Ici*fee village center
 

I have this charge every month on my credit card.
ICI*FEE VILLAGE CENTER $7.99
I have no idea what it is for. Can someone help me out in identifying what it is for?

GOOGLE is your friend.................

"ICI FEE VILLAGE CENTER $7.99" appears to refer to a charge or fee associated with Village Center Utilities in The Villages, Florida. It is likely a convenience fee or a specific service charge, potentially for online or credit card payments, though the specific nature of the charge isn't detailed in the search results.
Village Center Utilities is a department of The Villages Community Development Districts and is located at 984 Old Mill Run, Lady Lake, FL 32162. They can be reached by phone at +1 352-750-0000. Payment options include online, credit card, auto-pay by bank draft, mail, drop box, or in-person at one of the District Customer Service Centers.

if you are paying your monthly district bill online or with a credit card, this is the fee. There is a charge which varies by payment type for the convenience.

Credit card fee.

Digital banking was *supposed* to be faster, more secure, and less costly to banks and other financial institutions. Same with ATMs. Supposed to cut down on expensive tellers. Now we are getting charged for their cost-savings measures.

I find it annoying. So here's my remedy. I have a few vendors that do this to me. So I am happy to write them a check. Costs me a stamp. They can pay someone to receive, open, process, and deposit my mailed check. Then they can wait a few days for it to clear. These are all processes that cost them time, effort, and some money. Then they can take their "convenience fee" and shove it up their darkness.

Someone suggested to me if you added a dollar to your check it screw up their book keeping incurring an addental expense for the vendor , pay back?

You can use an alternative payment method, like having the payment come out of your checking account without any fee.

I pay my utility bill using my Truist online bill pay system. No fee. This is NOT autopay.

Absolutely not! I'm very selective on which payments come out of my accounts automatically. As in as few as humanly possible.

Many years ago, Mrs. EDJ had a membership at an exclusive women-only gym. She carried this membership into our courtship. When we were nearing nuptials and reviewing our finances together, we looked more closely at this gym. They had been out of business for a few years and were still auto-deducting the monthly fee. Phone calls, emails, visits to the location, nothing gained any relief. The only way to stop the auto-deduction was to close out the account (huge inconvenience) and re-set everything with all other payees, etc. That money was lost and never regained.

Huge hassle, and a long running avoidable expense.

Another time I joined a prominent well know and large health club. L.A. Fitness. When I went to cancel, I had to spend two hours on the phone speaking to three different people before I could make any headway in getting them to cancel my membership and the resultant monthly auto-deductions.

I will not easily allow another entity to have the ability to reach into my account and take out the money they feel they are owed.

They want to charge me non-nominal "convenience" or "transaction" fees, then they will get a hand-written check. Usually with something derogatory in the memo line. I like the idea of over paying by a wee bit.

Enjoy yourself, no need to be miserable, LOL

:bigbow:

OK, it was faster, it was more secure, and it was less costly. However, after the transition to digital, everyone's costs are back to stable and equal. And the processing network still incurs increased costs annually, and the speed of validation is millions times faster than the initial speed for the millions of worldwide transactions done daily. . so yes, the costs have stopped going down, and are now going up. . and there are alternative ways to pay bills other than credit cards which don't cost anything. .

capitalism seeks increased revenue and profits annually. If ever there was a captive audience, credit card processing networks is one of them, and there costs go up every year.

It's not a fee for the service provider. When you are a business and you accept credit cards, you are subject to fees on the transactions that are not minimal. Those asking for service charges are essentially giving you the choice to avoid those fees by doing what you are doing while your other business relationships don't offer you that choice and just use the CC interchange fees as an additional cost of business and hit everyone for them whether they use them or not.

You get to choose and you do choose what is right for you, but suggesting they "shove it up their darkness" for providing you an extra option is a little harsh.

Right. If you are gone all summer, it’s convenient to be able to pay your amenities fee et al online. If you pay attention when you do so, you will note that fee listed, and you agree to pay it. I think it also tells you that you will be charged separately.

If you are here all year, your postal station has a mail slot for these payments, and you don’t even need a stamp. Just write a check and put it in an envelope with a copy of your bill and put it in the slot when you go to pick up your mail.

Technology is NOT everything it's cracked up to be for sure! Everything has a fee if not multiple fees! It's just 2.99, but how many thousands/millions of people are paying that fee and what's that total?

I am loathe to have a business access my financial accounts. That being said, what I have done is set up a secondary checking account (American Express) where I can easily make deposits via an app and give them access to this account and not access to my main checking account. Also, as an aside, US Bank has a no-fee credit card which gives you 5% back on utilities which more than covers most, but not all, fees.

