Convenience Fee
 

I am still looking to put more spend on my cards. A couple of my local utilities (gas, cable, etc.) allow credit card charges through a third party, but charge a “convenience fee”. I was under the impression this is a violation of the cards T & C to the merchant. Anyone heard of this before and is there any recourse? The fee ranges from $1 to $2.95 or so. Not much, but doesn’t make sense when you look at the $/mile.

Yes, it's common when paying government agencies or regulated businesses such as utilties. Our electric utility adds a convenience fee, our cable company does not. You'll often encounter percentage-based fees if you investigate paying income, property or similar taxes.

My utility company uses a third party(Western Union) for CC payments.It is a small fee-1.35 I believe-so I am willing to absorb it for the miles.I overpay by several months so I only pay the fee every few months.

I am not sure how they skirt the T&Cs of the merchant agreement here.My best guess is that it has something to do with using a third party to process.

Convenience Fees are permitted by VISA subject to rules published in the Card Acceptance and Chargeback Management Guidelines for Visa Merchants are here (see page 10):

http://usa.visa.com/download/merchan...ance_guide.pdf

This is an interesting idea about Prepayment. I have never thought of that. FPL is my electricity company and uses Western Union to process CC payment with the fee. Thanks for mentioning it.

I wonder if the charge showing up as Utility bill or just a Western Union purchase on the CC statement?

In my case it shows on the CC statement as the utility.

Charges post as: FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT 800-226-3545 FL

Mastercard or Discover only. No American Express, no VISA.

Overpayments of more than $10 will not be accepted.

http://www.fpl.com/customer/paycard.shtml