The power to say "no"

Consumers are becoming overwhelmed with the number of accounts, services, bills, and charges going online, each with their own account name and password. Companies are taking advantage of that by extracting unearned or unapproved fees without any recourse to consumers. It is legalized theft, and we need to get the law current enough with technology to stop the theft.

Companies have been an unethical trend of profit by fees without obtaining express consumer approval, which becomes even more problematic as electronic events instantly trigger these fees while paper bills are being replaced by e-bills. A lot of these changes are good, but they are creating a new paradigm where companies get to make money by charging consumers for services which they neither wanted nor needed. Technology has also made it possible to alert consumers to services and charges instantly. We need congress to force companies to immediately let consumers know about charges at least a day in advances of actually charging them, so that the charges may be declined. Consumers must be provided the opportunity to register their email or phone for text messages, so that they may see a pending service and decline it and the charge for at least 24 hours. If a company wants to charge a person for anything, they should obtain express approval for each charge, even if the charges are itemized and scheduled in a signed contract as the contract provisions will kick in if the charges are not met as agreed.

One example (of so many): A company charges a fee automatically via an electronic funds transfer. The consumer is unaware of this charge and therefore also unable to decline the services or charges, or to change the account from which the fees are paid. Even if the consumer had each paper for each summary of automated EFT charge (oftentimes doesn’t even exist in paper form) in a folder which they referred to daily, there would be dozens of automated bills to keep track of every day on top of their every day stresses, work, and other responsibilities. IF the congress could mandate that companies report their billing amount and due dates to a central database for each consumer to access and organize, that only would greatly reduce countless late payments, headaches, frustration, and anxiety for both consumers and businesses. This database would have to be accurate, up-to-date and reliable.

So, the company sends the EFT without the consumer’s immediate knowledge or express approval. The bank then processes the EFT without verifying with the consumer whether the company had the authorization to make that EFT charge, let alone to make any EFT charges at all. The bank accepts the charge without getting the customer’s approval. It then determines that there is not enough in the account and charges an over-the-balance fee, because the consumer did not know to transfer funds to the account to cover the EFT charge. The bank does not ask the consumer if they would accept the fee in exchange for covering the EFT charge. What can the bank do? It can instantly (thanks to technology) send an email or phone alert requesting permission to make the charge. The charge can remain pending until approval is obtained or until the bank declines it.

The power to say “no” is a freedom which protects us from thieves who would not allow us the power to say “no.” It should never cost a cent to refuse a charge or service, but a contract may as a result apply its own fees when that answer violates any part of it. For example, the termination of a contract brings an early termination fee. But that fee came by a consumer choice. In order to charge that fee, I believe that the consumer must be informed that their choice would incur that fee and allowed to avoid that fee by not making that choice. Again, the consumer must have the power to say “no” to ALL fees and services, even if saying “no” to one means that they will not say “no” to the other. They must also have the power to authorize the source of the payment each time. Even with automated bill payment, because the source account may need to be changed and the vendor may change the account or services details. Additionally, the consumer needs to know and approve transactions in the event that charges are not correct.

Technology is greatly accelerated and the law needs to keep up with how it changes our economic landscape or else thieves will destroy us and our economy using legally accepted mechanisms. Technology opens us to so many new connections that it is difficult to keep track of everything, and easy for thieves to take advantage of us. Please create some legislation to protect us from these thieves and protect our power to say “no.”