Would you cry “foul” for this billing trick from your payment processor or credit card company?
I have a gas card that uses a 2nd party payment processor for electronic payments on-line. When you sign up to view your bill on-line, they do something automatically that most other credit card companies and billers give you as an explicit option. That is most billers ASK you if you want to receive your bill payment notices by email vs. regular mail.
This gas card company however just ASSUMES this is what you choose if you so much as ATTEMPT to see the details of your bill on-line. In other words, they won’t let you see on-line what’s happening with your charges unless you let them stop sending you paper bills. But they don’t even ask you. They ASSUME it and tell you it is posted somewhere as one of their policies, but they never tell you, “For the privilege of viewing your bill on-line over our precious website, you now agree to never again receive a paper bill from us in the mail. You MUST now accept only e-bills by email so we don’t have to spend our money on paper, ink, and postage to service your account.”
Is this illegal? Or is it just slimy and cheap?
I looked at my bill on-line once and didn’t realize in their fine print that this now freed them from having to send me a paper bill in the mail. Then they changed their payment terms and shortened the due date by a week and proceeded to charge me a late payment when I didn’t see their e-bill to an old email account I hardly use.
Wouldn’t you be a little upset by this? Who can I talk to in government or consumer credit for some assistance to try to stop this kind of chicanery by electronic billers and credit card companies?
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May 30th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Most states have some sort of regulatory agency that oversees utilities. Poke around your state’s official Web site until you find yours. That would be the place to start.
May 30th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
When it comes to credit card issuers, at least among the top ten monster banks, it’s all chicanery. Your complaint is valid, but it is probably one of the least egregious practices of which I’m aware.
Unfortunately it is legal. I agree it’s a slimy and cheap trick.
There are several avenues for complaint. I predict it will do you no good, personally, but if a lot of people complain, eventually there will be regulatory action prohibiting such practices or, at the least, providing for better disclosure and informed consent.
Complain to your state’s Attorney General’s Office. You should know, however, that even when Attorneys General initiate legal action against credit card issuers, the response among at least one such issuer was to change its charter from a state charter to a national charter and then counter-sue the Attorney General on the basis that as a nationally-chartered bank they, the card issuer, was not under the jurisdiction of the state’s Attorney General. I won’t name the bank, but it was Capital One. (ha!)
Also, complain to the bank’s regulator. First, you must determine who regulates the gargantuan bank that is your card issuer.
The FDIC supervises state-charted banks that are NOT members of the Federal Reserve. Visit them online at or write FDIC Division of Compliance and Consumer Affairs, 550 17th Street N.W., Washington, DC 20429. Phone: 800-934-3342.
The Federal Reserve System supervises state-charted banks that ARE members of the Federal Reserve. Visit them online at or write the Federal Reserve Division of Consumer and Community Affairs, Mail Stop 801, Federal Reserve Board, Washington, DC 20551. Phone: 202-452-3693.
The Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) supervises banks with national charters. Unfortunately, this includes most of the top ten card issuers that happen to control >90% of the credit card market, and as an agency, they are the least-consumer friendly of all the federal regulators. Visit them online at or write the OCC Customer Assistance Group, 1301 McKinney St., Ste. 3710,
Houston, TX 77010. Phone: 800-613-6743.
The credit card industry is at least as responsible for the current credit crisis as the subprime lenders are. At one time, they provided a legitimate product for responsible borrowers. Later, they developed something called credit scoring to prey on the most vulnerable consumers. Their ideal customer profile was one who would run the card up to the credit limit and make minimum monthly payments (and no more) for a few years until they finally gave up. By then, under the banks’ profit models, they could charge off the loan and still have reaped a net profit from the relationship. But, just to squeeze a few more drops of blood, they lobbied for bankruptcy reform to hold consumers responsible for loans the banks never should have made in the first place. I know all their tricks because I have been involved in the financial industry since 1977. I was taught, but never employed, the credit profiling and targeting tricks the banks used to prey on the most vulnerable cardholders. In 2005, I left the industry as a regular employee and started my own business teaching financial literacy. I could not stomach their practices any longer.
June 1st, 2010 at 8:29 pm
go to the Better Bussiness Bereau () on line, and fill out a complaint. I did on a credit card company that held my payment until it was past due and then charged me a late fee and upped my interest rate. I had tried everything to get them to fix this but nothing worked.
Within a week after I filed with the BBB online, they responded and reversed the late charges, interst that was due while trying to resolve it and lowered my interest rate back down to where it was before they did this.
I advise anyone that feels a credit card company is trying to rip them off use this route to get it solved.