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November 2009 Newsletter Edition 5
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Telstra Charge to Pay Bill |
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TELSTRA customers will soon be slugged $2.20 when they pay their bills by mail or over the counter. |
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This is one of Australia’s richest companies and they want money for you to pay them. Let me say that again they want money for you to pay their invoice. When you walk into any retail business how many times have you gone to pay for your items and they have said that there will be a $2.20 administration fee on top of that? You would walk out and never go back again.
To be fair Telstra is not the only phone company lining up for this cash grab. However they aren’t all doing it.
My mother-in-law is with Telstra and I tried to warn her about these new charges. Her response was it is only $2.20. Well in one way she is correct. However, let’s look at her last bill. (Please note she has both Foxtel and Home Phone. Let's pretend and only look at her home phone part.
This is her real bill:
As you can see the bill is $40.28
Also you will note they are not huge spenders.
Let’s pretend they pay this bill in person with an American Express credit card. We can break down in percentage form where every dollar is going.
Now she will pay an additional 2% plus $2.20 in fees. Her new total would be $43.28. This is $3.00 above what she owes.
$36.62 phone charges |
84.61% |
$3.66 GST |
8.45% |
$2.20 fee for paying in person |
5.08% |
$0.83 Amex credit card fee |
1.87% |
As you can see, out of the new total 6.95% is fees. These fees are easy to get around.
So while my mother-in-law was correct in saying that it is only $2.20, this adds up. Try to think of it as a percentage rather than a dollar amount.
On this bill alone, it is a 7% increase in costs. If all your bills went up 7% in price, you would be outraged.
Now this is just a home phone. I called Telstra to see if they were going to be charging this on their other services. They will be charging it on their home phone, mobile phone, internet, business phone and Pay TV (eg.Foxtel - in fact Foxtel is slightly higher at $3.00).
So let’s say you had a home phone, a mobile phone, internet service and Foxtel with Telstra. You get all four services delivered on a separate bill and you pay by going into Australia Post each month.
You would be up for $9.60 each month in fees alone. Plus this does not include if you decide to pay it with a credit card as there are extra fees there.
Searching around, I did find a fee that makes Telstra’s look cheap. Vodafone, another Telco is charging $2.20 per bill that is posted out to you. You have the option to get it via email, however if you want a paper bill each month it will cost $2.20. Also would you believe, if you decide that you want to pay this paper bill at the post office there is a $1.50 charge! Just to pay your bill this way will cost you $3.70. You must be joking!
What’s the bottom line? You can send a message to companies like this. Let them know that you won’t be sucked into such fees. Start paying direct debit or by Bpay. Better yet, leave and find a company that has more respect for its customers.
If enough people will not stand for this kind of business behaviour, businesses will have to start working with their customers instead of trying to work out how to get additional money out of them.
Remember this; at last count Telstra had 24.5 million services. Let’s pretend that it only affected ¼ of the customers/services each month. This would be 6.1 million customers paying $2.20. That is an additional $13,420,000 a month; or to put it a different way, $161,040,000 a year in revenue.
They call this an administration cost! Now that calculation is only a quick one, but you should see where I’m going with this.
Talk to all your companies ASAP (gas, electricity, water, council, pay TV, home phone and internet). Find out if they have these pay your bill fees (or administration costs). See if you can get around it or change companies if possible. Don’t pay more money than you need to in unfair costs.
Online Petition sign up now make your voice heard
Look I am so upset with these fees that I intend to start a petition to ask them to stop. As we have been talking about Telstra, I intend to collect names for a year. Once we have got as many names as possible, I will send the results to them for their formal response. Due to Telstra being the biggest, I hope other companies follow suit. You would think that companies like Vodafone/Optus would think twice about doing this if Telstra the market leader stops this practice.
Also, I will be asking for a refund of credit to all the customers who have paid this high, unnecessary fee.
Even if you are not with Telstra, please, please, please sign the petition. If you let one company get away with it, other companies will follow suit. Who knows where it will end? Supermarkets charging admin fees, service station admin fees or take away places charging admin fees. Laugh now, but I never ever thought I would be charged a fee to pay a bill!
Send a message now that we don’t want this fee.
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-telstra-charging-me.html
Go and do this online at above website. Send this to your friends via email. Lets try and get at least 1000 people to sign this petition.
Additional Savings Tips
My Dad reads the paper every single day. He has done this for as long as I can remember. However around 6 six months ago while I was staying there (our house was getting painted). I noticed that he tended to only read the first 5 or 6 pages. He would look at the top stories and spend 10 or 15 mins reading, fold up the paper and put it in the recycling bin.
Due to the fact that our state’s biggest paper is $1.10 a day, this is costing him $7.70 a week or $30.80 a month or $401.50 a year.
