Pretty sure is illegal to have a surcharge or convenience fee for ach/bank account transactions
this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2026
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Mildly Infuriating
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what's stopping you from mailing a paper check? frontiersmen had no convenience but they made due. my great-great-great grandmother fought bears in utah with her bare hands to protect the family homestead.
I once had to pay a fee for using PayPal. I read through paypal's terms of service for vendors and it said they can't do that. I complained to paypal and they gave me 5€. The vendor continued to charge a fee for using paypal.
I surmised the vendor was bringing in enough profit for paypal to not penalize them and they just gave me five bucks to shut me up. Adventures in the world of capitalism I guess.
Target won't let you checkout with PayPal if their margin on a specific sale is too low like their daily deals or whatever they're called.
Go back to sending them a check for every payment, like my 87 year old mother insists on doing. Make them work for it.
I worked at a bank and our customers had to pay more money the more checks they brought in. Won't be surprised if they started charging for that too.
Allstate is a horrible insurance company. I was hit by someone running a red light who had Allstate, and the way they handled their insured party's non-cooperation was terrible. Both my dashcam and a police camera recorded the collision. They called the driver but got cursed out and hung up on. I don't think they tried anything else before denying the claim.
All insurance companies are evil and will do everything they can to deny any claim.
To directly quote a painted piece of wood in a pile of rubble on the side of the road after a big flood in Colorado in 2013: Fuck Allstate.
Allstate has, by far, the worst customer service I've ever experienced from a car insurance company. I personally will not willingly do business with them ever again.
BEWARE
Every time I called, it felt like I was on trial. It was like they were interrogating me, picking into every little detail, looking for ways to prove I owe them more money. At one point, they threatened to increase my rates because I have a parent living with me at the same address. A parent who has no license and is not physically able to get to the car without my help. They forced me to submit documentation to prove all this under threat of having to pay more for my insurance.
When I was looking at renewal, they sent me a quote that was an order of magnitude larger than what any other insurer quoted me. I ended my policy on the spot, and then had to fight to get a prorated refund from them for the remainder of my policy term. They still tried to charge me for the new policy, despite having cancelled.
And that's not all, that's just some of the "highlights".
Good luck to you OP! May the suffering you are about to endure cleanse the karmic debts of your past lives.
That's customer service for ALL companies. Nothing works any more. Just saying you have a customer service department is enough, it doesn't actually have to be effective. Most of them are just AI chatbots with canned answers. Many of them start with "I'm still learning, so be patient with me!" in a cheery voice. Bitch, I got a problem with your company, I don't want an unfinished computer program, I need HELP!
..That's customer service for ALL companies. Nothing works any more..
The insurance company that we use for our cars is delightful to deal with. I haven't even had to wait long, just leave a call back number and get a response within 15 minutes. Then again, it's a regional insurer, (Maine, NH and MAssachusetts) not a national one.
Funny as hell, as I just got a bulk mailer for Progressive Auto insurance and it was offering me coverage as low as 67 dollars a month for a basic liability policy.. For one car.
::sighs:: My dear, sweet dudes at Progressive.. I pay 740 bucks a year.. for TWO cars.
Exactly what I expect from a company that advertises so much
My wife worked in Insurance for a while. The companies tend to follow two two business models:
-
Advertise like crazy to get new business in. Then refuse to payout claims and pay substandard rates. Lose customers as quickly as you gain them. Mitigate these losses by having 100's of brand names/shell companies to mask your activities.
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Do minimal advertising and rely on word of mouth and sales distribution network. Pay out fairly and give decent customer service.
Generally any company that you recognize the name from advertising is going to fuck you over. Most of the other company names you've never heard of are the same companies trying to fuck you over.
The common theme is that they all want to fuck you over, because they get more money that way, and there are no negative consequences. Nobody actually wants to do honest business any more.
Insurers have never been "honest business"..
Americans seem allergic to showing a simple single payable amount that the customer pays. It must be exhausting. It must be like trying to book RyanAir tickets, but with everything.
There WERE laws against this sort of thing. Briefly.
Congress has more important things to worry about. Like who can join which basketball team.
It is exhausting. It would be nice to live somewhere with consumer protections, but shockingly those places aren't particularly enthusiastic about taking immigrants from the US
Cannot be done. We are a special and unique country.
It's exactly like that
I would send a check, its more work for them in the end.
I wouldn't be surprised if they don't accept checks.
Sadly nor would I but they may have to take them by gov regulation as this would be insane that you had to pay a fee to pay a fee. It counter intuitive from a normal mindset, not the mindset of a gouging insurance company. Make perfect sense to those idiot, lol
Like that shit is enforced anymore LMAO
they may have to take them by gov regulation
🤣
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Best part is all these payment methods, including checks incur the same processing fees since 2006 with the Check21 regulations.
This made all transactions - debit card, check, transfer, function the same way through the same processing.
So a check genuinely costs them more - from not charging thebfee, to requiring at least some manual oversight.
Is that true in the US? Where I come from, card payments have a fee that the merchant has to pay, but bank transfers are free and instant.
Yup! The bakery where I buy my coffee on occasion has their menus listed with two prices.. The card prices are 4% higher. So an item that is priced at 7 bucks cash is listed as $7.28 for card.
Makes me so glad that I have never signed up for a card.
Over 60 with NO credit rating.. delightful.
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Wow that's bullshit
glad to see that visa fees are being disclosed now. for a long time visa wouldn't allow vendors to show the fees, and cash transactions had to cost the same as visa transactions.
No they weren't allowed to charge a fee before. They had to build it into the cost of doing business like every other thing that goes into the price. Visa isn't "allowing" them to SHOW the fee, they're being forced to allow the fee (surcharge) to be added on because of bills the feds passed.
I guarantee this isn't working out in your favor. That's why these businesses fought so hard to have the fee. Visa and MasterCard wanted merchants to not do this because it makes credit cards less attractive if places charge fees. The thing I'm particularly skeptical about is how much they charge. The fees are like 2 to 3 percent. Checks and debit cards are flat like a few cent fees. Allstate charging 5 dollars for debit or 2 dollars for bank transfers is fucking insane.
It does work out in my favor if I pay cash. Which I'm in favor of, though these days you have to carry a lot of it. This way cash customers don't help pay the fees of credit customers.
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There must be a way to pay without fee. It might be more work for you, but it's definitely more work for them, hence the "convenience" aspect of the fee.
In the US, some citizens go to physical locations to pay fines in coins. Hundreds of dollars in coins is very inconvenient to the establishment but they have to legally accept it. Sends a clear message to them that they suck ass.
History lesson: in 1990 I worked at a computer store. If you paid by credit card you paid the listed price. If you paid with cash, you got the CASH DISCOUNT price.
Soon MasterCard and VISA went to court to prevent the cash discount practice.
Soon after, points and cash-back credit cards came out
There are several gas stations who offer a cash price that is about 10 cents a gallon cheaper than the credit card price.
Better hope the CC cartel does find out
Yeah, we really need laws defending the right to get discounts for low fee payment methods. I should pay less for using my debit card than someone using a credit card that charges a fee to the seller (which is passed on to all customers) that's high enough to give them back 1+% of what they spend. And a further discount for cash
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You're saving on your premium by paying automatically with a bank account. Changing payment methods may result in a premium increase.
Explain again how I'm saving on my premium? 🤔
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I hope this BS leads to competition with Visa/MC. The fees they charge are ridiculous. Then you're paying for stripe or whatever on top. A govt run system that's not for profit would be awesome.
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