Telus scraps 1.5% credit card surcharge on customer bills

Telus has reversed its decision to charge additional fees to customers who use credit cards to pay bills.

Last fall, the company said it would start charging some of those customers up to a 1.5% commission.

The change came as a result of a settlement between credit card companies and merchants that allowed merchants to begin passing on fees, known as interchange fees, directly to customers.

Telus was one of the first companies to try this, notifying customers of its plans last summer. When asked for comment at the time, both Telus rivals Rogers and BCE confirmed to CBC News that they have no plans to introduce credit card surcharges for customer billing.

But on Tuesday, Telus confirmed to CBC News that it has eliminated the fee entirely.

“After careful consideration, we have eliminated credit card processing fees for bill payments,” the company told CBC News in a statement. “We want our customers to know that we have heard their concerns, and thank you for sharing your feedback.”

Last year, the company began introducing customer fees for certain services in some parts of the country, and applied more broadly to Canada’s telecommunications regulator, the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). asked permission.

More than 4,000 Canadians wrote to regulators commenting on the proposal during the public consultation period.

The CRTC rejected the request in December, saying it was “extremely concerned about this practice because it goes against affordability and consumer interests,” although it said the company would charge a fee for some services. He said he had no authority to prevent its introduction. Businesses not subject to CRTC regulations.

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Nino Paolucci, who runs a business in Calgary with two landlines and seven mobiles on one Telus bill, said he was furious when the charges were introduced in the first place. .

“I’m giving you $500 to $800 a month for phone bills, what do you want me to charge you for paying with Visa? Are you kidding me?” he told CBC News in an interview on Tuesday.

Paolucci said he stayed with the company because he didn’t think the other options were any better, but rather than the company pretending to be something else to avoid a price hike, simply raise prices across the board. said he hopes

“What you should do in that case is don’t tell the customer you’re doing that, just raise the rate by a dollar. They will, and I haven’t seen it.” “But I have my back against the wall because they want to pay me a penny or two.”