AT&T Reducing AutoPay Discount for Credit Cards

[mike62]

Currently I have a credit card on file. Am I understanding if I put a bank account on record too as payment per new requirements but I pay via my credit card BEFORE the posted due date I might still obtain the $10 discount possibly?

[kevink1]

Currently I have a credit card on file. Am I understanding if I put a bank account on record too as payment per new requirements but I pay via my credit card BEFORE the posted due date I might still obtain the $10 discount possibly?

From what I've read, no.

[techfranz]

Does anyone know the the specific day one should change the auto-pay payment info? I am assuming 1 billing cycle ahead of the AT&T deadline?


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[walds11]

My AT&T Unlimited &More(SM) Multi Line plan is not affected by this change. I get $20 Discount for unlimited multi line w AutoPay & Paperless Bill (use credit card).

[awj223]

Absolutely correct. That's why my company did not accept AMEX. When I signed up for card service through BOA I declined to add AMEX due to the higher fees.

This is why, whenever a merchant pisses me off, I'll pay with my AMEX. Like when I was in Chicago and Navy Pier's parking garage charged me about $25 for 40 minutes of parking. At that point, it becomes less about how much in rewards I get from the transaction and more about getting revenge on the merchant by making it where they get to keep as little of the revenue as possible.

It's worth noting that Amex generally has one tier for interchange, but Visa and Mastercard have added additional tiers that can sometimes cost merchants more. Visa Infinite and World Elite Mastercards are often more to process than Amex, but merchants can't exclude them. While those and the lesser Visa Signature and World Mastercard were intended for folks with at least a certain limit and included benefits, many issuing banks have been "inflating" things by issuing a low-end card with a $500 limit and no benefits as a Visa Signature. There's other nuances like which processor and if a small business is in the Amex OptBlue program, but regardless, it's been everyone trying to get a little more where they can.

Here are the interchanges rates for Visa: https://usa.visa.com/content/dam/VCO...ement-fees.pdf
Here are the interchange rates for Mastercard: https://www.mastercard.us/content/da...-2023-2024.pdf

Note that both vary by merchant type as well as by merchant tier (business volume). Now for Mastercard credit cards used with autopay, the rate for utilities is 75¢ per transaction. For Mastercard debit cards, it's 65¢ per transaction, a whopping 10¢ in savings. For Visa credit cards, it's also 75¢ per transaction. For regulated* Visa debit cards, it's 0.05% + 21¢ per transaction. For unregulated** Visa debit cards, it's 45¢ per transaction.

*A "regulated" card is issued by a bank with $10 billion or more in assets
** An "unregulated" card is issued by a bank with less than $10 billion in assets

So...unless your bill is more than $200, the interchange fees for regulated Visa cards would be less than 31¢/transaction.

If you want to get even with AT&T and want the Autopay discount more than you want to protect your bank account, give them a Mastercard debit card if you have one. If not, find an unregulated Visa debit card so you at least get the transaction fees up to 45¢. Or (my personal favorite) if you just want to go scorched earth and get even with them and don't care if you end up paying more, sign up for Autopay with a credit card but login and do multiple partial transactions so they rack up a ton of 75¢ fees. I'd recommend breaking the bill into 8 different transactions so that even though they are ripping off $5 more from you than before, they will be paying $5.25 more in interchange fees and at least you get the satisfaction of knowing that they will not only get to keep exactly $0 of the price hike they just imposed on you, but will be paying an extra 25¢ on top of that.

[ecs0013]

Note that both vary by merchant type as well as by merchant tier (business volume). Now for Mastercard credit cards used with autopay, the rate for utilities is 75¢ per transaction. For Mastercard debit cards, it's 65¢ per transaction, a whopping 10¢ in savings. For Visa credit cards, it's also 75¢ per transaction. For regulated* Visa debit cards, it's 0.05% + 21¢ per transaction. For unregulated** Visa debit cards, it's 45¢ per transaction.

*A "regulated" card is issued by a bank with $10 billion or more in assets
** An "unregulated" card is issued by a bank with less than $10 billion in assets

So...unless your bill is more than $200, the interchange fees for regulated Visa cards would be less than 31¢/transaction.

Thanks for the detailed breakdown—I've only got a cursory knowledge of things, so it's nice to see more information to learn from. I'm guessing that the Cash App Visa debit card might fall under unregulated as it's issued by Sutton Bank, unless "prepaid" debit cards are treated a different way? https://www.suttonbank.com/services-...d-support.html

That's been my go-to "debit card on file" as I can keep a small amount to pass periodic authorization checks, but anything over will decline.

I also wonder about the somewhat rare Discover debit cards and what they cost to process. They seem to actually run as debit, typically over Pulse if you do PIN-based (unlike Amex "debit" that runs on the credit network and is treated as credit by most merchants). Discover's own version that is linked to checking earns 1% cash back up to $3000/month in spend, so I'm wondering if the structure is more like credit cards to cover that.

[Serial Port]

I also wonder about the somewhat rare Discover debit cards and what they cost to process.

While my company never denied Discover card payments, it was rare and the fees are a little higher than Visa/Mastercard but less than AMEX. I have never seen a Discover debit card, nor would I have accepted one in the past. Credit cards are less risky for merchants than debit cards to process payments and debit cards may be subject to higher processing charges. On the other hand, when debit cards are initially processed, the user cannot charge any more than is available in their bank account at that time.

[DRC72]

I set up my debit card so I’m gonna keep my $10 discount. Not exactly what I wanted to do for payments but it’s no big deal. Maybe I’ll try to sneak in a early visa payment to see if I can get away with it.

[PaulCrawhorne]

Discover Bank offers checking w/debit and savings

independently of the CC operation.

Used to be my top reco for online banking, excellent ACH connectivity including Fintech apps, full Zelle partner, fast transfers, TOP customer service quality.

But they've had systemic issues with new accounts, false positives on fraud detection, Zelle not working...

Have had zero issues with all my long-established accounts, but now Needham Bank is my #1 reco for online-only. CapOne is OK as well.

CashApp really sucks, only use for trivial stuff, amounts you don't care about, nothing important or urgent.

Revolut similar, but infinite cards including different virtual types

Other fintechs great for disposable services

Don't use FIs you care about for stuff that might get flagged, their AIs are always watching and quick to judge