The Vent and Rant Thread

[CRussel]

Time to find another insurance company. That's just a blatant money grab.

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

The neighborhood rodents must have an evacuation plan to head to your place whenever the exterminator comes to the restaurant!

It would certainly be handy if a neighborhood cat could visit you occasionally and scare off the mice.

It does seem that way. I keep forgetting to ask when the owner of the restaurant comes in our store, but I'm sure it must be the case.

The May/June evacuation to our house is always the worse. But only once before, two years ago, did mice come into my room. It's also the time of year they tend to breed, so I'm extra aggressive when it comes to deploying peppermint oil, eucalyptus oil and cinnamon incense (I've come to love the scent of eucalyptus oil and cinnamon incense). I'm glad I bought the difusser for the oil, it works great. I'm thinking of upgrading to one with a bigger water reservoir and a timer.

The other three times a year the evacuation takes place aren't that bad. Especially in winter it's not a problem, since my bedroom is relatively cold. It seems like they just use my ceiling as a highway to other parts of the house. They tend to move towards the front of the house when it's cold; the living room and kitchen. Rarely I see or hear something in the store. But if I do it's in summer.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Time to find another insurance company. That's just a blatant money grab.

When you pay over the phone, you have to use a credit card. $2.50 is probably the fee they pay on credit transactions. If you send a personal check, they get the whole amount, to go towards your policy. If you use a card, they still need to collect enough money to cover your policy. Plus the credit card fee they get charged.

[Freehunter]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

When you pay over the phone, you have to use a credit card. $2.50 is probably the fee they pay on credit transactions. If you send a personal check, they get the whole amount, to go towards your policy. If you use a card, they still need to collect enough money to cover your policy. Plus the credit card fee they get charged.

Yep, got those charges with our gas company ($2.25) and water company ($1.65) for paying by phone. They use third party payment companies to handle the transaction. Maybe paying on the internet might be without the charge but never checked.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by wodin

I just called my auto insurance company to pay for my insurance. They said "there is a transaction fee of $2.50 to process payment over the phone.

WHAT?? I've never heard of such a thing. How can I avoid that?

Well, you can send in a check. I'll waive the fee for this transaction, but next time...

I'm thinking next time I'll just might find another insurance company, it's not like they're the only guys in town. I can afford $2.50, but it's the principal of the thing. It was bad enough when they consolidated all of their branch offices to one in downtown Honolulu, now they charging a fee for calling them?

I love Charlie, but that's not a money grab. It's what the merchant processors charge, to take payments via phone. I pay $30/month, or just under $400/year, just so I can accept cc payments via phone, and I have the CHEAP plan. AND, that's the base fee, not the per-transaction fee, which varies, depending on the amount. (n.b.: I probably only get asked if I can accept payments via phone 2x/annum, which means, I'm losing money on this.)

Offered solely FWIW.

Hitch

[wodin]

At >$2600/year I doubt they're losing ANY money on me.

[CRussel]

And I love Hitch, but for what Insurance companies make? They can f***ing eat it. (No, I would NOT necessarily expect you to. But you don't make what an insurance company does. Or if you do, I'm in the wrong business!)

[badgoodDeb]

Ah, but you are asking the small guy (the insurance BROKER) to eat the cost. They don't get the fee for the policy, but you want them to eat the fee??

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by wodin

At >$2600/year I doubt they're losing ANY money on me.

Wodin, everybody says that kind of stuff, but sooner or later, someone eats it. Typically, it's the first business in the payment chain. As badgoodDeb notes, that's most likely the broker, in your case, who isn't making that $2600/year.

Originally Posted by CRussel

And I love Hitch, but for what Insurance companies make? They can f***ing eat it. (No, I would NOT necessarily expect you to. But you don't make what an insurance company does. Or if you do, I'm in the wrong business!)

