EVERY day, you are being robbed — and you probably don’t even notice it.
When you buy load for your mobile phone, and you choose the GoEXTRA179 package to get data, calls and text for 15 days using the e-wallet GCash, you don’t pay just P179 as the name of the product might suggest, but P181 with a P2 “convenience fee” tacked on.
Paying your power bill? Meralco Online charges a convenience fee of P6 if you pay by GCash, P7 if you use Maya and P15 if you pay with a credit or debit card.
If you go to the PLDT web portal to pay your phone and internet service bill, there’s a P15 charge when you use a credit or debit card, or a P7 fee if you use GCash.
Booking a flight? Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific charge a booking or payment processing fee ranging from P150 to P250 per passenger per sector for online card payments.
Even when buying movie tickets online, you’re paying P20 to P100 more per ticket or transaction.
The amounts may seem small, but add up to hefty sums when multiplied by millions of transactions every month.
Back when the internet was new and digital payments were novel, we accepted convenience fees as a tax for the luxury of skipping a long line. However, now that digital transactions make up the bulk of everyday commerce, the convenience fee is outdated at best. At worst, it gives companies an excuse to bilk their customers while providing little or no added value. After all, where is the convenience in paying for a service or commodity that can only be paid for online?
These days, digital is no longer an alternative channel. Convenience fees were originally designed as a premium charge for an optional service. When a transaction channel becomes the standard or primary method of interaction, charging extra for it makes no sense.
Besides, who enjoys greater convenience from online transactions? Consumers or merchants?
Businesses can realize massive savings by processing payments digitally. This reduces cash-handling liabilities and theft risks, onsite staffing and real estate overhead, manual bookkeeping and reconciliation errors.
Digital adoption drives operational expenses down for the merchant. Passing payment processing costs onto the customer instead of absorbing them as standard overhead is like double-dipping — it’s greedy and inconsiderate.
For private companies — especially utilities — charging the consumer for online transactions is completely unjustified. These companies actively reduce their operational footprint by pushing their customers online. Why do you think these companies are so eager to shift you to electronic billing? Because it costs them less.
These days, the processing fee should be treated as a basic cost of doing business, just like rent, electricity or point-of-sale hardware. Your neighborhood grocer doesn’t charge you a convenience fee to pay for his electronic cash register, so why should you be made to pay for your merchant’s computer network?
Some telcos try to justify the fee by saying the money goes to cybersecurity, server maintenance and fraud prevention measures to secure our online transactions and data. But what brick-and-mortar store charges you for the padlock on their gate or the security guard at the door?
On our side of the equation, customers are using their own devices, electricity and internet connections to complete online transactions. Without customers investing in their own gadgets and data, what use is a merchant’s digital payment platform? Customers are already paying for one end of the digital infrastructure necessary to make online transactions possible. Why should we pay more? Maybe it’s time these merchants pay us a convenience fee.