Like last month, I go to make a manual online payment, like I have for the last twelve years, and over three years with the card I have, and again, it wouldn't go through.
So, again, I call to make the payment over the phone. While waiting and listening to lovely, if not "driving someone to pull their hair out" elevator music, I decided to just go on automatic billing to save the five dollars per month and put an end to having to call up to make a payment. Oops. NO CAN DO. As it turns out, and this is more information than they had last month when I called, if you are using a prepaid Credit Card, like many of us who are on Social Security have, it can no longer be used to make online manual payments, nor can it be used for automatic payments.
So, I guess those of us who receive our Social Security/Disability this way can no longer pay our Hughesnet bill online with a manual transaction, nor pay it automatically. How peachy. So much for saving $5 per month.
Still, the customer service rep I spoke to took notes and is going to bring this up with her supervisor, as I guess this is starting to become an issue for other people, as well. And, let's be honest here, it IS an issue. Should I be penalized because my Credit Card is loaded with REAL money and not credit? I say Credit Card only because it can be used as such (credit or debit). Technically, it's not credit, but you know what I mean. It's more or less a plastic checking account that I can't put money into, myself.
A payment is a payment is a payment. It shouldn't matter. It's absolutely no different than paying from one's checking account. Plus, this particular card is ONLY used by Social Security, and it's the ONLY one they use, so everyone who receives Social Security or SSDI that doesn't have a checking account has this card, and no one who doesn't have SS or SSDI has it. There is no other option for SS or SSDI. A checking/savings account or this card. That's it. No more live checks (save for the first month or two after someone enrolls). I have absolutely zero need for a checking account, which is why I closed it and went with this a few years ago. It was never a problem, again, until last month.
So, hopefully I will be able to resume my manual online payments in the future, or even save $5 per month if I can use it for automatic payments. And that one irks me a bit. I finally decide to bite the bullet, trust Hughesnet with my funds, and go on automatic billing, and I can't because I use a certain type of card. No $5 savings for me. I receive nearly thirty dollars per month off of my DirecTV bill through discounts I have gotten for being with them for so long, and have received some type of discount from them for more than half of the twelve years I have been with them. I signed up with Hughesnet and DirecTV on the same day in late 2004. I'm not asking for any "loyalty" discount with Hughesnet. I just wanted to get the $5 for finally trusting them enough to go on automatic billing. Ugh. Yeah, it takes a while for me to build trust when it comes to my money. Such is life.
Oh, and by the way, for the second month in a row, when I entered my phone number, I received the message, "Sorry, but it looks like multiple accounts may be assigned to this phone number." This part would be completely comical, if it weren't a little unnerving. Get off of my phone number, Deepa! LOL.
To add, I don't mind so much having to call every month to make a payment. It's not like it's hard and I don't have ten or fifteen minutes once a month to listen to lovely elevator music. It's just the principle of the whole thing.
To add further, I don't know if prepaid CCs were EVER accepted for automatic payments. I suspect, though, that they were, and that this changed when being able to use them for online manual payments changed. I have no way of knowing for sure, though.
Edit (7/1/2018): I just went back through and separated the paragraphs. I don't know what happened, but for some reason the separations were deleted and it they got mashed together. So, to make it easier for folks to read, I edited the separations back in.
