It's becoming all too familiar a story in the sneakwrapped world in which we live: an e-mail or a credit card statement arrives and you discover that you're being charged for a service you don't even use. That's what happened to one reader recently when Yahoo started charging a $5 monthly fee on its PayDirect Professional Accounts.
"Apparently I have been swept up by one of the hidden agreements you've been talking about," the reader wrote. "This morning I got a notice from Yahoo that I was being charged a $5.00 monthly fee for a service I was unaware I even belonged to. Apparently when I sent some money to someone via Yahoo PayDirect over a year ago, they kept my name active as an account. Now they have instituted a $5.00 monthly charge and are debiting my account for it."
Yahoo's e-mail informed the reader that his bank account had been debited $5.00 because of a new fee policy that went into effect for "Yahoo PayDirect from HSBC" on June 1. "I think this is unfair," the reader wrote. "I was not given advanced notice of this change, and would not have allowed it. I know I sent something to someone using their service once, but I have not been online with Yahoo PayDirect for a long time and feel I am being charged for a service I am not receiving."
Of course, the reader can cancel the service now, so that one $5 payment is all Yahoo and its banking partner HSBC will get from him. And the same will be probably be true of many other Yahoo PayDirect "Professional Account" users, even those who used the service a little more frequently than our reader. And that raises the question of why Yahoo, which clearly isn't having much luck competing with PayPal in the online payments business, would risk driving away what customers they do have for $5 a month. If you can figure that one out, let me know.
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