New credit card fee

[Quinte]

Received the message that HPP fee is due for 2025. When I went in to pay it now sends you to a different website. That webise indicated that there is now a $25 fee for paying by credit card. The logic is to keep maintenance fees low. I wonder how many people actually pay by cheque? Is this just a way to increase the fees but make it look optional?

As a Canadian paying by cheque is somewhat impractical. I also realized that cheque technology is really on its way out here. I have probably written one cheque in the last year.

 

[dioxide45]

Millions of checks are still processed every day. Certainly volume is down but doing eChecks (ACH processing) is quite reliable and cheap. Though I don't see how this would work for cross border transactions. I would think the bank would need to be US based. Perhaps they have a way of drafting a Canadian account? Does the new system even allow you to use a non US based check?

 

[AJCts411]

The issue is with the payment company...in that when transferring money from Canada, they do not recognize some of the transfer options available to Canadians. You could look into a WISE account, as recommended to me by another tugger who did this, but for me the payment company (the system) would not recognize the account for what ever reason. One other issue, the system posted that it accepted payment even though the payment did not process, "rejected" in a few days.

 

[jwalk03]

I write at least 3 checks every month. 2 for my housekeeper who comes every other week as she prefers a check over electronic payments. and 1 for my combined monthly electric/water/trash bill- as the city I live in charges an extra fee to pay online (they only recently started accepting online payments at all). So I write the check and drop it off to save the fee since I drive right by the municipal office building frequently anyway.

 

[flyingsideshow]

I haven't received anything yet (maybe it's just Canada), but it wouldn't surprise me at all. Seems like every company is passing the fees on instead of factoring them into the cost of doing business. My HOA changed payment providers and an ACH that used to be free now has a $1 fee associated with it. Of course you can mail a check or use bill pay, which mails the check for you to avoid the fee, but it's still annoying.

 

[jp10558]

This just comes right back to the insanity that companies think it's cheaper to pay someone somewhere to receive a check, risk it bouncing, being forged, all the reasons lots of people STOPPED taking checks, and handle depositing vs an online payment. To then charge extra to have a human involved is even stranger.

 

[jp10558]

I haven't received anything yet (maybe it's just Canada), but it wouldn't surprise me at all. Seems like every company is passing the fees on instead of factoring them into the cost of doing business. My HOA changed payment providers and an ACH that used to be free now has a $1 fee associated with it. Of course you can mail a check or use bill pay, which mails the check for you to avoid the fee, but it's still annoying.

You know, if the government cared about climate change, they'd basically legislate away taking checks by mail. And make it illegal to charge a fee for taking Zelle / ACH / Paypal. I'd actually like them to also just force an end to all fees, just have the "price" advertised or billed be the price you pay!

We need to stop encouraging people to use cash and checks and burning gas and resources to be able to do it.