Autopay doesn't show up as recurring bill on credit card

[devy]

I pay with a Tangerine MasterCard. There are reward categories, one of which is "Recurring Bill Payment". I have noticed that my bill does not register in that category. I called and spoke to a Tangerine rep, and it turns out it is up to the merchant to offer recurring payments. She referenced a legal page.

From there: "Recurring Bill Payment: Recurring bill payments are defined as payments made on a monthly or other regular basis, and which are automatically billed by the merchant to your Tangerine Credit Card, such as your monthly phone bill. Not all merchants offer recurring payments, and not all ongoing payments will be considered “recurring payments” for purposes of this category. Please check with your merchant to see if your recurring payment qualifies."

So my question is for Public Mobile - can you please update your status with Mastercard so that we can receive the appropriate rewards from our credit card company? I know I'm not the only one that is frustrated by this as I searched the topic and many people have raised this over the years.

[Triguy]

I don't think PM will offer it since they are a third tier provider..  You could try contacting a moderator.

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[softech · Accepted solution]

not sure if it will happen for 2 reasons, 

technically, it's not recurring in credit card centre terms because it is NOT a monthly service.  Remember PM only offers 30 days Pre-Paid service.

Also, because of the 30 days services, you are not really authorizing them to take out money MONTHLY like other services that you have setup.  I believe PM just keep your CC info and do a "manual" process every 30 days... 

[HALIMACS]

@devy 

A valid question, however prepaid services are not treated as recurring bill payments, even if an auto payment agreement is set up to occur.

With public mobile - you're,  in effect, purchasing a new plan every renewal.

It is interesting you're credit card provider uses the example of a phone bill - - suspect the intention in doing so is to suggest it's a typical postpaid service.

[movi]

@softech, @devy Comparably, I have automatic payments from my CIBC Dividend Platinum Visa card for my Teksavvy internet service and it is recognized as recurring payment for the cash back even though the internet service itself is prepaid (I paid ahead for the first month upon ordering the installation, each billing is for the following month, and a refund of unused prepaid fees is issued if you cancel the service) and the payment is deducted on the same day each month. My CIBC Visa does not see my Public Mobile autopay as recurring payment in their cash back and I thought this might be due to the payment being every 30 days instead of the same day each month. But if it is recurring every 30 days it is still recurring monthly and so I feel this should still be eligible for the cash back amount for recurring payments. A CIBC rep manually issued me the recurring payment cash back amount for my Public Mobile payment but I am following up to see if there is a way they can recognize recurring payments done every 30 days.

[softech]

@movi  glad CIBC willing to help.  Many of the people here will thanks you if you manage to get CIBC to treat PM payment as reoccurring bill for all of us here.

But honest, I still agree what @HALIMACS  said: 

With public mobile - you're,  in effect, purchasing a new plan every renewal.

[darlicious]

@movi 

When a merchant chooses their business type ( in this case as reoccurring payment or not) determines the percentage of merchant fees they pay credit card issuers ( visa, m/c, amex etc...). A reoccuring bill code charges a higher fee to the merchant and these fees are usually passed in to the customer in the form of higher prices. Public mobile chooses not to code its payments this way to keep their prices as low as possible.

While there seems to be many requests for this to change by pm customers when taking the whole customer base into consideration at a third tier provider where many do not even pay with a credit card it is a matter of not making the entire subscribership pay more to satisfy the request of a few.

If you really want to save that small percentage of cashback by paying with a card consider opening a high interest savings account with koho and getting their visa/debit card to pay for your pm plan. Koho and pm have a merchant partnership than allows you to recieve an additional 2% cashback on top of the minimum 0.5% cashback offered by koho.

[movi]

@darlicious Where did you hear that recurring payments have higher merchant fees? According to this link the Visa merchant fees are 1.4 for Recurring Payments vs. 1.54 for Electronic and Mastercard does not have different fees for Recurring Payments https://www.greedyrates.ca/blog/how-much-are-canadian-merchants-really-charged-by-visa-mc/

> If you really want to save that small percentage of cashback 

It is not the amount of the cashback, there is a recurring payment that satisfies the terms for the cash back for recurring payments for my credit card. There should be a way for the credit card to see that a recurring payment every 30 days is a recurring monthly payment.

@softech > With public mobile - you're, in effect, purchasing a new plan every renewal.

I keep the same plans but it does not matter if you change the plan with Teksavvy, Public Mobile, etc. before the next payment or how you perceive the payments in your mind. It is a recurring payment if you are automatically charged for a service on a pre-arranged schedule and for my credit card recurring monthly payments fit into the cash back category for recurring payments.

With Public Mobile's Autopay I have set up recurring pre-authorized payments to be charged every 30 days so there is a recurring monthly payment although the day of the month the payment is deducted can slightly change from month to month.

[darlicious]

@movi 

It all depends where you look for your info...

• Startup and monthly fees: $0
• Recurring payment and card-on-file processing fee: 3.5% plus 15 cents per transaction
• Non-recurring invoice and ecommerce transaction fee: 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction

https://fitsmallbusiness.com/how-to-accept-recurring-payments/#:~:text=Recurring%20payment%20and%20c...

[movi]

@darlicious

> https://fitsmallbusiness.com/how-to-accept-recurring-payments/#:~:text=Recurring%20payment%20and%20c...

Those are the fees for Square payment platform. We are discussing the merchant fees on our credit cards.