Use your Amex at Aust Post to pay bills

[serfty]

Australia Post's acts as an Agency for these bill payments. Their agency clients can specify who they will accept payment from. Obviously your council will not accept Amex payments.

You would have more luck 'reporting' your council than Australia Post ...

 

[NM]

Australia Post's client can specify who they will accept payment from. Obviously your council will not accept Amex payments.

You would have more luck 'reporting' your council than Australia Post ...

indeed. I think they will find that the "Amex Welcome" sign refers to purchasing Products or Services from Australia Post. Using AP as a conduit for paying a bill is unlikely to be considered by either AP or Amex as purchasing a product or service from AP. Its nice for those who have managed to make it work, but I don't think reporting to Amex is going to help in this case.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

indeed. I think they will find that the "Amex Welcome" sign refers to purchasing Products or Services from Australia Post. Using AP as a conduit for paying a bill is unlikely to be considered by either AP or Amex as purchasing a product or service from AP. Its nice for those who have managed to make it work, but I don't think reporting to Amex is going to help in this case.

Indeed. Such payments are obviously a loophole.

Drawing it to the attention of senior management will if anything only succeed it getting the loophole closed down.

Better to say nothing and just accept that at some agencies that they will process some such payments.

 

[serfty]

Indeed. Such payments are obviously a loophole. ...

There is NO loophole.

Australia Post merely acts as an Agency.

It's the service provider who's bill you are paying that decides how payments of their bill may be made when utilising APost as an intermediary..

If they want payment in Amex only - then so be it. Cash only, then so be it. Cash, Visa but no MC or AX then so be it.

 

[auriga]

For Burwood Council (NSW), they will accept Amex if you go to pay at the council office, but not via other payment methods. A bit of a time waster for me!

 

[glass]

There is NO loophole.

Australia Post merely acts as an Agency.

It's the service provider who's bill you are paying that decides how payments of their bill may be made when utilising APost as an intermediary..

If they want payment in Amex only - then so be it. Cash only, then so be it. Cash, Visa but no MC or AX then so be it.

Indeed. But what If they want payment in Cash only, but austpost took amex for them? Should the whole payment be invalidated?

 

[serfty]

Indeed. But what If they want payment in Cash only, but austpost took amex for them? Should the whole payment be invalidated?

With their systems, that is very difficult to do.

The operator would be unable to accept CC as MOP* for any part of the value of the agency transaction(s) in question. If it did somehow happen, Post would underwrite any costs to its agency client; Also the staff member (or LPO manager) would have quite some explaining to do.

Note, the operator cannot enter a transaction value on the Pinpad, they must enter it on the MOP* screen which has underlying software to prevent such issues.

*MOP: Method of payment.

 

[JohnK]

The payment processing was changed ... people were shunning the post office for CC bill payments when most were treated as cash advances.

This was the main reason I did not pay bills with Amex, if at all possible, at Australia Post. I remember seeing the signs many times but have not noticed that the signs have been taken down.

For Burwood Council (NSW), they will accept Amex if you go to pay at the council office, but not via other payment methods. A bit of a time waster for me!

Exactly the same with Canterbury Council (NSW).

 

[Zippy7]

I've just tried to pay my council rates in person, at the Post Office, with my Amex.
Even though there is a prominent sign stating "Amex Welcome Here" my card was refused. The explanation was: "That biller doesn't accept Amex".

I've reported them to Amex via the Amex website. It does state clearly on the bill that only Visa or MC are acceptable but I've reported Aus Post because of their prominent Amex signage. My Amex certainly wasn't "welcome".

Same thing happened when we tried to pay our council rates - had to use VISA....

 

[porkchop]

I used to work in the bank and financial institution. Amex is a bit different from Visa/MC in terms of Bpay.

Some Visa/MC issued by bank treats bpay as a cash advance but some don't and it is depending on the card issuer how they process the transaction. The generic Amex treats Bpay as a purchase. I am not sure if a Co-brand Amex issued by bank will treat the Bpay as a purchase but it simply worth to ask.