I suggested to my Dad that he can do one of two things to add this $400 a year back into his pocket. Firstly, the paper that he reads is free online! Why pay for it when it’s already on your computer for free. Secondly, as he only read the biggest reports, he could look online for these reports and just read them. There are heaps of worldwide news services that update on just the big reports each day. This way he would have a bigger selection.
When I pointed out to Dad that he was spending $400 a year, he was suprised. He had never done the figures in his head before. He said, “Wow, so over the last 10 years I have probably spent over $3500 on my 10-15 minute read each day!”
While he still gets the paper once or twice a week, he has cut right back. Now he looks online for his news.
Start doing this yourself, the savings are there to be had.
Inspirational Stories -Stuart Fisher
> Stu let’s talk about your money situation before the book. Think back one year ago and tell me about your debt and money problems?
I was a very "want it now" type - and would try and find whatever means I could to make it happen. So I got loans or store credit - Oh sure, I had a big screen TV - but by the time I paid it off it cost 2 - 3 times what it was actually worth. All of that led to a debt of over $20,000
> Now tell me about it today. What has changed and how do you now feel about money?
Well the debt is coming down - not instantly - but more deliberately. I am more conscious of what I'm spending - keeping receipts means I will actually question myself before I buy something. DO I really need it? or just want it? and if I want it (without needing) can it fit into the budget I have looked at for myself. It means I'm not being wasteful with money.
> Stu you are a comedian and musician, does this mean that your pay goes up and down each month depending on how busy you are? How does this affect what you do with the money? What are the positives and negatives?
One positive is the hourly rate of a comedian/jazz musician can be fantastic, although the behind the scenes work takes a long time - but the negative is there isn't really any constants and in a small city like Brisbane, that can be limiting on your income stream. It means that you need to think ahead, and as I mentioned before - you need to think about where your money's going and if that will benefit you long term.
> What is the best investment you have ever made and why?
At this stage - I am looking at getting into something - my parents were heavily involved with Storm Financial, and it's really made me think about the best way of doing something.
> What is the worst investment you have ever made and why?
My first long term girlfriend... after our relationship broke down she left me with $6000 in consumer debt and nearly $4000 unpaid rent - it left me in a huge hole which I'm really only just overcoming.
> If you could go back in time to your 18th birthday, what would you say to yourself regarding money and debt?
I don't know that I would have listened to advice back then - but - I would have said - the "toys" that you think you want will be useless in no time at all. And although it's nice to have friends, the idea that you know the names of all your debt collectors is not a good thing.
> How do you now feel about credit cards and personal debt?
As for credit cards - if used properly with the rewards side of things, you can actually benefit from them but BEWARE. As soon as you have paid it off - that's NOT more money in your pocket. But less debt is just as good.
As for personal debt - I'm learning that if I can't have it now - it's not needed - "when i was a kid..." I got by with the bare necessities and didn't have any adverse affects. There is a HUGE difference between WANT and NEED.
> Property prices in QLD are very high, how do you cope and do you have a long term plan?
Well to be honest - my situation before left me with a credit history that both pots and kettles are calling black.. so at this stage - I'm focusing on getting my debts out of the way - and then working on saving for a deposit. Then the skies the limit.
> Have you got any big purchases on the horizon, what is it and how do you plan to pay for it?
We are thinking of another car for the family - we have two kids and our situation is getting a bit difficult - I'm looking into Novated Leasing as an option, but have decided that whatever we do - we will not buy brand new... as nice as that smell is - I can't justify the cost of a new car - and you can get new car scent in a spray now anyway.
> Have you got a saving tip to share with our readers?
For me - one of my biggest things was buying food outside the home. But my partner and I have a system where at the beginning of the week we make a HUGE salad that we keep in the fridge (you may need to invest in a good plasticware container) and each day we take a bit out for lunch. This saves time in the mornings, and of course money, because we're not buying out - and it has the added benefit for me of helping me lose a bit of weight - that's every box ticked.
Stu can be contacted about his services at www.stufishercomedy.com
Funny Moments with Money
Here is a video for the world’s worst credit card, YOU MUST BE JOKING, WHAT A SCAM!
A credit card advert taking off Faulty Towers
Here is a commercial that makes having a credit card look glamorous.
This makes credit cards look simple, fun and ever so easy.
Even the Simpsons endorse credit cards!
A funny video: who wants to deal with credit card companies?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKJU_SjkqC4
Here is a song about a credit card Christmas (Interesting to say the least!)
You would not believe it, but here is a 2nd credit card Christmas song
Here is a great song about credit cards (so true)
Here is an English song about the credit crunch
Thanks for reading and taking time from your busy day. I hope that you are planning for Christmas.
Thanks
Adam Goulding (Also known as Mr Home Budget)
NOVEMBER 2009 “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve” - Dr Napoleon Hill