AT&T Reducing AutoPay Discount for Credit Cards

[PaulCrawhorne]

The government required fees / taxes vary SO much from one location to another.

If the providers had to bury them in their plan prices, then residents of low tax places would be subsidising residents of high tax places

[bmtvaquero]

The government required fees / taxes vary SO much from one location to another.

If the providers had to bury them in their plan prices, then residents of low tax places would be subsidising residents of high tax places

That's already a fact of life in all nationwide businesses. Residents of a State where the median income is twice as much as another State pay the same price for phone plans, even though the phone company pays much more for employee costs in those States. Same thing where real estate is much higher. Phone company customers from those less expensive States are subsidizing the States where costs are higher so that all may enjoy the same phone plan cost.

There are advantages and disadvantages to all aspects of life, including where one lives and works and plays.

I don't understand the outrage over this change in discount. It's simple, do business with whatever company gives you the most value for your dollar. To expect to continue to pay the same price for a product/service year after year when all other costs continue to rise is unrealistic. I don't care how the phone company labels it's price increase. The bottom line is what counts.

[DRC72]

The government required fees / taxes vary SO much from one location to another.

If the providers had to bury them in their plan prices, then residents of low tax places would be subsidising residents of high tax places

Yeah, I get that there are taxes to municipalities and government agencies, I’m not disputing that. AT&T by law has to collect those taxes. The carriers have their own fees that they put in as well. That’s extra gravy for them on top of their base price.

[blkballoon925]

Funny how the carriers don’t like paying fees, but they themselves have no problem charging extra fees on top of the base price of their plans. Love the double standard.

Exactly. It's always funny to me how many people will spare no effort to come out of the woodwork to defend the poor suffering multibillion-dollar businesses over it, too.

But you point out to them how $5/mo here and $10/mo there starts to add up and how that hits the average family that isn't raking in tens of millions of dollars per year in net income, and they don't give a hoot.

[ecs0013]

Yeah, I get that there are taxes to municipalities and government agencies, I’m not disputing that. AT&T by law has to collect those taxes. The carriers have their own fees that they put in as well. That’s extra gravy for them on top of their base price.

Yep, I've had a handful of services from AT&T over the years and postpaid always seemed to stuff extra fees in for "administrative" things and also passing along (recovery) the various government program fees. It sounds like the spirit of the law was that carriers would pay into things like the Universal Service Fund for expanding into rural areas and low-income households, but as they were able to pass it along, they did. By no means am I against those programs, but there's no transparency with billing - how do we know what's listed as such fee is actually going directly to those programs or is it obfuscated in billing (i.e. a $2.16 fee becomes $3 and the provider skims a bit for themselves)?

AT&T Prepaid has typically charges just E911 and local tax, Cricket is similar, but everything is included (if you go to Billing History and Details, it breaks down things like E911 and local tax for each line.)

This is a bit more on each of the line items for postpaid: https://www.att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1022940

Exactly. It's always funny to me how many people will spare no effort to come out of the woodwork to defend the poor suffering multibillion-dollar businesses over it, too.

But you point out to them how $5/mo here and $10/mo there starts to add up and how that hits the average family that isn't raking in tens of millions of dollars per year in net income, and they don't give a hoot.

While I enjoy the community here and especially love the technical-minded folks, the last year has had a lot of gross things done by all three of the carriers for the sake of nickel-and-diming consumers, not investing in personnel, and even having much lousier customer service (not that your average HoFo visitor needs it).

This comes after AT&T set piles of money on fire in attempts to corner the pay-TV market with DirecTV when cord-cutting was already in full swing and then trying to become a media empire with WarnerMedia. It also comes after Verizon is confused about constant losses, despite plans continuously getting worse and worse and there are still too many badly-congested markets (not to mention their brief foray into media, too). T-Mobile has basically backtracked any consumer-friendly moves during the Legere era (not surprising) and have pretended information security isn't a big deal. Because of all of this, I'm generally out of sympathy for the lot of them.

[Serial Port]

The carriers have their own fees that they put in as well. That’s extra gravy for them on top of their base price.

This is nothing new, and At&t/Cingular wasn't the first to charge those fees. It was when I first became a CS rep in 2001 for them. Think about it, back then they used to have voice-only plans (no data or text like today). The minimum plans offered only 50 minutes of voice per month. There were higher tiered plans, but no unlimited anything. Don't forget this when you have unlimited calling/text and many times unlimited data (4G/5G). The overall cost of service has not increased significantly like some folks like to think it has, you get much more for your $ than you did back then.

[DRC72]

Yep, I've had a handful of services from AT&T over the years and postpaid always seemed to stuff extra fees in for "administrative" things and also passing along (recovery) the various government program fees. It sounds like the spirit of the law was that carriers would pay into things like the Universal Service Fund for expanding into rural areas and low-income households, but as they were able to pass it along, they did. By no means am I against those programs, but there's no transparency with billing - how do we know what's listed as such fee is actually going directly to those programs or is it obfuscated in billing (i.e. a $2.16 fee becomes $3 and the provider skims a bit for themselves)?

AT&T Prepaid has typically charges just E911 and local tax, Cricket is similar, but everything is included (if you go to Billing History and Details, it breaks down things like E911 and local tax for each line.)

