Verizon Adding $2 Convenience Fee For One Time Online Payments

Update: Shortly after we posted this and the news hit the internet Verizon posted the following press release, announcing that customer feedback had led to a change in plans.

“At Verizon, we take great care to listen to our customers. Based on their input, we believe the best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute the fee at this time,” said Dan Mead, president and chief executive officer of Verizon Wireless in a statement.

In an age when convenience is key and online payments dominate Verizon has decided to cash in and add an extra $2 per month fee to users who pay their monthly bills online or by telephone. The fee is applicable to any users opting to make a single one time payment via the company's website or when talking with a Verizon rep, but will be waived if a customer enrolls in automatic bill pay or uses an electronic check.

Image courtesy Droid Life

The reports come via Droid Life and have not been confirmed via Verizon or any other sources at this time.

According to the report Verizon is claiming that the new "convenience fee" covers its ability to "continue to support these bill payment options". Off course they are the ones that are pushing these options because they said it was more costly to continue to provide regular mailed payments or payments through reps. So which is it Verizon, is it now more costly for you guys to process electronic payments than it is to process the old fashioned handwritten paper checks or to staff stores with more personnel to handle payments?

Hopefully Verizon changes its mind before the change goes into effect, purportedly on January 15th.