If you listen closely, you’ll hear the collective screams of a lot of Verizon Wireless customers — the company has announced that starting next month, it will impose a $2 fee on anyone who pays a monthly bill using a credit or debit card online or by phone.

While many will probably deem it yet another stupid fee, Verizon is calling it a “convenience fee,” saying in a statement that it’s designed “to support these single bill payment options …. and to address costs incurred by us for only those customers who choose to make single bill payments.”

You can get around the fee in a variety of ways, including paying by electronic check or setting up auto-pay (which many consumer groups say is the company’s ultimate goal here). Using your bank’s online bill-pay will also sidestep the $2, as will issuing payment at a kiosk or in person at a Verizon Wireless retail location. And of course you can always go old-school and mail in a check.

Along the way, someone might want to open a dictionary and show Verizon the definition of “convenient.”

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