Convenience, eh?

I wrote my very first check when I was in second grade. No, I didn’t have a checking account at the age of eight, but my second grade teacher decided to teach us how to write a check for some reason. I don’t recall why Mrs. Calvert opted to tear out twenty some odd of her own checks and teach a bunch of eight year olds how to fill out a check, but that was just part of what made her awesome. That and the fact the she always had red vines.

The main point here being that I’ve been writing checks for over twenty years now and I don’t find it to be that troublesome. In today’s world, where you can get everything online from clothes to bills to food to things you wouldn’t want to be seen purchasing at an actual brick and mortar store in front of strangers (much less a potential acquaintance), I find myself paying more and more things via debit or credit card over the internet. Bills and clothes and airline tickets, not so much the unmentionables. After doing so much shopping, etc. online, I was unsurprised to find that the State of Oregon would allow me to pay them the $50 in taxes I still owed them online.

As I was clicking through the website getting ready to hand over my debit card information, because it just seems wrong to pay your taxes on a credit card – even if you are getting rewards, I noticed a small little disclaimer. They wanted to charge me a convenience fee of $2 to accept my online payment. As I am not opposed to writing a check and believe in the investment that is the Forever Stamp, I’m unclear how charging me an extra $1.50 ($2 minus the cost of a stamp) is convenient for me.

I already think that I pay too much in taxes and here they were, trying to swindle an extra $1.50 out of me. So instead of “conveniently” paying online, my cheap self wrote the state a check and mailed it in. Have fun dealing with the extra paperwork government suckers. H – 1, Oregon – 0 . . . not including taxes.