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Comment by jfrunyon | Hacker News Reader

There's no lending of money involved? If your card gets declined, they add a fee to your bill. You can either choose to not pay it (and stop receiving any services from that company, and possibly have your account sent to collections or even be sued since you agreed to pay something and then didn't pay it), or you can pay it.

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IANAL But AFAIK in civilised jurisdictions if I offer a service for money, and you offer money, I must offer the service.

If I make up charges for you and you refuse to pay, I can cease offering the service (to everybody) but I cannot just cut you out because you will not pay the out of contract charge.

These laws are to protect people who belong to groups that commonly get discriminated against.

> IANAL

That much is clear.

Charging a fee for providing bad payment info is legal. See "bounced check" fees.

LOL @ the guy replying to you acting like collection costs ("§ 17. The debtor's responsibility for costs of extrajudicial collection") is somehow relevant... :)

> IANAL But AFAIK in civilised jurisdictions if I offer a service for money, and you offer money, I must offer the service.

First off, you need to stop using the (incredibly loaded) word "civilized".

Second, I am not aware of ANY jurisdiction in which businesses are required to provide their services or products to anyone.

Third, THIS IS NOT AN "OUT OF CONTRACT CHARGE". This is a charge which IS IN THE CONTRACT.

Fourth, anti-discrimination laws have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with charging someone a fee when they don't pay you in a timely manner and/or cause you to incur higher costs (such as decline fees or NSF fees).

When selling to consumers, you can't force an arbitrary contract on them and demand that they pay you in various tangential circumstances. Neither you are a bank neither them are your insurer.

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