Revenge is truly sweet when you know for a fact that someone was trying to pull a fast one on you. And among the hierarchy of dumb and evil things that exist out there in the world, ‘convenience’ fees sit comfortably in the top 100.
Put simply, convenience fees are a company’s way to cover the cost of processing certain types of payments. And some even charge them for making payments online. These can quickly add up over many months.
Redditor u/TheUncleBob shared how the company that bought his mortgage tried to get him to pay a $14.95 convenience fee for making the monthly payments online. Frankly, that was ridiculous. So instead, he got some revenge by making things far more inconvenient for them. Scroll down for the full story, dear Pandas.
Some companies charge 'convenience' fees to cover their processing costs. In some states, this is illegal; in others, it's perfectly legal
Image credits: CardMapr (not the actual photo)
One redditor shared how he got back at a company that bought up his mortgage when they wanted him to pay a fee for making payments online
The redditor’s story on r/MaliciousCompliance went viral and got over 24.1k upvotes. What’s more, u/TheUncleBob’s tale inspired other internet users to share their own experiences with mortgage payments.
To say that there’s a dark side to some companies that buy up mortgages would be an understatement. Emperor Palpatine could take lessons from them. It is vital to read the fine print before agreeing to anything. And even then you might miss something if you don’t have some insider info on how these companies operate. Luckily, Reddit is more than up to the task and gladly shared some insights.
The redditor made things marginally more inconvenient for the company by sending them weekly checks instead of one monthly one. He also mentioned that he would've sent them a small check every single day of the month if he could get away with it.
A convenience fee is usually charged by businesses for payments that are made through alternative channels rather than by cash, check, or ACH (Automated Clearing House, an electronic network for financial transactions in the United States).
Convenience fees are typically charged for payments for taxes and tuition and can either be flat fees or a percentage of the total amount paid.
“Convenience fees are charged by businesses to cover the cost they pay to payment processing companies for when a customer pays by credit card. A convenience fee is different from a surcharge, which is a charge simply for just using a credit card. Surcharges are illegal in some states. All businesses have to follow the policies of payment processing providers and government laws when it comes to convenience fees and surcharges,” Investopedia explains.
“Convenience fees can help a business cover some of the costs imposed through electronic payment processing. Businesses have to pay a merchant fee every time one of their customers uses a credit card.”
Here's what some redditors had to say. Some of them shared their own experiences with mortgage payments
