It’s that time of the month again, the week most of my bills come due. Prior to retirement, I gave very little thought to making insurance payments as they were automatically extracted from my paycheck. Retirement brought monthly insurance bills. Just thinking about the cost raises my blood pressure by ten points, but I have another issue.

This week, I received a call from one of the companies informing me that I could simply give them my bank account number and they would take care of the rest. Hmm, T-Mobile will give me a $10 discount on my monthly bill if I give them access to my bank account. Yeah, that’s not happening.

Why in the world would I give a company direct access to my bank account for nothing more than the illusion of making it easier for me? Given the number of companies getting hacked every day, I’m only increasing my risk. Not to mention the possibility of errors such as double billing and not terminating payments when I change insurance. None of this has happened to me yet, but just read a few insurance companies reviews.

I also reject all their efforts to encourage me to go green and accept email bills. It’s not that I prefer my bills mailed to me, but if they want me to make it easy on them, they need to do more than convince me that mailing me a bill each month is destroying the planet. Offer me a discount and I’ll consider it, but until then, they can support the USPS with my monthly bill.

You know my choice

While I’m on the subject of billing, the companies have also made it clear I can pay ahead if I want to avoid the bills. Still not likely. Every day that money is in my account, I can earn interest. Not much, but at the end of the year I can indulge myself with another roll of 3D filament (about 4 cups of coffee at Starbucks).

I like the way the streaming companies operate. You can subscribe by the month or the year, but you get a substantial discount if you subscribe for a year. Insurance companies and phone companies don’t seem to have heard of this practice. Okay, if the companies aren’t going to give me a break, they are welcome to continue billing me on a monthly basis.

Before you say it out loud, I realize this is extremely petty. I’m only a minor nuisance at best. If you add it up, even considering our recently increased postage rates, I’m probably costing each company less than five dollars a year. By the time you consider meetings, updating policy manuals, and training, a simple policy change could cost millions of dollars to implement. By my actions alone, none of this will change. I just don’t have the leverage.

However, if I convince a few of the people reading this to consider their own bill-paying status, and they convince a few of their friends, etc., my leverage increases dramatically and the companies might take notice. Alternatively, like an inexorable law of nature, I know this situation will not improve if I do nothing.

The frustration is real, and it’s tiring. Every little bit adds up, chipping away at my peace of mind. It’s about standing up for what feels right, no matter how small the impact seems. Because if we don’t, who will? And hey, if I’m going to be a thorn in their side, I might as well enjoy it.

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