Don't buy postage stamps at an Eastern Bank ATM

[ron_newman]

Wainwright sold them at cost (44 cents each), but Eastern is charging $8.80 for a sheet of 18, which is a 5-cent markup per stamp.

Comments

[smammy]

ATMs that sell postage stamps? Now I've seen everything!

[ron_newman]

Wainwright sold them for many years, and I recall either BayBank or BankBoston doing so as well when I was a customer of those banks.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

I forget what Fleet charged back in the day, but it was also a fairly obnoxious markup.

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

I was surprised to learn that, even though most stores & ATMs don't add a mark-up anymore, the USPS sells them at face value to the stores/banks. They don't even give retailers that accept Priority Mail a cut of the action either, unless they decide to charge their own "handling charge."

[eredien]

Yeah, I thought it was illegal to charge extra anywhere, but apparently not everywhere...

* Can stamps be sold at a higher price?


The Postal Service sells stamps at face value to everyone. We have no control over the pricing policies of private entrepreneurs, companies or agencies who resell our products. A charge at a higher price is most likely imposed to earn a return on their investment of capital and effort. The prices they charge are, no doubt, established on the basis of their needs and market evaluations.

Customers may avoid paying more than the stated value for First-Class Mail postage by purchasing stamps at their Post Office, through Stamps By Mail, phone, online, Automated Postal Centers and retail outlets that are involved with our consignment programs or from one of the many postal stores.

[ron_newman]

When I was younger, I commonly saw little mechanical postage vending machines in groceries, pharmacies, and the like. They sold small quantities of stamps at very high markups.

[ron_newman]

I thought it was just a constant 50 cents markup back in the day, which was pretty insignificant if you bought the maximum number of stamps in your transaction (something like 72 or 80 of them).

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

Yeah, BayBank used to do it, too.

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

yet another reason I'm leaving Eastern ... I already miss Wainwright

[ron_newman]

Except for this one thing, I'm pretty happy with Eastern so far. The transition went smoothly. What issues have you found?

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

so far they are a little more subtle: ATM fee changes are one thing that got to me. If I read the intro material correctly a few of the nice Wainwright perks are going away (free notary service as an example).

to their credit, the times i've called to ask transition questions - the people were super friendly and helpful. that is a big plus.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

I've had nothing but aggravation. And I don't like that they charge for a savings account. I don't like anything about them. So I switched to another bank.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

It looks like Eastern waives the fee for the savings account if you keep a minimum balance. For me, at least, that's not a problem, though I understand that for some people it may well be. Now if it demanded the same minimum balance for a checking account, I'd have to bug out. The change that I'm not sure about is the timing of debiting the account for outgoing bill payments. I guess I'll wait and see how that works in practice.

In general, I'm feeling wary about the whole thing, but I'm going to give Eastern a chance not to suck for me. If it starts pissing me off, it'll probably be my cue to finally join a credit union instead of a bank.

I gotta say, I already miss the happy rainbow bank signs. Ah, well.

[ron_newman]

did they straighten out your multiple-ATM-card thing?

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Sort of, though not with any explanation of why I got two different kinds. One of the service reps from the Central Square branch told me I could just pick the one I would find useful and cut up the other.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Do bricks-and-mortar savings accounts at any bank actually pay any interest these days?

The best online savings rate is around 1.19%, and physical banks usually pay much less.

[turil.livejournal.com]

I've gotten 2¢ interest on my savings account so far this year! :-) (Yeah, I didn't have much money in it most of the time.)

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

oh boo, I actually used wainwright quite frequently for notary and signature gaurantee, etc, and it was super nice to do it all at one place with no cost.

[cos]

I've run into several annoyances. They sent me two ATM cards for my two accounts with absolutely no indication of which account each card was for. Then they sent me two PINs separately by mail, with no indication of which PIN went with which card. Email notifications from them are HTML-only, not plaintext. When I called customer service to figure out how to get that changed, I spent a half hour being transferred around several different people, going through menus multiple times, being mistransferred at least once and talking to the wrong person for a while without realizing it, and ended up with the problem unsolved.

[ron_newman]

I haven't gotten a single piece of e-mail from Eastern Bank. I don't recall ever getting any from Wainwright either. What sort of notifications?

