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Many companies have recently upgraded their bill payment processes to make paying the bill easier for their customers.  A number of these companies are now allowing their customers to make payments on their accounts using methods outside of the typical pay by mail method, permitting customers to quickly pay their bills online through a company website, by an automated system, and with customer service representatives via the telephone. What unsuspecting consumers may not realize is that most of these alternative methods for paying bills can end up costing them more money than the traditional method of bill payment by mail.

A number of the companies that allow bill payments online or by telephone will charge customers additional fees for using those services.  These fees will often appear on the next bill as a convenience fee, which means that these companies are charging customers for the convenience of paying their bills through an automated processing system or by phone. The traditional method of mailing in a check means more work for the current employees and higher overhead for the company that employ these workers to process payments by mail.

The companies that charge these convenience fees areusing a fee structure that is designed to increase revenue from customers who do not pay close attention to the terms and conditions attached to utilizing these services.  This allows the company to create much more revenue without having to work any harder for the customer.  If the company can get enough of their customers to become dependent on paying their bill through these methods, the company may even be able to save money by laying off some of the workers that handled the payments that arrive in the mail.
 
How To Avoid The Fee

The fees associated with online and phone payment methods may vary from company to company.  An average charge for paying your bill by either of these methods can be between $5 to $10 dollars per transaction, which adds up to between $60 to $120 dollars in fees over the course of the year charged to your account for the convenience of using these payment methods. The services that the company charges for can differ as well between companies, with some only charging for bill payments that are made over the phone and some charging fees for online payments only.

To avoid having to pay these unwanted fees, it is crucial to remember to always read the terms and conditions for any account that you may have. If there is a fee charged to an account holder, it must be disclosed in the terms and conditions or by the customer service representative prior to completing the transaction to make the account holder aware of the fees and the reason for it being charged to them. Sometimes the fees are not disclosed until the end of the transaction in the hopes that if you have taken the time to go that far in the process, you will be unwilling to start over with another payment method to avoid the fees. If there is still time to send a check to the company by mail, you should do so in order to avoid costly and unnecessary fees.