How Much Do You Pay A Year In Sneaky Fees?
from the more-than-you-might-think dept
For years, we've discussed how silly it is when some firms like telcos and cable companies try to hide extra charges in unnecessary fees, often pretending that those fees are required by the government (they rarely are). Usually, it's just a scam so that companies can claim a lower price in advertisements or hide rate increases. But have you ever looked at just how much those fees really cost you? According to a recent report, the average is just under $1,000/year, which is pretty impressive when you think about it. Add it all up, and companies are making about $45 billion in hidden fees each year. And, as Broadband Reports notes in the link above, we've yet to see any government step forward and note that most of these fees seem to be false advertising when they're really used to charge you more than an advertised rate.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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I think the law should mandate the banning of fees. Just include it in the price, just like taxes are for gas.
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Re: 9/10ths
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hmm, where to begin
fees to assess, fees to create, etc. fees for fees, fees for crossing balance limits. Over balance fees/NSF's (which are proven to be able to be fought in court in UK), etc.
how about we start with those? I imagine they're a large portion compared to some of the small fry.
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And I agree with Anon on the 9/10's of a cent. I always just 'see' a price one cent higher anyway, it doesn't really matter. But a lot of people don't see it - like my wife. She'll say, look it's $2.99 a gallon there.. I'll say... you mean 3 bucks? hehe
Same thing - and yeah, since all of these places do it, I guess they figure they can get away with it. Although, on rare occasion a company does step up and make a stand. Like Wal-Mart did on 'American Goods'. Too bad they usually turn their back on the consumer again.
You know - I'm real thankful for things like Craigslist and Ebay - it really does offer an alternative to shopping at other places.
But I disagree on Tax - I think ALL taxes should be 'added' on clearly. Imagine... Gas is *really* about $2.40 a gallon, it's just that 60 cents is tacked on in taxes.
I'd like to see the public's reaction if they had to REALLY write a check to Government each payday to pay the 'taxes' they take out... instead of them getting to it first.
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I, for one, think the penny should be eliminated. Everything should come to an even nickel. Yeah, I know what you're gonna say, $49.95. But I still think it would help the ridiculousness of pricing to a certain point. Besides, I rarely seem to find a use for all those blasted pennies in my wallet, which seem to do nothing but dig into my behind all day long. I used to work for a Godfather's Pizza, and I dunno how they did it, but no matter what you ordered, the bill always came to an even nickel, no penny mess. That made it much easier to make change on deliveries and such. It's not so far out of an idea as you may think.
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False advertising
For example, you'd have a standard Check / No Check column that indicated whether or not the fee was really mandated by the government (or instead was some form of hidden fee.)
The obfuscated gobbledygook that shows up on current bills probably falls into the category of false advertising. Maybe you could even force this standard labeling using existing laws.
Again, let them come up with whatever kind of wacky fees they want. But just make them put it in a format that would allow easy comparison to other companies.
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Hidden Fees
Telecommunications companies are the #1 culprit.
I have a standard telephone line with no additional services and no long distance. The base rate for this line is $14/month. After the "taxes, surcharges, and fee's" it comes to $28/month. If you read the fine print, it states clearly, in the fifth paragraph and the 21st page that these fee's are not mandated taxes, but are "cost-recovery" fees/surcharges/whatever... I always thought the price of the service should cover the cost of providing the service, but page 47 clearly told me I was mistaken.
Cell Phone - $50/month... plus another $20 in confusing, misleading, and should-be-illegal fees and surcharges. They are clearly explained though - somewhere in the 48 page micro-print contract you signed in blood for getting the service.
Cable, satellite, Internet... Any service you subscribe to is the same. The contract is virtually incomprehensible to the layperson, and gives them the right to charge you anything they want for doing nothing you want. It should be illegal.
It should definitely be illegal, but they only way it will ever be so is if enough people complain to their senators/representatives to make them listen to the constituents rather than the lobbyists (it takes a lot of people to overcome the power of the dollar).
