This is great!! Convenience fees are a rip off, not to mention unethical. But I'm still curious as to why America still uses cheques - I haven't used a cheque in years!

Wondered at first why he's not going with auto-pay as it is common to do so in Germany. But than I got stopped by the "our mortgage got sold for the sixth time" and wtf banana republic is he living in that mortgages get sold? I'd go solid if my Bank sold my mortgage! ò.ó

Sweet revenge

The xenophobia against the USA is staggering on bored panda comments. It's kind of embarrassing for the people who post those comments. I feel bad for you.

I detest companies that try to force you to let them auto debit from your bank account.

Ya I'm not a fan of "convenience" fees either, the only person gaining from said fees are the ones charging the fees... My internet and phone provider is Arvig and they too charge a very very convenient fee (for them) of $3 dollars for making a payment by phone and I think so online as well (not 100% entirely sure) which is horse doody because it has to be paid (at least it was in my situation). What exactly is a "convenience fee" anyways? as it seems to be convenient only for the company issuing it ammiright?

Thanks everyone for your answers. I didn't think banking would be that behind in the US and it appears it's not. And I do agree that sometimes a cheque is needed (we call them bank cheques, they're cut by your bank), like buying a house or car. Any really big ticket item, I guess. And for paper trail!!!

You think that's bad? If I get an income tax check for a hundred some dollars and I owe a little bit on child support it goes towards that with a $29 fee.

Some lenders don't allow you to make multiple payments in a billing cycle, so I hope he did his research before doing this.

Wow. It sounds like you all use some pretty crappy banks. I have been with my credit union for years and never had any of these troubles. Transfers, easy! Bill pay, Done! The only time I have to write a check is for those antiquated contractors.

From one of the commenters named Gargoyle who was talking about how the bank 'sits' on payments if it isn't the full amount... I work for a bank and we can't apply a partial payment to a full payment due. The bank will place it into what's called 'excess' or apply it to principle, depending on how you send it in. Laws are very strict about how we need to report late payments-- making a partial payment will not stop late fees or credit reporting after 30 days. If you want to split your payment then you, as the person who chose to do that, will have to call or send a message to us asking to please apply both payments to the bill dated ___ to cover the full amount. It's not a big deal a lot of people do that. But it's the customer's responsibility to pay their bill in full by the due date including giving us time apply the 2 partial payments. Keep it simple and set up an autopay.

This is very likely not a physical check if the payment is from one bank to another. I doubt this is the only account making a payment to the other bank, so it's more likely a digital transfer