:shocked::shocked:wow!

You can make a one-time electronic payment using your bank's online bill pay system. The business has no access to your account and there is no fee. That is how I make my monthly utility bill payment and other payments. Autopay is not required to do this.

A convenience fee is charged from the credit card Bank to the vendor who passes the fee on to the consumer. It wouldn’t make any sense to punish the vendor. The fee cannot be added to the cost of the service/item or that is considered surcharging and illegal.

Why does The Villages need a vendor? I bypass the vendor and make the payment directly from my bank to The Villages electronically. There is no fee to do this. My understanding is that the only reason The Villages hired a vendor was to "hopefully" increase the number of customers who sign up for autopay. I don't use autopay, the vendor, or a credit card, and I pay no fee. The vendor receives no money from me.

Yeah, I pay from my bank online too. However, what I noticed is they send a "paper check", as required by the VCDD, they said. No problem for me, now that I have learned to enter it for an earlier pay date so the "Paper check" reaches them on time. Only found out because I had a late fee once, which the VCDD gladly refunded. I don't know what their game is, but I'm OK with it now that I know. And yes, to whoever said they don't have much pulled from their checking account. Bad experience there too...with the newspaper of all things. They "decided" once to pull for the year instead of bi-annually. Again, not a $$ issue just more of a "who the hell authorized that" issue. I won't allow it anymore. They can wait for my check.

My payments are made electronically, and they are processed within one day. No paper checks are sent.

Are you sure you are using the correct payee information on your bank's bill pay system? My bill pay system does not send a paper check, and I am pretty certain that the VCDD does not require a paper check, nor do they want a paper check. I use Truist Bank for bill pay.

This would be a valid argument if things had changed more recently. Things have no changed. The fees from the CC companies have been there for decades. This is a money grab we’re seeing more and more. Restaurants that charge this fee incur a massive penalty of 100% of their revenue stream from me. I don’t go there any more. Other places (like my Villages utility bill) charge these fees, but like another poster indicated, there are workarounds. I pay direct from checking and avoid the fees or revisit the dark ages and write a good, old-fashioned check.

The fee indicated in the OP seems high, though. Is there any possibility it is from the the tee-time system for access?

Sorry!!! My husband was wrong. It’s $8.00 even for the tee time. Sorry.

I pay my district bill online from MY bank's online bill pay system. The Villages receives the money within 5 days as a paper check as they do not accept electronic payment receipts.
Online banking IS easier, faster and more convenient - and FREE - I do not even pay for that stamp!

I don't know why they send a paper check. I pay my bill the same way and it is processed as an electronic transfer. No paper check.

Got make money some how. Same with tax bill with all add ons. If there was not fees there would be no Banks. Credit cards are self explanatory… credit = fees and interest.

Convenience FEE
 

It is NOT convenientfor me to have to come up with another $8
Also...EIGHT DOLLARS?

I also pay this bill with online banking. At first, they issued a paper check. Now, it’s an electronic transfer that occurs within one day. I have never had an issue making a timely payment this way. It costs me nothing.

No, I can't be sure sure. I use Chase and have never had a problem elsewhere. I called and they told me "they", the VCDD, required a paper check. Again, not a problem except that I have to remember to enter it early on in the month for payment. Actually, it says when I pay it "paper check". Hmmmmm....some day when I'm bored maybe I'll call again. LOL Or, as you said maybe the address or something else is wrong. I entered what I believed to be right, then it pulls up a payee. Maybe I'll check that first. Thanks...

Same here, just from a different bank. I send, automatically, the same amount each month, which I determined by analyzing past charges, since the do not allow budget billing like any other utility. A credit balance builds when water usage is low, and this diminishes when water usage is higher. Several years now, and I have needed few adjustments.

I'm using M&T Bank....for the first year or so, it said that a paper check was generated. They must have worked with The Villages to set up electronic payment because now they no longer issue a paper check and the transaction goes through in one day. I can say for sure that a paper check is not required because my bank is no longer issuing a paper check and my bill gets paid just fine every month.

I would suggest that you log on to Chase and look at your payees, or click on "edit payee". It should have an account number that starts with C944-****-**. This account number is on your bill. So, in addition to the Old Mill address, the payee information should also include the VCCDD account number. I think adding this number will allow electronic payments to be processed without mailing a check.

Adding a dollar...
 

Sorry, but that is not accurate. I'm an A/R Billing Manager, so I speak from experience.

Way to go!