Forcing Auto Pay and Paperless statements by companies

[wayupnorth]

I have a neighbor who just turned 96 and her satellite provider now will require her to get paperless statements and auto pay or get charged extra for their bill. Obviously, she is not computer literate and still uses a landline. I think it is totally unfair that she should pay extra because these companies want to save money by forcing people to abide by their stupid new rules. Not everyone wants to give account numbers for auto pay and not everyone has computer ability to receive paperless statements.

 

[tomturbomatic]

Maybe you could contact AARP or similar organization on her behalf? I agree it's rotten elder abuse.

 

[ea56]

Tim,

I believe that it may be illegal to force a customer into paperless billing and autopay. I would suggest that you tell your neighbor to contact her congress representatives office to inquire about the legality of this and request that they contact the satellite provider to tell them to cease and desist.

Eddie

 

[wayupnorth]

Unfortunately, we are not one of the 3 states that bans fees for paper bills.

 

[westtexman]

I understand the concern with elderly customers wanting paper bills over electronic methods. I own a medical billing company, and we send out tens of thousands of patient statements every month. We find that fewer and fewer people are responsive to paper statements, and we get a much better response on our bills when we send them via text message and/or email. Auto-pay ensures our providers are paid timely so that they can pay their own bills. Some of our older patients who pay their bills on time are very responsive to paper bills, but for most people under the age of 60, the only way to get that bill paid is to send it electronically with multiple text reminders and emails.

The cost of mailing paper bills is ridiculous these days. When you consider the price of postage, which continues to increase multiple times a year, along with the price of the paper and the return envelope, the cost of a sending paper bill is significantly higher than electronic methods with auto-pay. Additionally, there is a cost in receiving the payment, depositing the money, and manually posting the payment to the customer’s account. With electronic methods, this is all done automatically, which is significantly more efficient and cost effective.

I understand the preference of paper bills for some people, but I believe it would be reasonable to charge a fee to cover the additional costs of paper processing.

Bryan

 

[ea56]

I can understand that traditional mailed paper billing is more costly for businesses. Why then don’t they offer a discount to customers that elect to avail themselves of this cost saving convenience? This way they could still accommodate the few older customers that for whatever reason find paperless billing not to be convenient for themselves by charging the full regular price, sans the discount that paperless billed customers receive.

I personally have been paperless for over 10 years and like it much better than receiving the bills in the mail and having to mail the payments and then wondering if the payments will be received on time or at all.

I don’t believe that the elderly or handicapped should be required to pay more to receive their bill in the mail. For the many that have gone paperless it’s been a GREAT savings for businesses. These savings should more than offset the extra costs for those like Tim’s 96 year old neighbor that can’t deal with paperless billing. It would be a mitzvah.

Eddie

 

[brisnat81]

Hi Eddie,

Your logic is slightly flawed, giving those who go paperless a discount is the same as charging those who want a paper bill more. It just sounds nicer.

Most services here, if you insist on a paper bill, will charge around the cost of postage and handling, which seems to be are $2-$5. Cheques are pretty much dead in Australia, so even if you receive a paper bill, you’re either going to pay it through phone/internet banking, or by credit/debit card generally at the post office. As a last resort you may pay with credit card, by completing the details on the invoice and posting the remittance.

Interestingly here, the government consumer law resource, maps out the process on how to ask a biller for a fee exemption.

https://consumer.gov.au/consumers-and-acl/tips/paper-billing

 

[retro-man]

Auto pay is all well and fine until it isn't. Had auto pay on electric, cable and condo fees. Stopped it on all. I have to allow the payment to be made now. Electric, they were charging $400 to $ 500 per month for a couple of months and my bill is usually a $100 per month. Had large credit that took months to deplete. Cable was doing the same thing. Condo payments were coming out twice a month. NO longer will I allow them to automatically deduct from my account. Now I require a paper bill to look at prior to allowing a payment from my account. Call me old fashion but when you have been screwed around to the tune of Almost $4,000 dollars, the buck stops here. Yes I could look at it online but amount they show online is not what they deduct from the account.

Jon

 

[ea56]

Jon,
I agree completely with you about Auto Pay. That I do not sign up for! Only paperless billing so they send me the invoice online and then I pay it online after reading it. I don’t trust utility companies or insurance companies to get it right with Auto Pay. Paperless billing is one thing, but an open invitation to just take the payments out at will from my acct. is quite another.

I make one exception for this only and thats for our HOA monthly dues. I’m the president of the HOA and they’ve never messed that up. Coincidentally, this convenience costs $2.00 MORE per mo for the ACH withdrawal, but I don’t like sending checks thru the mail so it’s worth the $2.00 to be sure that the payment is made on time every month.

There is a limit to my madness!

Eddie

 

[askolover]

I have to decline paperless billing every month when I log in to pay bills. Once upon a time something automatically signed me up for paperless billing and I didn't get the email til it was already late. I stopped it immediately. I usually know what's due when anyway...I get that from my mother. The only autopay things I have are Hulu and Netflix...oh and chewy on autoship for cat litter.