Today Tonight is going to tell us how to have a power audit and slash our bills....
With the price of power rising my bills have already been slashed to the bone, and another 30% rise is just going to have to be met by me. Fortunately, my income over the Prime Ministership of Mr Howard had risen quite a bit and I will probably manage. But I'm sure that there are others who will not manage.
I received my phone bill this week (one of them). Telstra has introduced fees to pay your bills now. $2.20 to pay by credit card. Another fee to pay in person at the post office. If you pay by credit card at the post office you will have to pay both fees.
This is highway robbery. Why do we have to pay a charge on top of our bill to cover their costs of doing business? These costs have been included in the fees charged by Telstra in the past, and they are business costs which should be tax deductable.
How can we fight this? I pay by B-Pay and I object to having to pay these fees if I wish to pay via credit card or over the counter at the post office. It's wrong. It will hurt the people with the least money to spare. How long will it be before I am charged to use B-Pay?
6 comments:
Kae
If you're paying over the internet anyway, why don't you just transfer the money directly from your bank account? No charges for that. YET.
And if you'd like to see your phone bills diminish dramatically before your very eyes, get a Buzz Box. It costs nothing and is a simple DIY plug-in.
I've had mine for nearly a year (and so have the friends and rellies I put on to Buzz). The last two (monthly) Telstra bills I had before that were $181 and $139. Now, my Telstra bill including mobile is around $40 and my Buzz bill has never exceeded $14.70 for two months (they don't send a bill unless it's over $10).
I can talk to my rellies in the eastern states for as long as I like without worrying about the $1 per minute Telstra was charging. The most I pay now is 49c - total.
Check it out at
http://www.thebuzzcorp.com/
BTW, two Perth blokes, one from UWA and one from Murdoch U (I think), got together and invented this little wonder. Hope to god that Telstra doesn't offer them a price they can't refuse to sell out, so keep it to yourself, OK?
Oh...
Sandi
Kae
If you're paying over the internet anyway, why don't you just transfer the money directly from your bank account? No charges for that. YET.
And if you'd like to see your phone bills diminish dramatically before your very eyes, get a Buzz Box. It costs nothing and is a simple DIY plug-in.
I've had mine for nearly a year (and so have the friends and rellies I put on to Buzz). The last two (monthly) Telstra bills I had before that were $181 and $139. Now, my Telstra bill including mobile is around $40 and my Buzz bill has never exceeded $14.70 for two months (they don't send a bill unless it's over $10).
I can talk to my rellies in the eastern states for as long as I like without worrying about the $1 per minute Telstra was charging. The most I pay now is 49c - total.
Check it out at
http://www.thebuzzcorp.com/
BTW, two Perth blokes, one from UWA and one from Murdoch U (I think), got together and invented this little wonder. Hope to god that Telstra doesn't offer them a price they can't refuse to sell out, so keep it to yourself, OK?
Oh...
Sandi
Now that's just w-e-i-r-d!
I posted a comment that didn't appear, even after reloading, so I wrote another post and that's appeared twice.
Telstra? Is that you?
Sandi
Hi Sandi
I already pay thru my bank account, but sometimes I need to pay by credit card (when I don't have enough cash 'cos I've put the cash on the credit card to diminish the account).
I wonder how long it will be before they start charging for those transactions?
They will!
I think more about people who don't have access to the www and have to pay.
And direct debits stink, sometimes once you start them they can't be stopped. And they can vary the amount they remove from your account to suit themselves - I don't like that idea at all. You have no control over your own account, and you have to beg them to cancel the debit. That appears to be what some of these providers are looking at.
No thanks.
I agree about the direct debit. I simply refuse. There is no way I will hand control of my account to anyone.
I wanted to insure my home contents through RAC and the only way I could do it, apart from paying one lump sum, was by direct debit. The woman on the other end of the phone couldn't understand why I would have any problem with that.
She didn't understand that if I wanted to change insurer next year I would have to wait for RAC to lift the DD order as I could not do it myself. They can increase the payments if they want to and there is nothing I could do about it. She was a bit shocked at that.
Needless to say, I'm not insured with RAC.
When I changed ISP they insisted that I could only pay by DD but I put up a fight and they gave in. I just pay manually each month.
Hi Anonymous
Yes, that's my point. You can't just cancel the payment, and they can charge you whatever they like.
I don't like that you can surrender control of your account like that, and they expect it. It makes getting away from bad or incompetent service almost impossible.
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