From what I know, Energy Aust does accept Amex if you pay your bill via call centre operator or direct debit. I pay my elec and gas bills through energy aust via direct debit to my amex. Sydney water is not a Amex merchant as well as some local councils. So I am quite sure that you cannot pay these bills either online or in person at any POS. However some councils does accept Amex with X% of surcharge. The surcharge will process to your Amex account from council with X% even if you've paid at post office. The Bpay via credit card is not depend on credit card scheme but depend on the biller's bill code. For example, Aust post is a amex merchant but if you are trying to pay a bill that the biller is not an Amex merchant, there is no way a transaction can be processed. It simply cannot be captured and recognised by the biller's system. The credit card scheme acquirer authorisation system is not capable to recognise different scheme's transaction (eg. Visa auth system cannot recognise Amex tran code) and the general ledger from whatever credit card scheme also rejects the incoming transaction.

Some banks offer duo-cards account such as Westpac (MC/Amex; Visa/Amex - Earth card) operates under a consolidated issuer auth system that checks your account status and credit limit. However, when it comes in auth a transaction, it is scheme acquirer system to verify your card account first before pass on to issuer auth system to check your credit limit.

 

[bambbbam2]

It does seem inconsistent. I used to buy Cityrail tickets and some stations would accept Amex but not others..

 

[JohnK]

It does seem inconsistent. I used to buy Cityrail tickets and some stations would accept Amex but not others..

The same inconstistency exists with QR Rail. I can use Amex at Central but not at Toowong....

 

[Mal]

Grr @ one biller of mine which will accept through Australia Post: Visa, MasterCard or Diners Club (but not Amex!).

 

[AnonymousCoward]

However, when presented the bills they were accepted and no talk of an extra charge. I won't see the next bill for 3 mths, so I guess I'll have to wait and see. My experience with surchanges is that they are added at the time of paying not in retrospect, so I'm pretty sure it won't be on the next bill.

Telstra adds surcharges to your next bill when you pay over the phone.

 

[ColinP]

Telstra adds surcharges to your next bill when you pay over the phone.

Yes they do, but at least the surcharge is the same for Visa, MC or Amex. 0.69% iirc.

 

[futago flyer]

Just a quick update.

The gas and electricity bills turned up today... I didn't get hit with a fee for paying by Amex at the post office

So there you go, I paid at a post office, no fee was applied:

• at the time of paying, or
• when the next bill arrived no fee was applied in retrospect.

Cheers.

 

[daYZman]

Just a quick update.

The gas and electricity bills turned up today... I didn't get hit with a fee for paying by Amex at the post office

So there you go, I paid at a post office, no fee was applied:

• at the time of paying, or
• when the next bill arrived no fee was applied in retrospect.

Cheers.

Hi,

Which company are you with and which state are you in?

Cheers.

 

[Nigelinoz]

If you go to Australia Post : POSTbillpay - Search List of Billers you can search for
your biller alphabetically,and you can see whether a fee is added for payment with a credit card.
It does seem that some organisations will charge a cc fee but others will not.
Overall I find the service excellent,I have used it for a few years and it even gives me an option to search through past payments so if there is a query I can quickly check it out.

 

[_kab_]

If you go to Australia Post : POSTbillpay - Search List of Billers you can search for
your biller alphabetically,and you can see whether a fee is added for payment with a credit card.
It does seem that some organisations will charge a cc fee but others will not.
Overall I find the service excellent,I have used it for a few years and it even gives me an option to search through past payments so if there is a query I can quickly check it out.

Thanks! Super helpful! I am making a concerted effort this year to rack up as many Amex transactions as poss and I have been thinking that although BPay is convenient it is also a wasted opportunity since any card payments are automatically assigned to Mastercard (in the case where you have 2 cards under the one account). Lucky for me my gas, elec, water and council rates can all be paid by Amex @ AusPost w. no surcharge!

 

[Nigelinoz]

I have a great system set up,my OH simply writes a cheque to pay the credit card at the start of the month then uses the postbillpay online service to pay the bills as they fall due during the month,works fine,I get the bills paid for me and she gets a new pair of shoes or a handbag each month-don't ask me how!