They were supposed to have kept the same PIN as your Wainwright card. At least, that's what they said they were doing, and what they did for me.

[cos]

You should get email notifications for things like changing your password, adding an online bill payee, etc. You could also set alerts on things like your bank balance getting below a certain amount, which I haven't checked yet if you can do at Eastern, but probably you can. I also used to get a notification every time a regularly scheduled payment was made, and I hope Eastern will do the same.

You're right about the PINs, they turned out to be the same, but that's no excuse for making it impossible for me to know which card was which without going to the bank and trying them both out.

[ethanfield.livejournal.com]

I had this same problem. I walked into the Davis branch, asked Maria, and she looked it up and told me. She also suggested that a balance inquiry on the card would have done the trick.

[ron_newman]

Oops, you're right-- they did send me notices about those things, which I promptly trashed and forgot about. Oddly, they came from hcsupport@easternbk.com rather than easternbank.com . And they are indeed in text/html format rather than multipart.

[turil.livejournal.com]

My PIN changed. Which is really annoying, especially since they said it wouldn't, and there doesn't seem to be a way to change it back online. Also, they gave me a MasterCard, rather than a Visa, which is just bizarre. (I think MasterCard is more conservative, from what I've heard, so I prefer Visa, though they probably are both pretty bad. :-)

[ron_newman]

You can change your PIN at the ATM now.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Thanks! If I ever get to an ATM again, I'll do it. (I don't think there are Eastern Banks in the middle of nowhere Maine, but I haven't actually checked. :-)

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

Yeah, see, I got two cards -- one with MC logo, one without -- and two PIN notifications sent separately, but they both had the same PIN. I was too lame to call about, though, and just went to a branch near my office yesterday and was told to cut up the one I didn't want. I still don't know why I got two cards, but at least the one I kept seems to be working fine.

[narya.livejournal.com]

Yikes, thanks for the warning.

[puckbear.livejournal.com]

Almost as convenient, Shaw's and Stop and Shop sells them at the register.

[ron_newman]

Is there a markup?

[puckbear.livejournal.com]

I don't believe so (although I don't think I've ever looked at my receipt to confirm)

[beatniktea.livejournal.com]

theres no markup. I used to work at a shaws in high school/college, and they were sold at face value. I have bought them more recently and nothing has changed since.

[vonelftinhaus.livejournal.com]

I guess there is the convenience,so the mark-up is there for that,but buying the stamps at face value then charging is...

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

You can order them from usps and have free shipping.

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

The one time I tried ordering stamps online, they were never delivered. Considering the USPS is the one delivery service I've never had any other trouble getting things shipped with, I take that as a bad sign. . .

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

That is not my experience, though. I've successfully ordered stamps online for many years now. Sometimes it's easier than making time for the PO in the middle of a workday.

[ron_newman]

Did you get a refund or chargeback (if you paid with a credit card) ?

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

I'm happy to pay extra for stamps, they are providing me a convenience.

[ron_newman]

This is a reasonable point of view, but the ATM screen doesn't tell you that there is a markup. Unless you do the math in your head, you won't know it. If you're used to buying them from Wainwright's ATM, you don't expect it either.

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

As long as the screen says the price before you commit to the purchase I have no problem with it. They don't need to tell me the mark up as far as I'm concerned. It's a good heads up for those not expecting to pay the extra.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

yeah, i mean, you're basically saying "okay, i agree to pay x for x number of stamps" so...either you think it's worth it and go through with it or don't. same as when you look at the price of anything else really.

i don't know, i don't use stamps hardly at all so i usually will stock up once at the post office and that lasts me a whole year practically!

[ron_newman]

Same here. I looked through my check register to see the last time I bought them from Wainwright, and it was so long ago that they were still 42 cents each.

My consumption of stamps dropped drastically once I started paying all my monthly bills through online banking.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

exactly. for a long time the only thing i was paying with a mailed check was rent & student loans, and then i'd send out cards at christmastime.

[ron_newman]

Wainwright online banking sent a paper check to anyone who isn't set up to receive electronic payments (such as my landlord), and Eastern does the same thing.

[mrsdollylevi.livejournal.com]

Costco sells stamps at a discount.. which I find odder than a mark up