everything.

So is Google pay?

It’s actually probably because Apple gets a cut, and so does the issuing card. In apples case, mastercard

That is indeed mildly infuriating. Do you get the discount AND avoid fees if you auto-pay in full?

I've personally never seen in my own policies any kind of financing when paying monthly. It's always been policy total / 6 = monthly payment. Then there is a modest (and yes, mildly infuriating) fee per payment. When I said the fee was the cost of financing, I didn't mean it literally was that, but more of an "effective" cost of financing. I'd love to see someone's policy that has a financing increase line item.

You're saving on your premium by paying automatically with a bank account. Changing payment methods may result in a premium increase.

Explain again how I'm saving on my premium? 🤔

Both my policies with Progressive and Allstate offer a pay in full discount. My total premium is different depending on which option I choose

It is exhausting. It would be nice to live somewhere with consumer protections, but shockingly those places aren't particularly enthusiastic about taking immigrants from the US

Time to leave Allstate

My Allstate account doesn't do that. There are no payment option fees. Is there something odd about your account? Have you had missed payments or insufficient funds when paying?

I say this with all respect; can we not use Gemini or other AI agents as "evidence." I see your other post, and I'm not disputing your point. My own policy offers a $20 discount when paying in full (on top of avoiding monthly per-payment fees, which are $4 per payment.)

It's like 3%, which I don't love but I like better than dealing with cash or checks.

The auto-pay discount for AT&T also was cut in half unless you add a bank, not a credt/debit card, and I'm an inch away from just turning off the cards and telling them all to stuff it sideways sans lube.

Best part is all these payment methods, including checks incur the same processing fees since 2006 with the Check21 regulations.

This made all transactions - debit card, check, transfer, function the same way through the same processing.

So a check genuinely costs them more - from not charging thebfee, to requiring at least some manual oversight.

There must be a way to pay without fee. It might be more work for you, but it's definitely more work for them, hence the "convenience" aspect of the fee.

In the US, some citizens go to physical locations to pay fines in coins. Hundreds of dollars in coins is very inconvenient to the establishment but they have to legally accept it. Sends a clear message to them that they suck ass.

Oh I didn't know that, checks it is! Fuck these bozo's right!?!

Nope. You can pay in full and not get the auto pay discount or you can auto pay and pay fees each time.

The auto pay and fees are slightly less costly than not getting the discount if you choose to pay in full.

Allstate are cunts.

It’s $2 vs $5 if you pay with bank.

$5 here is the premium price and $2 is the discounted price.

There must be a way to pay without fee.

According to whom? As far as I'm aware, there's no such law in the US regarding private companies. So they can be jerks if they want to.

Maybe I'm just confused by what the word "premium" means.

Show up with a dump truck full of pennies.