.jpg)
This month’s edition of curmudgeon news is about bank fees / convenience fees / and or processing fees. Whatever you call it, it’s a money-grubbing duck. If you use the Spartan rec center, or have a kid in a Shoreline school and they do anything, other than take the bus home, there’s a price for that and then there’s also a fee.
The first time I went through this was when I had three kids in a sport, (this wasn’t at Spartan Rec) and the convenience fee was quite high. This fee was just to click a button, as I’m paying money. When I asked about it, I was told that if I mailed a check, (stamp, mail-carrier, and a receiver who then deposits that check) that’s free. A computer program, living in the nether, needs a fee for eternity.
So modern technology has made life easier but somehow more expensive. This goes on and on every time I have to put money on a school lunch account, buy an ABS card (that’s a school fee, before the bank fee, for a kid to play a game not involving a video screen). Oh, and that ABS fee has a bank fee but it does come with discounts. Wait, so I’m saving money?
When I’m flippantly told, ‘it’s the bank”, my response is always, “can’t the city of Shoreline or the school district find another bank? Maybe use a local credit union, looking for business, instead?” To this I’m always told to take it up the chain. So here I am typing away from the bottom of that chain.
From an equity standpoint, and from hating the various banks of Monty Burns standpoint, could our beloved school and city officials, with whom we lovingly vote for, please address this situation? (It is election time you know.)
Nobody likes being nickel and dimed at every single turn. It gets harder and harder for young parents to support a child. Not me, I’m old. I remember, back in the day, when all this stuff was basically free.
In a nutshell, if we dislike how banks hold us over a barrel in this way, shouldn’t we try to change it?
Mike Bachety
Shoreline
sounds like a no-brainer
ReplyDeleteIt's not not likely the City of Shoreline's or SSD's bank that's the issue, it's the Merchant Agreement (with the card processors) that process the payments that imposes the fees. What SSD/COS should do is offer several FREE alternatives: use a debit card (this is the "normal" way to pay in the EU, and at WinCo), Zelle, or ACH (free but takes 3-5 days to post).
ReplyDeleteAs you noted, best to pay by cash or check.
ReplyDeleteAdd to this that small businesses are not allowed to select a vendor to handle their credit card transactions but are bound to specific companies that all charge the same handling fee, rather than the "upstarts" that charge less.
ReplyDeleteMore than past time for Washington to establish a state bank - or maybe we could start with Shoreline finding a preferred partner (bank) that wouldn't charge fees in exchange for having the City of Shoreline deposit all the licensing/permit fees/taxes with them?