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Comment by paxys | Hacker News Reader

So if their problem is with credit cards can I pay them cash instead? Or mail a check? Enter a prepaid debit card? Do a wire transfer? Do they accept Venmo/Zelle/Cashapp/Paypal? Bitcoin? Nope, they want to charge the same fee for using literally any of these methods.

What they really want is to get your bank account number so they can charge you whatever they want and you have no way to dispute it.

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AT&T bills me a different amount every single month: I am not using a new service or feature, their massive billing software just can’t keep it consistent. Of course ACH is appealing to them for this - I can’t complain about the amount debited then.

AT&T's billing system (Telegence) is so convoluted, even their own staff can't tell you what your month to month charges will be, it's why they only give you an estimate when you sign up for a new line.

Whats to stop a bank offering an account that you only put enough money in so they cannot draw more than you have? Kind of like Capital One's virtual card numbers which allow you to have a throwaway number per account.

This exists for incoming ACH transfers, and it is called a UPIC account. It is used so that a company can give out their account info to customers, but the bank will deny any third-party withdrawals. The money is directly transferred into the company's "real" bank account.

Tangent on this, The virtual cards sound great on paper but in practice if you get a compromised virtual card number you still have to cancel your main CC and start over which is stupid IMO. They told me since the virtual card number was tied to the CC you still have to change both which negates the benefits of having the virtual card numbers in the first place.

Privacy.com might be a good fit for you

I pay my monthly bill in cash at the Verizon store that’s on my way to work.

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