Whenever possible, I do business with companies that the costs and obligations associated with their product and services clear and understandable, unfortunately they have become rather rare.
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Re: Hidden Fees
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*shocked* *sarcasm*
OMG
The government isn't stepping in to inform it's people of an obvious injustice being done to them on a daily basis? I'm shocked... really I am. Maybe after they give this a moment of their attention we can address income tax next.
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I agree - this is f-ing stoopid
If you have ever been overseas, some countries make businesses bundle tax in with everything - the price you see is the price you pay... frickin awesome.
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My pet peeve is; Credit Card late fees
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Re: My pet peeve is; Credit Card late fees
call them, and they will waive the late fee and applied the credit to this month - but you still didn't pay for last month - so you get the late fee again!
smooth system they have!
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Re: Re: Re: My pet peeve is; Credit Card late fees
It should be a bloody automated process, it is for any MMO subscription!
Oh, and they give you the 'option' of paying on any given day you choose, but I've found that unless I pick the day the bill is due it doesn't get done until the day the bill is due anyways.
Then lets not forget the fun time they made me pay DOUBLE the bill. I setup the payment online, the next day get a call from them saying they needed some more info. Payment due date comes by and they charge me TWICE, overdrafting me. At least I got them to drop the overdraft charges, all 306 dollars of them because I didn't find out until the evening after they took out my 'payments'.
Sometimes this shit is just too shifty. Inexperience dealing with it all doesn't help either.
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Bogus System Access Fee
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Dry cleaner fees
Now I had always assumed that part of that original $1.90 helped pay their electric bills and other overhead, but this sign implies to me that all that was free before.
What I don't understand is why they (or anyone else with these sneaky fees, for that matter) don't just advertise all garments for 10 cents and assess $1.90 in fees...
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Rental Car Companies
TAX: 5.00 %
AIRPORT CONCESSION FEE RECOVERY ON FLIGHT ARRIVALS: 11.10 %
VEHICLE LICENSING COST RECOVERY AND EXCISE TAX REIMBURSEMENT:: 3.79 %
CONVENTION CENTER SURCHARGE & PARKING FINE RECOVERY: 10.60 USD
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Fees Fees Fees Fees
In Texas up to $25 in internet access fees are tax exempt (passed in the 90's to allow local ISPs to compete fairly with AOL). So Time Warner puts a $25 internet access charge on the bill. There is another 14.95 Charge for 1 computer to access (taxable). I recently upgraded to turbo access, so there is another $15 taxable charge.
Since I pay 8.25% sales tax on anything in stores above the marked price, I feel this is fair.
When I had video service there were additional taxes, but they were City Franchise, etc, and all actual government taxes.
I won't touch land line phone service or DSL because of the fees. Wireless service, I'm stuck. My VoIP carrier has a BS $2.95 regulatory recovery fee, disclosed fairly up front, but still clearly meant to artificially lower the advertised price. And now a $1 911 fee, which I don't believe is a tax but a cost offset.
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Book on the subject
Anyway here is the book - Gotcha Capitalism
http://www.amazon.com/Gotcha-Capitalism-Hidden-Every-Day/dp/0345496132/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1 ?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200589648&sr=8-1
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Vonage
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BS Charges
I called and canceled the service (that's another story) and payed for one lunch out each month.
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NY/NJ Port Authority
during peak hours if your driving from NJ into the NY city it's 6.00 dollars using ez-pass without it's 8.00 dollars. same thing for the trains as wells just not as high as the brigdes of course. the response to the public for the increase was to keep traffic down during peak hours.. another way to make money off the people.. 2 bucks will not keep anyone from crossing a much needed bridge to get into the city.. it's not like they have sail boats to cross over the hudson river.
Jersey's Governor Corzine is horrible.. this guy wants to increase the toll to a 1.00 that is already .70 cents on the nj turnpike and nj parkway and increase it by %50 starting 2010 until 2085. his answer was we need to start paying off the state debt. sorry but will this guy be living that long i know i won't be around by then...
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its plenty mad!!
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