Q: What the Illuminating Co./FirstEnergy is doing does not seem right. I receive my bill by email. I pay my bill by credit card. My most recent bill says it was due Feb. 1, 2017. Yet they charged my credit card on Jan. 23, 2017, nine days before it was due.
I received the email notification regarding my bill on Jan. 17, 2017. The bill is dated Jan. 18, 2017. The email notification does say:
“You are enrolled in the Automatic Credit Card Payment Program. The amount of $(the bill) will automatically be charged to your credit or debit card no sooner than five days after the billing date listed on your electric bill.”
It didn’t say the amount was going to be charged to my account on Jan. 23 — nine days early.
Yes, I could go with the automatic deduction from my bank account, as FirstEnergy has suggested as a solution, but I lose out on my 1.5 percent cash back from Capital One. And if the Illuminating Co./First Energy errs in a bank deduction, however unlikely that may be, it may take longer to straighten things out rather than having the ability to dispute a credit card charge.
Shouldn’t the date my card is charged match their due date on my bill? Are they trying to improve cash flow at my (and others’) expense? Is this legal?
G.O., Parma
A: I can see why this ticks you off. You use a credit card. I think this irritation would be compounded for consumers who use a debit card. (You wisely point out one of the many reasons debit cards can be dangerous.)
I checked with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, which oversees FirstEnergy and other utilities in this state. “The issue identified by the customer below is not addressed by our rules,” PUCO spokesman Matthew Schilling said.
It simply requires this about bills: “The due date must be no earlier than 14 days after the bill is postmarked.” Schilling noted that the PUCO’s rules for electric billing are in Ohio Administrative Code 4901:10-22.
Technically, it seems FirstEnergy is complying with that 14-day notice because you do have payment options. If you were paying by automatic bank draft, it would be on your due date. If you paid through your bank’s online bill payment service, you could choose the payment date. If you mailed a check, you could send it when you wanted.
Here’s what FirstEnergy said in its email to you about this issue: “Thank you for your bill inquiry. When you sign up for the Automatic Credit Card Program it is deducted 5 days after the bill goes out. This is how the program works. If you want it to be paid on the date it is due then you could do the Checkless Payment Plan. We cannot change the date it comes out with the Credit Card.”
FirstEnergy spokesman Mark Durbin said the terms and conditions of the recurring credit card payment program “are clearly spelled out prior to a customer signing up for the program.” Customers must agree to get bills by email instead of by traditional mail. Other terms include “the fact that the payment will hit their credit card five days after the bill date.” Durbin added that “the company is able to save money by not having to mail out a bill and the processing costs are reduced as well.”
If you chose to pay your bill by credit card on your own (not automatically), you’d have to pay a $3.95 processing fee, Durbin said. With the recurring payment program, FirstEnergy pays the bank interchange fee.
To answer your overall question: This appears to be legal, since FirstEnergy isn’t moving up your due date, and you have options that allow you to pay on the actual due date. Of course, just because it’s legal doesn’t necessarily make it a good business practice.
Schilling said consumers with utility questions or complaints can call 800-686-7826, or contact the regulator online https://www.puco.ohio.gov/puco/
Also, you raised the issue of debit cards. This illustrates yet another reason to be careful when using debit cards on a primary account, particularly for a recurring payment. What would happen if there were a billing error and, instead of being billed for $100, you were billed for $1,000? The money would be debited and you’d have to deal with getting your own money back.
Q: I recently saw an an article about people getting a phone call and being asked a question, such as, “Can you hear me?” When the response is, “YES,” you then get billed for something, and they have your recorded voice agreeing. I got one of those calls. All I said was, “Hello,” a couple of times. Then I hung up.
Please send me a link to that article. I want to share it far and wide.
R.M., Canfield
A: I’m going to include a link to a piece, but it’s not the one you’re referencing.
There’s no indication this type of scam is happening. Now, I don’t recommend talking to robocallers. Heck, I don’t even recommend answering phone calls when you don’t recognize who’s calling.
This doesn’t pass the sniff test for one big reason: For this to be a scam, the caller would need more than your voice saying “Yes.” The thief would need a payment method. Just because they have your name or phone number doesn’t mean they know your bank account number or credit card number.
Now, this raises the question about whether the entity could try to hit your phone bill as a third-party vendor. This certainly seems possible. This sort of thing has happened before, both with landlines and cellphones.
But I don’t know that this is an issue — yet. You’re certainly smart to be skeptical of anyone calling you and be on guard for any potential scam.
If anyone has incurred any kind of charges for anything as a result of a phone call like this, please let me know.
Here’s a link to a Snopes piece on this topic: http://www.snopes.com/can-you-hear-me-scam/
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