This is a bit more on each of the line items for postpaid: https://www.att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1022940



While I enjoy the community here and especially love the technical-minded folks, the last year has had a lot of gross things done by all three of the carriers for the sake of nickel-and-diming consumers, not investing in personnel, and even having much lousier customer service (not that your average HoFo visitor needs it). This comes after AT&T set piles of money on fire in attempts to corner the pay-TV market with DirecTV when cord-cutting was already in full swing and then trying to become a media empire with WarnerMedia. It also comes after Verizon is confused about constant losses, despite plans continuously getting worse and worse and there are still too many badly-congested markets (not to mention their brief foray into media, too). Because of all of this, I'm generally out of sympathy for the lot of them.

The thing is, we don’t know if those fees are going directly to those programs? Maybe half of it’s going to it, and the carrier keeps the other half? If there’s no oversight, then nobody will know.

This is nothing new, and At&t/Cingular wasn't the first to charge those fees. It was when I first became a CS rep in 2001 for them. Think about it, back then they used to have voice-only plans (no data or text like today). The minimum plans offered only 50 minutes of voice per month. There were higher tiered plans, but no unlimited anything. Don't forget this when you have unlimited calling/text and many times unlimited data (4G/5G). The overall cost of service has not increased significantly like some folks like to think it has, you get much more for your $ than you did back then.

Yeah, no doubt! You definitely have a lot more value for your wireless dollar than you did back in the early days of cellular. Pre-paid has definitely proven that.

[Serial Port]

The thing is, we don’t know if those fees are going directly to those programs? Maybe half of it’s going to it, and the carrier keeps the other half? If there’s no oversight, then nobody will know.

And yet, that is none of our business. It is an agreement between the carrier and the associated taxing authorities (state/local/federal). They are not required to disclose that to the consumer. The carrier only needs to disclose the amount per customer and the designated category it falls under (tax/fee/etc.)

[Serial Port]

I respectfully disagree! If I have to pay that tax and it’s coming out of my pocket, then what’s wrong with knowing where that money is going? It’s like when you pay gas taxes at the gas pump, you know that money is going into roads and bridges.

We can agree to disagree. I can live with that.

Do you really know for a fact where those gas taxes are going penny by penny? That sounds like when the lotteries became popular nationwide, we were told (at least in FL) that the funds would enhance the tax revenue spent on education when it mostly went to other projects and stuffed shirt salaries instead.

[DRC72]

We can agree to disagree. I can live with that.

Do you really know for a fact where those gas taxes are going penny by penny? That sounds like when the lotteries became popular nationwide, we were told (at least in FL) that the funds would enhance the tax revenue spent on education when it mostly went to other projects and stuffed shirt salaries instead.

You’re right that’s the thing we don’t know where those gas taxes are going. Supposedly for roads and bridges? At least I hope so. I’m finding way too many potholes these days lol. Regardless, whether we like it or not, we still have to pay those fees on our bill if we want the service.

[jeffro01]

Does anyone know "what" debit cards AT&T will take and have the full discount still apply? For instance, Venmo has a Mastercard Debit card, will AT&T take that and still allow you the full discount? Just want to know before I go through the hassle of getting one...

[Serial Port]

Does anyone know "what" debit cards AT&T will take and have the full discount still apply? For instance, Venmo has a Mastercard Debit card, will AT&T take that and still allow you the full discount? Just want to know before I go through the hassle of getting one...

Which brand/bank debit card doesn't matter as much as whether or not it has a Visa/Mastercard logo does. Their website explains this in more detail.

[i0wnj00]

And yet, that is none of our business. It is an agreement between the carrier and the associated taxing authorities (state/local/federal). They are not required to disclose that to the consumer. The carrier only needs to disclose the amount per customer and the designated category it falls under (tax/fee/etc.)

And, a legally binding agreement at that. Somehow, I don't think that AT&T (or any other business run by sound individuals) is going to risk cheating local/state/federal governments out of their tax money or other agreed upon fees when governments can claw back what's rightly owed to them (plus interest) and/or slap fines and probably risk reputational damage. Skimming off monies intended for government programs/entities is a low-reward/high risk activity and I don't think AT&T is desperate to do this when they can simply jack up the prices, it's easier (and legal) to jack up the prices than to skim money off monies destined to the government.

[i0wnj00]

Does anyone know "what" debit cards AT&T will take and have the full discount still apply? For instance, Venmo has a Mastercard Debit card, will AT&T take that and still allow you the full discount? Just want to know before I go through the hassle of getting one...

Debit cards function the same, regardless of brand (Venmo, Chase, Wise etc..) as they are connected via either Mastercard or Visa, to an checking account (Venmo, Chase, Wise etc..) where the vendor can automatically deduct the specified amount. AT&T will be happy to take money from your Venmo account so as long you have money in it. I could use my Wise debit card to pay my AT&T bill like I do with my other bank cards, even though that's not the reason I signed up for Wise.

Mastercard and Visa are merely payment processors between the merchant and the bank.

[PaulCrawhorne]

There are merchants however that will treat fintech "prepaid" cards differently from a "real bank" "true debit" card.

Revolut for example, and more notoriously CashApp which is rife with fraudsters