Again...I think you and others would be shocked at just how much those processing fees add up to, for your average biz. I pay THOUSANDS of dollars--yes, thousands--in processing fees, between Paypal, Stripe, credit card processors, etc. That's a LOT of money, and I'm an itty-bitty teeny weeny biz. I can't even imagine what it's like, for a huge business that transacts a lot!

Plus, the other thing is, the fee is intended to make you think, "well, I don't want to pay that, I'll pay online." That saves YOU the fee, it saves the BUSINESS the fee. You don't have to wait on the phone for the processing, etc.

For me, because I am in the boonies, the fee is SOMEWHAT worth it, so that I don't have to drive the round-trip to the bank 2x weekly, to deposit checks, make sure that they've cleared and all that, before starting the work. But I'd still like to have that bloody money back.

Hitch

[badgoodDeb]

[ Could you electronically deposit the checks, and save yourself some of the trips? Chase bank allows me to take a photo of both sides of the check, and send it through their phone or iPad app. They tell me when it clears, etc. ]

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

[ Could you electronically deposit the checks, and save yourself some of the trips? Chase bank allows me to take a photo of both sides of the check, and send it through their phone or iPad app. They tell me when it clears, etc. ]

Not yet! I'm waiting for electronic checking, beeeliiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeve me!

Hitch

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by Freehunter

Yep, got those charges with our gas company ($2.25) and water company ($1.65) for paying by phone. They use third party payment companies to handle the transaction. Maybe paying on the internet might be without the charge but never checked.

My power company charges a fee if you pay online.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Again...I think you and others would be shocked at just how much those processing fees add up to, for your average biz. I pay THOUSANDS of dollars--yes, thousands--in processing fees, between Paypal, Stripe, credit card processors, etc. That's a LOT of money, and I'm an itty-bitty teeny weeny biz. I can't even imagine what it's like, for a huge business that transacts a lot!

My heart bleeds for the poor starving insurance companies and there overpaid executives. Sorry, Hitch. First, unlike you, they can (and do) demand a break from the full cost of those fees. And second? Their profits clearly aren't being impacted materially.

I do not doubt that they are a significant part of your business costs. And for small business people, I both sympathize and am willing to accept that I might have to pay for the privilege. (BTW, Canada has Interac Direct, which is a hugely better way to get money between individuals and/or businesses. It's instantaneous, has no fee on the recipient, and a small one on the sender.)

[cromag]

Interesting. My credit card company has been actively trying to migrate payments away from checks. They'd really prefer me to pay by computer, but I prefer to use their phone payment system -- it withdraws from my checking account. There's no extra charge for either online or telephone payments.

I'm sure they're benefiting from economies of scale, but they also get their money faster and don't have to process physical payments. I would have thought insurance companies would prefer to go these routes, too.

[tempest@de]

I’m in a bad mood so I will rant here.

Since the postal company closed the office downtown and every other associated post service in town I have to go to the main post office, which is 15 minutes away and is always full, so 35 minutes waiting for my turn and the person that calls my number is one of those chatty ones that knows everything and of course I should change the way I prepare my mail by having someone go to the office to install a program on my computer so I can then use it once a month to print the paper that I have to take to the post office so he doesn’t have so much work inputting my mail on the system, because it’s not like he is there to work. Then he rants because I didn’t fill all in the spaces in the damn paper, because I didn’t write my name in caps lock, and didn’t put the time at which I filled the paper, really? What do you care what time I did it? I understand if he has put what time he received the mail in case there is some problem, but why the need to know when I prepared it?

I stop at the supermarket to grab some bread and stuff for the salad, and there are a lot of people at the checkout lines, I think about turning around and leaving but I really need what I went to buy for lunch, so I have to stay. Next time I have go early in the morning, since clearly the tourist season has opened and the supermarket still isn’t prepared to have all the checkout lines open. I hate that this particular store doesn’t have an express line for those with few items.

When I get outside it is raining, we are having a thunderstorm, spring is ending and we only had warm days since Sunday and now is raining again and the temperature droped a lot.