At the time, Telus noted its 1.5% fee would begin in October and now, it appears this will come to fruition as the company previously stated.
Telus today sent out emails to customers explaining and reiterating the 1.5% fee, according to copies obtained by iPhone in Canada.
“As a valued Telus customer, we’d like to keep you informed of upcoming changes to your mobility account,” reads the email from Telus.
We’ve reached out to Telus to confirm whether the CRTC has approved their request yet or not. It seems the company is confident the fee request will be approved.
Telus says starting October 17, 2022, customers that “choose to make a bill payment with a credit card will be charged a 1.5% Credit Card Processing Fee (plus tax).” This fee applies to one-time and pre-authorized credit card bill payments. Telus says it is not higher than the fee it pays to accept credit card payments.
How much will this new 1.5% credit card processing fee cost you? Telus provides the following example: “For example, if a customer in Ontario is making a $100 bill payment, the 1.5% Credit Card Processing Fee would equal $1.50, plus 13% HST of $0.20, for a total of $1.70.”
The Telus customer received the email because they are currently set up for pre-authorized credit card payments.
Telus says to consider “using alternative payment options” to avoid the Credit Card Processing Fee, including one-time payments at your bank, recurring bank payments through pre-authorized debit, or Visa Debit, Visa Prepaid and Mastercard Prepaid.
Telus says by switching to pre-authorized debit from your bank account includes “advantages”, such as avoiding credit card interest rates and processing fees, the ability to pause your pre-authorized debit payment prior to the withdrawal date, and never incurring late payment charges or collections treatment due to an invalid credit card. Sounds like it could be scary if you’re not using pre-authorized debit, right?!
If I was a Telus customer, I’d gladly pay the 1.5% credit card processing fee to leverage the power of chargebacks, if the company messes up your bill. Paying through pre-authorized debit means money comes straight out of your bank account, and that can be next to impossible to recover once it’s gone.
Telus says prepaid accounts and all customers in Quebec are excluded from its new Credit Card Processing Fee.
Last month, Telus told iPhone in Canada in a statement, “this fee helps us recover a portion of the processing costs we incur to accept credit card payments, and the average cost will be around $2 for most customers.”
Interestingly enough, the Telus email appears to have an incomplete title, as it still uses what appears to be a default title template, reading “lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.”
If the CRTC has indeed approved this credit card processing fee, it remains to be seen if Telus rivals Rogers and Bell will try to implement their own fee as well.
The Telus plan to implement a credit card processing fee appears to start just after changes to no surcharge rules are expected to kick in, possibly as early as October 6. Back in 2018, a class-action lawsuit targeted Visa and Mastercard over credit card processing fees. Both companies settled, essentially paving the way for merchants to charge consumers a credit card processing fee.
“As of Oct. 6, 2022, Canadian merchants will be allowed to surcharge Mastercard credit card transactions, providing them with the flexibility to operate their businesses based on what best suits their needs,” said senior vice president of communications at Mastercard, Will O’Connor, to BNN Bloomberg on September 9.
In the European Union, credit card processing fees are capped at 0.3 per cent; Telus is opting for 1.5% which is being called as too high, according to Ambarish Chandra, a professor of economic analysis and policy at the University of Toronto.
John Lawford, the executive director and general counsel of PIAC, told BNN Bloomberg, “I think it’s going to be a bit of a wild west, we are going to see some experimentation,” in regards to coming credit card processing fees, adding there is “nobody really in charge” when it comes to overseeing the implementation of fees on consumers.
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Rogers and Bell will follow for sure.
It would be stupid if Rogers do this because they keep offering their own branded MasterCard. Imagine someone who order one just to be charged 1,5% more after just because they use their new CC lol
That would be funny..lol
maybe thats their next credit card advantage, wave your Rogers bill 1.5% fee, the other 2 doesn’t have😂😂😂😂
Agreed! how could they do this to us.
Would be better if they offered a discount to those who pay via bank or debit card, rather than charging more. In the meantime I’ve switched to paper billing More as a sense of rebellion than anything. We use all sort of things to lower their costs, but they don’t share the benefit. If other providers don’t follow I switch.
It would be the same thing. They would just raise the price of the basic fee and pretend they’re giving you a discount.
Okay, great, I’ll ask my bills to be sent by real post. We have already the most expensive mobile services in the world, but for our greedy arrogant monopolists still not enough!
There are fees for real post too
How much? (I use Rogers but I’m sure they’ll follow soon)
I’m not your mother. Look it up.
$2
Unbelievable how a bunch of thieves these companies are with the CRTC licking their a$$ in every way possible. Not only these Telecoms makes tons of profits by charging us the highest prices on the word, and now they can’t afford the credit card fee?
I never hear again that the CRTC is there for costumers.
Call and ask for a $20 credit that will cover a full year for most people. They will probably do it as it’s pretty small. You can ask for more for the inconvenience $50-$100.
So then I could pay manually every month by bank transfer – but they would have to send me a paper bill so I know what the amount is… or do they charge for that too?
They actually do charge $2 for that
Who the hell would pay $2 for a paper bill? My bill gets emailed to me every month. N/C. Bonus: one less piece of debris in my mailbox when I check it every week or so.
Thank you Telus, yet again for being so customer-focused—NOT! We all get points from paying bills with our credit cards, and Telus is leading the charge so this will go away, merchant by merchant. I wish we had more real competition in this space!!
As if they can’t cover this cost as one of doing business or haven’t already been doing so for as long as they’ve been a business.
It really should be illegal to receive points from credit card purchases. It’s an incentive to drive up cost of everything promoting inflation. I’ll be honest I wouldn’T use my credit card nearly as much if I didn’t get points. But it’s a bigger issue and a company like telus starting the change is funny.
Bahaha…yet they need your credit card to do a credit check when you sign up, otherwise you’re in for a treat jumping through the whole process.
No, there’s no limit for corporate greed and we as a society and shareholders, encourage that.
Why not also charge rent fees for Telus stores, coffee fees for Telus exec’s free coffees at work, and lobbying fees for paying off CRTC execs. It’s all the cost of doing business, right?
Protest by requesting a printed statement. I’ve done this for all of my Telus accounts.