I think it's called "nickel and dimeing". When the companies have a gazillion customers, the cents become real money.
We're in a battle with our cable company, Comcast, now known as Xfinity, about a $25.00 charge that is not ours. We've been at it for three months now, and after the last complaint from us, they agreed that the charge was not valid, however, they blocked our account and we had to make several calls to me them unblock our service. All about $25.00. I'll nickel and dime them if they nickel and dime me.

My husband was balancing the books some years ago and kept coming up a penny short. He actually called the bank and had them go over the accounts back several months and it was found to be a banking error. The clerk got flippant with him and snapped back that it was only a penny! He replied with "yes, and it's MY penny". The next month, a one cent credit was applied to our account. LOL. If we had owed them a penny, you can be sure they'd have deducted it from the same account.

My exposure to the US health care system has been minimal (thank God). So my shock might seem amusing to some but...

I had an elective, out-patient surgical procedure in 1997. I tried to anticipate what my out-of-pocket expense would be. Imagine my surprise when nobody (doctor's office, hospital reps, insurance co.) could give me even a ballpark idea. Imagine my further surprise when I found out that's the norm rather than the exception. I realize there are variables with every procedure. But all I wanted was a ballpark range, for cripe's sake.

IMO that's one tiny sliver of what needs to change. But I'll leave it there...

Karen

"Nickel and diming" has been on my mind the last few days. We recently bought a new vehicle and in anticipation of making the first payment, I called the maker's finance dep't. to determine exactly how payments would be handled. I pay most of our bills thru our bank's on-line system and thought I'd make the car payments by that method, too. But I wanted to make sure that if I sent an extra amount, it would be credited to the principal. The person with whom I spoke assured me that it would, but there would be a $.50 fee for my using on-line banking. No fee if I would permit them to access the account and subtract the amount. NO WAY!! I said I'd use the U.S. mail with a $.44 stamp and save the six cents every month! For me, it's the principle of the thing rather than the fee! If I get really ticked off--I'll pay the whole amount and keep the interest charges in my bank account.

mwheel, I'm with you,:" No fee if I would permit them to access the account and subtract the amount. NO WAY!! I said I'd use the U.S. mail with a $.44 stamp and save the six cents every month!"
We don't have a single direct access to our accounts by anyone. I use the $.44 stamp or cash. We use credit cards when needed, but it is only for convenience like rental cars or on the web.

I can just imagine, what leverage I would have with the cable company if I had allowed them to have direct access to my credit card and the disputed $25.00 was already charged to my account.

I do understand the .07, the companies are quite aware of how those pennies add up!

I don't understand charging a fee for an on-line payment! Probably shows I don't do much paying on-line, but my most recent experience was trying to pay for new tag stickers for the trailers. Virginia will discount $1 per year if you pay on-line; okay: 3 trailers times $2 each (2-year tags) made a $6 savings if I paid on-line. Made sense to me, that's the salaries etc they don't have to pay to deal with folks in person. Only, 2 of the trailers didn't have their on-line forms filled out correctly and there was no way to do the correction. It took a visit to the local office (25 minutes to get there plus standing in line another 40 minutes) to clear the issue -- which the clerk claimed could only be done if I paid for the tags at that time: a $5 dollar fee for paying in person rather than on-line or mail. Grrrrrr. Yes, I could probably have cleared the issue via phone (a toll number as of this past year), and I did try to reach someone twice. Put on hold [all-agents-busy-we'll get-to-you-as-soon-as possible) for 15 minutes the first attempt and 25 minutes the second attempt-- which I will have to pay for even though I actually received no help. GRRRR!

Like others here, I don't permit direct access to my money... seems to me that would be just asking for trouble. Anyway, as a friend of mine said, "I'm happy to let them put money into my account, but huny, ain't no one but me gonna take money OUT of my account."