SMH has been charging 0.9% for payments by both credit-card (which is an appallingly insecure design and costs a lot to operate) and debit-card (which is effective and inexpensive - although there are endeavours to undermine its security through convenient, but unauthorised, payment).
SMH also precludes payment by bank transfer or any other means. The RBA guidelines permit a materially excessive fee of 0.5%, and the terms are so vague that it doesn't matter whether the payment uses the (expensive) credit-card-oriented Visa system or cost-effective alternatives, and is doesn't matter what the actual cost-profile of the organisation is - they can still get away with 0.5%. In early Sep, I submitted a complaint to ACCC, about the over-the-top price-gouge in relation to card payments, esp. payment by debit-card. I was given the bum's rush by ACCC not once, but twice; so I wrote directly to the Commissioner, and included the draft letter to the relevant person at the RBA. (Only a small amount of knowledge is needed about payment systems and the relevant softish Code and associated moral suasion; then it's pretty easy to use keywords to track contacts down). That resulted in another ACCC complaints person being forced to say they'd handle it. That all happened in early-to-mid September, and I'd heard nothing more. Then, on Monday, SMH sent me (as a subscriber, not as a complainee) the email below, saying payment surcharge fees are, as of 15 Dec, 0.5% for credit-cards and zero for debit-cards. I tried to check with the ACCC about the still-outstanding complaint. (I actually wanted them to have the opportunity to say that they had contacted SMH about the matter). The answer was one of the most useless pieces of time-wasting bureaucratese that I've ever seen. Sub-text: 'Stop bothering me. My 6-month timeframe to address complaints isn't over yet'. However, it would appear that a sustained effort to force the regulator to do its job has resulted in a communication from the regulator to the regulatee, and, on mature reconsideration, the price-gouge being stopped voluntarily by the regulatee. The public *can* win. The public just needs to be modestly well-informed, persistent, and, when necessary, just a little vicious. ____________________________________ Subject: Important information about your subscription Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2020 21:31:17 -0600 From: Herald Subscriptions <[email protected]> Reply-To: Fairfax Media <reply-fe541679776c0475701d-1490788_html-803238-10510523...@email.fairfaxmedia.com.au> To: [email protected] Transactional We're lowering our payment surcharge fees. Dear Roger, We're writing to inform you that from today, Tuesday December 15, we will be reducing our card payment surcharge. Dependent on the card type, the below surcharge will now apply to your subscription payments: * Debit card: no fee will be charged. * Credit card: 0.5%. If you would like to change your card details, simply log into My Account <http://click.email.fairfaxmedia.com.au/?qs=6244359c3c6464f0614f5246fbea8ba12e99bcb606c5a98892fe43802bc0687632b0f2b6fe915214d64228a7b03975c7d1228eddb77f94d3>. You can update your payment method at any time. If you have any further questions, please contact our Customer Service team. Kind regards, The Sydney Morning Herald Subscriber Services Team ____________________________________ Roger Clarke mailto:[email protected] T: +61 2 6288 6916 http://www.xamax.com.au http://www.rogerclarke.com Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law University of N.S.W. Visiting Professor in Computer Science Australian National University _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
