OT. Slower Mail Delivery

Get rid of the Chinamail subsidy and double the postage rates. If that doesn't fix it, shut the post office down.

Possibly. Here is what the bank that declared my account inactive says on their website.

"Inactive Account

An account becomes inactive when, for an extended period of time, you have not initiated activity on the account, such as making a deposit, withdrawing funds at a banking location, or writing a check which is paid from the account. Generally, this time period is 11 months on a checking account, 23 months on a savings account"

I had not written any checks for a year, but I had a monthly direct deposit, and any # of PayPal payments, and a monthly Bill Pay. And a in-person conversation with the Branch bank confirmed those do not count, at which time I certainly expressed my displeasure with their policy.

Fortunately it was simple to re-activate. Just had to go On-Line and OK a re-activation. I also complained that I got no alert of this until I went on-line to check my balance.

As you found, not all banks seem to have so strict a policy. As they say, YMMV.

Our payment option is something I called the town about many years ago (20+). I don't recall the answer to my question, but nothing has changed, so I assume the same rationale is in effect...

We can pay our taxes by check, in person at the clerk's office in the town hall or we can send a check by mail.

If we pay by mail, we have to mail the check to the Town of (MyTownName) c/o some lady named Barbara, whose title is Tax Receiver and whose PO Box is in a city 150 miles from our town hall. It's not the capital of our state and it holds no "governmental authority" over our town. It's just another city in our state.

BTW...my town is not out in the sticks by any means. My town is adjacent to a city that is 5 times larger (population wise) than the city to which we mail our tax checks. In fact, my *town's* population is larger than the population of the *city* that we mail our tax checks to.

Assuming that dear Barbara lives in or near that faraway city, that would mean that the money she earns for processing our town's taxes gets spent in that city or nearby as opposed to our town or county.

I need to call the town and have them remind me why we outsourced the tax collection responsibility to some lady halfway across the state.

There are seveal things I pay by check for the same reason. I pay for my car tag ( really a sticker) over the internet and pay a fee because there is usually a long line at the tag office.

Most of the things I buy is on a credit card because I get from 1 to 5 % back depending on the card or item. Then pay them off by the on line banking. Only have to just go to the bank on the internet and click who I want to pay and how much and when.

When I lived in CT the checks went to "Collector" but in the Town Hall but sounds similar.

Here I can pay with a bank transfer at no added cost but with a CC there is a charge. You also pay a fee if you make multiple payments. Forget what it is, but far more than the nine cents interest I lose paying up front.

Mine is 3% for CC, $0.87 (87¢) per each of 3 installments.

No bank transfer available.

Watch out for the state. My state of Delaware is aggressive with escheat where inactive funds are seized by the state. As the biggest state for incorporation about 12% of the state budget comes from escheat.

Prompted me to check the DE escheat list and found two sons on it. Years ago my deceased father was on it. It was only $19 and I had to work to get it but damned if I would give them the money.

Just checked and they don't offer multiple payment but do offer 5 different dates from December 1 to April 1. The total amount varies and if I wait to April 1 the amount due is $157 more. Theat is the fill tax, they make it like you get a discount for early pay.

For taxes satisfied via credit cards, why should the county taxpayers (or whomever collects your property taxes) pay the credit card surcharge, assuming you use a credit card to pay your property taxes?

As a taxpayer, you shouldn't be complaining about the taxing authority convenience surcharge, which is likely just passed through from the credit card processor.

Electronic payments are easier and cheaper to process than paper checks- plus the county would get their money immediately.

Gotta ask the county commissioner why he insists on doing things the hard way. Maybe his brother in law owns the local paper check clearing house or he wants to have more clerical employees in the tax collector's office to boss around ;-)

At the start of Covid 1.0 I had to register a new car. Everything was done online but for the payment they shunted you to an Idaho website. Idaho had their act together, Montana didn't.

So their week might be M/W/F/S/S. It is still one guy working 40 hours. The reality is they do actually work 3 shifts and weekends in some places. The machines they talk about are mostly just for 1st class flats. That business is rapidly diminishing. Sorting boxes and odd shaped 1st class is probably mostly manual with conveyers to move it around. It has been a while since I was in a USPS sorting room. That was in Maryland in the 80s. Being the quasi government, I doubt a whole lot has changed. They still had letter sorters then tho.

Sweet! None of my friends are rich

They could certainly take Tuesday back here. I am not sure if it is by plan but Tuesday seems to always be the "Presorted" junk mail. It is seldom there is ever any real mail there.

I have 3 checking accounts and all of my checks are from 3 or 4 banks ago. I may never use them all. The R/T number still works so I use them.

You just have to stick your card in an ATM and get a balance to reset that clock. I have one of those too but they do send you a letter or two before they make it inactive.

As long as USPS still has express mail, there will be a 7 day presence. The cost is about the same as FedX. The real problem is the union will not support anything that removes jobs. Their goal is to increase employment, not reduce it. More members, more dues.

I always find that interesting. It is the same here. I doubt many people would give them their bank info for an EFT so the other choice is a credit card. I guess government labor is "free" since they buy it anyway.