why must i pay to pay?

Had to pay out electric bill tonight.... Why in the world must I pay more to pay my bill?! No matter how I pay I have to pay something else:
Mail it = cost of stamp and envelope (cheapest but we are bad about remember to pay that far in advance)
Drop it off = drive for 24 miles to Virginia and pay PLUS $1 to process plus gas plus thats a lot of trouble!
Internet = $2.95 processing fee...

Can someone please explain to me why it is we have to pay to pay them? Our old electric company was $1 over the phone but they also had a payment center that was free only a few minutes away... seesh!

That 2.95 internet processing fee is crazy! I pay most of my bills online, actually all except rent, and none require a processing fee.

Does your bank have an online banking option, you might be able to look into that. You might be able to surpass that processing fee if you pay throuhg your bank online.

yeah we will be looking into something. It bothers me a lot actually... I am very tempted to call them and ask them why. Plus it bothers me that no matter how I pay I have to pay more. Dont most places provide a prepaid envelope to send payments in? The envelope that came with the bill even has the quote on it that says
"Save that Stamp! Pay online!"

Well, with the $2.95 "internet processing fee" they're charging, of COURSE they want you to save that stamp! I gotta say - that's gutsy!

Laurie

I pay my bills using online banking, except for one of my credit cards. I have a store card and I pay it in store because its easier (I work in the mall) and the payment is instant so theres no waiting for it to go through.

I pay all of mine thorough online banking I have never been charged a fee

Online banking here also with no fees.

Online banking here, too, and no fees. I think DH does some of the household stuff at the ATM, but I'll bet dollars to donuts there are no fees, because I KNOW he would find the payment method that does not have fees.

It's a way to scam customers out of more money, people like the convenience of paying online or automatic withdraw and the companies know this. $1 or $2 doesn't seem like much but if a company has thousands of customers it adds up to a nice little pool of extra income

Easy. You pay to pay them because they have a "payment" department that needs to get paid.

I have to admit that I pay most of my bills online (and I work for USPS, so shame on me).
But I went to pay my first car payment online there was a $15 charge for paying online. WHAT? It doesn't cost extra to set up an automatic payment from my bank account. That would be ok if I got paid on the same days every month, but I don't, and I like more control over my bank account than that. But $15 is just crazy and makes .42 a real bargain.

that is a good point!

My university is horrible about this. You can pay for classes, parking passes, and other things online, but they charge a 2.5% fee for that convenience. Even for something like the $135 parking pass that's a pretty hefty fee, but for an out of state student they could easily owe over $10K for classes in a semester which would be a fee of over $250! So yeah, I mail them a check every semester.