Many of us have used store card on interest free store purchases.
Given that there is no shopfront, all transactions and contacts are gnwrally electronic. Especially since you are charged for in person payment.
So I have a couple with Latitude, formerly GE money.
Now this along with others make up for the interest free repayments by charging you a monthly $4.95 account keeping charge. They can’t tell me what it actually pays for. Even my statements are electronic.
Years ago, to avoid fees or late payments I was advised by them to use BPay to make payments and even set up automatic payments to do so. So I have for some time.
Checking my progress online, I now find they charge me .95c to make a BPay payment! Its free to use a cheque ( it’s 2016) or if you give them access to a direct debit but to be penalised to pay back your own account?
They can’t tell me why it was introduced, who introduced it and why I can’t speak to the executive who decided. It was simply a business decision.
Thanks for sharing this info, @brentdriscoll. CHOICE shadow shopped retailers offering interest-free credit a few years ago and found interest rates and fees were generally very high. If you can shop around for a better deal, go for it!
I have been using BPay for years. I have NEVER been given an invoice to say that I owe them any money.
Someone must be paying if your correspondent is correct.
I have been using the 28 degrees credit card for over 10 years and have also been stung with a 95 cent monthly fee for paying by b pay, I have never been late with a payment and now penalized for being a being a good customer. I emailed Latitude finance over a week ago with no reply (surprised no). This card once enabled you to put money into your account while travelling overseas (they were earning interest on this money while it was there) then they introduced charges for removing your own money from an ATM so obviously customers went to a debit card offering the same services 28 degrees offered. When I phoned 28 degrees contact number & spoke to a customer service officer I was advised the .95 cent fee was because b pay was a third party charge. I can now assure you I will be putting my card to one side and be looking for another alternative.
Agree wholeheartedly but it will cause one thing no business wants - a diminishing customer base and hopefully a huge reduction in the new takeup of their products.
There is a reason that General Electric spun off GE Money. GE Money became a very profitable entity with GE and since GE is an engineering company they spun off GE Money so that it could be even more profitable. That is why it’s in the interests of any consumer to have a look at the conditions, fees and penalties attached to any account with GE Money, and there are very many from large companies e.g. airlines and supermarkets down, These conditions may well lead to a choice not to have anything to do with any GE Money account no matter which organisation is the ‘front’. Be very wary of the penalties as well. Under new credit reporting arrangements it is possible to get a bad credit rating without really trying and from personal experience that very difficult to resolve even when the credit rating has been reported in error as ‘negative’.
The worst part of the whole thing is I can no longer make weekly payments unless i pay 5x 95c
If I were incurring interest which many may be I would have to suffer it because paying at the end of the month would be hundreds of dollars for some.
By biggest grip is the new Pay My Bill bank direct debit.
It takes 5 business days so you can only make one payment every week.
Very frustrating when I need to make payments from my Wifes account and My account every week
That is true, however listing someone is still required to be factual.
I’m sure they will no ability to list me for getting stroppy with them.
GE/Latitude and similar finance companies are akin to financial poker machines. They take advantage of need often from the vulnerable and financially naive.
I still remember Harvey Norman having their own finance; you got a book, stamped paid off your item. These companies facilitate this sort of financing as banks won’t touch these customers or privde the rapid processing on limited information that they use.
They have helped me get items I would otherwise not, they are simply a service, not a loyalty based business. So I have as much to them as they to me.
People, there is only one way to pay & they cannot refuse, it is cash & is called legal tender under the government. No business can refuse this only ‘legal tender’
If you are talking about paying Latitude, they charge a fee for paying in person in cash.
If you are talking about purchases, then its great to have a naive utopian outlook on shopping and finances, but the reality is that need doesn’t always happen at the same time as financial. Credit is not a crime or a blight against someone’s integrity.
There should be, but probably is not, a law that requires every business to have at least one fee free method of paying accounts beside direct debit. That could be cash delivered to any of their offices/shops, EFT, Bpay, online by card, whatever, but at least one.
It seems government could be enthusiastic about moving to a cashless society because the additional fees on every transaction will flow directly into corporate pockets.
I have been using B=Pay basically since it was introduced and understood at the time it was to be a free transaction instead of fees for using a credit card for payment, I have been paying external accounts from my Bank account where ever B-pay was accepted. I changed my Home phone/ Internet bundle to dodo last Nov 2015 and discovered on their electronic bill that there is a fee for using B-Pay $2-50 when I challenged them over it they said it was an admin fee but it clearly states its for using B-pay but there is no charge for using Credit card or direct debit and they have the shortest payment period for an account I have ever come across 7 days being on a pension it falls within the 2 week period of no pension. they charge for extension more than 4 days $15 per day (Now if I let them do a direct debit and dishonoured I get another 7 days to pay because they don’t get notified of payment for 3 days and then notify me its dishonoured and will resubmit in 4 days…but to B-pay an extension for 7 days will cost $60 plus $2.50 fee for B-Pay) And Dodo users a third party to receives payments
28 degrees is a good card for no international conversion fees. I got hit with the .95c fee for paying by BPAY and they reversed it (once) because, well, probably because they realised I wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
I was going to cut the card up, but they do offer a direct debit payment method on a ‘per instance’ basis, ie they don’t just yank the payment without you knowing to pay the card (but there is that option) - you can hit a payment page where you plug in the BSB, Account (both of which are then saved) then the amount to pay. One off. Works for me. Actually a little easier than the previous BPAY method I think …
