Processing fees from loan companies?

0patience

My son needed to make a payment on his truck, so he gave us the money and we called to make a payment from our debit card.
The guy on the phone tells us how much the payment is and then says,"Plus the $10 processing fee."
Come again?
The what?
You are going to charge me $10 for taking the payment?

Is this common?
My car payments are taken direct from my bank, so I don't think we've ever run into this.
According to them, everyone charges a processing fee for taking payments over the phone or processing a check.

Seriously?

NorCalR1

Common practice for numerous companies these days including utility companies. Another way to get $ out of people

peter4jc

Their excuse is that it involved a human on the other end of the phone versus the automatic payments that are computer to computer.

webmost

The wife runs into this all the time.

Trish

Yep, if I can't physically log into the account online to make the payment myself I almost always get them to do a "One time courtesy wave" of the fee using the whole I would if I could - don't want it to be late song & dance. Have your wife call and put on the charm 😉

Patrickbrick

It depends on how you pay and your bank.  With BofA if I make a wire transfer I get charged, if I write myself a check and deposit it there is no fee.  My credit union does not charge processing fees on anything.  If I pay my utilities with a check or use a debit for the online payment option there is no fee.  If I use a credit card I get two fees, a processing fee and what I call a FU fee.  It's a you used a credit card instead of cash fee.  I'm old so I mail or if near by hand deliver checks.  As stated if you have a good track record, the fees usually can be waved if you complain.  We check and read all the fine print to know exactly what we are paying for.

peter4jc

waive

Guitarded

Patrickbrick said:

It depends on how you pay and your bank.  With BofA if I make a wire transfer I get charged, if I write myself a check and deposit it there is no fee.  My credit union does not charge processing fees on anything.  If I pay my utilities with a check or use a debit for the online payment option there is no fee.  If I use a credit card I get two fees, a processing fee and what I call a FU fee.  It's a you used a credit card instead of cash fee.  I'm old so I mail or if near by hand deliver checks.  As stated if you have a good track record, the fees usually can be waved if you complain.  We check and read all the fine print to know exactly what we are paying for.

When did Colleen allow you access to more than lunch money?!?

jlmarta

AT&T had the chutzpah to send me a bill with a $5 late fee added. The invoice was late getting to me due to our changing of address a few months ago. 

I wrote on the invoice that I wasn’t in the habit of paying added fees of any kind and that if they’d send me a corrected invoice I’d be happy to pay it. I then mailed the invoice back to them, making it even later. 

They sent a corrected invoice which i then paid. Sometimes you just gotta get your hackles up to straighten out these dummies....  

jd50ae

Posted recently about ATT and DTV problem. ATT tried to charge me a $5 fee because THEY were having a problem with online payments. It was refunded.

Some of these companies reasons for service fees is pure BS. Ask every time you see one.

Patrickbrick

peter4jc said:

waive

Thank you Peter, I will not make that mistake again.

peter4jc

Patrickbrick said:

peter4jc said:

waive

Thank you Peter, I will not make that mistake again.

You weren't alone.  That girl with the funny fingernails waved too.


BTW, I got hit w/ a $5 'counter fee' at the DMV today.  It was awesome.  The really rad part is that I was doing something they won't let you do online.  

Patrickbrick

Did you pay it?

peter4jc

Patrickbrick said:

Did you pay it?

No choice...  I figured I'll just charge you a $5 service fee on your next coffee order.

Patrickbrick

Well I guess its back to swill for me.  We had a good run, I sure will miss the good stuff but oh well.

peter4jc

I was going to joke about raising the price by $5, and that makes me wonder why those places don't do that... instead of telling you something they know will pisss the average guy off, why don't they just bury it in the cost of goods sold.

jd50ae

peter4jc said:

I was going to joke about raising the price by $5, and that makes me wonder why those places don't do that... instead of telling you something they know will pisss the average guy off, why don't they just bury it in the cost of goods sold.

I think because most of the companies mentioned are rate controlled by every level of government, and these charges are just a money making scam to get around them.

Patrickbrick

The real answer is the simplest one, they are stupid.  The "deciders" are so far disconnected from normal people that they ultimately make stupid decisions.