Why don't companies offer you a discount to pay bills electronically?

[SlitheryDee]

Because they moved to online payment to improve their profitability, not to save you money.

 

[Zee]

even better are the companies that charge you more to pay electronically vs mailing it in.

the IRS for example. what a joke

 

[palswim]

My student loan repayments offer me a 0.25% APR discount to pay online. Who knows how long that'll last.

U-Verse offered a $10 off for 6 months to pay online.

 

[gimmewhitecastles]

online billing saves money for both the customer and the company.

our savings is from the money we don't spend on envelopes, stamps, pen ink, etc. also less trips to the post office giving our lazy asses a break.

 

[PingSpike]

I'd imagine it's cause it did cost them something to put all that infrastructure in place and maintain it still. And in a lot of cases they still have the old bill processing (paper) in place as well so it's not like they've fully transition yet.

That and the above mentioned : why would they want less money anyway, although this is one place I don't mind companies not 'sharing' the savings, I like the benefit of being able to pay online.

My power company charges $5 a pop to pay online. Since a stamp is only 40something cents, they can go ahead and waste their time fucking with my paper bills and checks.

 

[xanis]

Why would they? You have to pay the bill no matter what, so they might as well have you pay the same amount for the cheaper method. More money for them.

 

[PingSpike]

I just renewed my auto registration online in Vermont and they didn't have an extra charge.
Though, apparently to save money, they used to give you a sticker for your front and rear plate. Now they just give you one for the rear plate.
Interesting, because they still included a second sticker that just said "void".

Yeah, I noticed that this year too. I hope it wasn't a money saving plan, because that would be epic incompetence even in the face of my already low standards for them. My theory was people were putting each sticker on two separate junk cars, probably on the back.

 

[JTsyo]

the IRS for example. what a joke

I think the once that charge extra contract out the online payment part.
Online payments save you 42 cents and a check so it's woth it without fees.

 

[pcnerd37]

The solution to your problem is to not have bills.

 

[MotionMan]

I guy in my building in college banked at a bank that charged for all ATM transactions. He had to have the account at that bank because his parents put money in that account at their bank branch back home (or something like that). (This is in the late 1980's.)

Whenever he would need something from the bank, he would go in and talk up the teller for a while, then he would ask for a supervisor and discuss some inane faked transgression by the bank, then he would request to speak with the manager on duty. I went with him once and it was fun to watch the employees start to squirm after a few minutes.

He did it three times before the branch manager agreed to waive all ATM fees if he agreed to never enter the branch again.

MotionMan

 

[Jumpem]

If anything they charge more. My mortgage has an $11 fee to pay electronically.