Woodbury HOA payment online - what a rip!

aquabliss

aquabliss

Well-known member
I live in Woodbury and my HOA was about the only bill left that I don't already pay online.

Tonight I finally got tired of licking envelopes and buying stamps every month, so went online to sign-up for online bill pay. 

After registering, I went to pay my bills (2 different ones since I have a condo association and master association).  I was greeted with this:

- Pay by e-check, $3.00 convenience fee
- Pay by Master Card or Discover, $4.30 convenience fee
- Pay by Visa, $22.95 convenience fee.  Yes, twenty two dollars and ninety five cents
- Pay by Amex, $5.40 convenience fee

Keep in mind that this is for each payment and since I have 2 HOA's, this would be double for me every month.  This is so ridiculous, it must cost them less to electronically deduct this from my bank account than to deal with a hard copy of my check.

I guess I'm going back to licking envelopes and sending snail mail.  I can't bear to give my HOA extra $ every month.

IRWD doesn't charge me for e-check payments
Cox doesn't charge me for credit card or e-check payments
SCE doesn't charge me for e-check payments

Thanks so much PCM for making it *convenient* for me to give you my money.
 
My HOA charges for auto pay as well...and it's just bank auto draft too...  I just use the bill pay option from my bank to send them a check.  Free service and you save on stamps and time.  I have ING but I think most checking accounts should have this service as well.  At least that's true for online/small banks...don't know if wells Fargo or chase offer this.
 
Whoever you use for banking should be able to pay your HOA via old fashioned check by mail without any surcharges.

We use that service for anyone who doesn't have their own online payment or for people/services that just take checks. When we were renting, we paid our landlord in that manner and he thought we missed a month of rent and we told him to look for something that looks like junk mail (because I believe the payment is computerized even though they mail it) and he found it.
 
chase offers it and we use it for services just like the one you described.  chase sends the check for free and i never have to think about it
 
Aquabliss - I've had to set up merchant payment systems (credit card payments) at two companies now and you are not getting ripped off as you think, well except for that visa fee, 20something is insane. Most companies pay visa/MasterCard 2-3% of a transaction total. So if your HOA payment is $100 that is a $2-3 fee right there. The more volume you have the better feed you can negotiate. Remember your HOA is a non-profit so they are just passing along the fee. Most business consider these fees in their product pricing.
 
Hey thanks guys for the auto bill-pay idea.  I have citibank and wells fargo, not sure if my specific account type offers this but I will look into it, it's a good option. 

qwerty, I know the % you're quoting is the case but most companies don't charge it.  I'm not sure if they're factoring it into their pricing because it costs the same regardless if I pay check by mail or cc or e-check.  Regardless it's annoying that they are charging extra $ for me to pay them. 
 
bones said:
aquabliss said:
Hey thanks guys for the auto bill-pay idea.  I have citibank and wells fargo, not sure if my specific account type offers this but I will look into it, it's a good option. 

qwerty, I know the % you're quoting is the case but most companies don't charge it.  I'm not sure if they're factoring it into their pricing because it costs the same regardless if I pay check by mail or cc or e-check.  Regardless it's annoying that they are charging extra $ for me to pay them. 
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Like qwerty mentioned, HOAs are non-profits.  Either you specifically pay for the fees for using the online pay system OR it gets absorbed into the overall HOA budget which means the cost gets spread out over X amount of homes in the form of increased HOA dues... which would really be unfair for those that don't need/want to pay by credit card.
Click to expand...

what bones said.
 
qwerty said:
Aquabliss - I've had to set up merchant payment systems (credit card payments) at two companies now and you are not getting ripped off as you think, well except for that visa fee, 20something is insane. Most companies pay visa/MasterCard 2-3% of a transaction total. So if your HOA payment is $100 that is a $2-3 fee right there. The more volume you have the better feed you can negotiate. Remember your HOA is a non-profit so they are just passing along the fee. Most business consider these fees in their product pricing.
Click to expand...

aquabliss said:
I live in Woodbury and my HOA was about the only bill left that I don't already pay online.

Tonight I finally got tired of licking envelopes and buying stamps every month, so went online to sign-up for online bill pay. 

After registering, I went to pay my bills (2 different ones since I have a condo association and master association).  I was greeted with this:

- Pay by e-check, $3.00 convenience fee
- Pay by Master Card or Discover, $4.30 convenience fee
- Pay by Visa, $22.95 convenience fee.  Yes, twenty two dollars and ninety five cents
- Pay by Amex, $5.40 convenience fee

I guess I'm going back to licking envelopes and sending snail mail.  I can't bear to give my HOA extra $ every month.

IRWD doesn't charge me for e-check payments
Cox doesn't charge me for credit card or e-check payments
SCE doesn't charge me for e-check payments

Thanks so much PCM for making it *convenient* for me to give you my money.
Click to expand...

In California it is illegal for "retailers" to charge for use of a credit card--exemptions for government/utilities. In the broader definition of "retailer" -- your HOA can't surcharge you for using a cerdit card. You can report them to AMEX, VISA, and the State Attorney General's office.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/27/business/la-fi-lazarus-20110927

If your HOA is smart, they will simply charge a discounted monthly fee for using a check or cash and a higher fee for all other methods of payment (i.e. no use of surcharges).
 
"Retailer" means every person other than a card issuer who furnishes money, goods, services, or anything else of value upon presentation of a credit card by a cardholder. "Retailer" shall not
mean the state, a county, city, city and county, or any other public agency.

im not a lawyer but i think you can argue that the HOA is not providing value (ie profit), they are just being reimbursed for their expenses incurred on behalf of the home owner. clearly they are providing a service, but since there is not profit i think you can make an argument?

 
After reading that LA Times article, it seems the definition of retailer is pretty broad and even forced Anthem (health insurer) to reverse course on their credit card surcharge. I would think the HOA would still fall under this law as well.

It would be an easy fix for them. Just increase their monthly HOA to include the maximum credit card surcharge and then offer discounts for those who pay by check.
 
I set up my two HOAs to automatically take the funds out of my checking account. 

No fees when doing it this way, you'll have to contact your HOA and they'll send you the forms to fill out.
 
NASCAR24 said:
I set up my two HOAs to automatically take the funds out of my checking account. 

No fees when doing it this way, you'll have to contact your HOA and they'll send you the forms to fill out.
Click to expand...

I do the same.  Just had to send a form into PCM
 
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