If you’ve checked into a hotel, rented a car or purchased an event ticket online, you’ve undoubtedly been bombarded by junk fees.
It’s the $25 daily resort fee at a hotel with a pool so tiny it might be confused for a soaking tub. And I’m so exasperated at the pile-on of fees at checkout when buying tickets online for a play, concert or sports event.
Junk fees are infuriating because they’re often hidden until you’re ready to pay. And on too many occasions, their purpose is even more opaque.
President Biden has sent federal agencies on a hunt to eliminate junk fees, or at least make companies display them upfront.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently issued guidance intended to stop large banks and credit unions from charging customers fees for basic information about their accounts. CFPB examiners found instances where banks charged fees for account statements never printed or mailed.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is looking at rental-related junk fees. Apartment hunters often face multiple application fees of as much as $100, or mandatory “convenience fees” to pay their rent online or for sorting their mail.
The Federal Communications Commission has finalized a rule that will require broadband providers to display nutrition-like labels that clearly provide basic cost and fee information for internet service.
Last year, the Federal Trade Commission received more than 12,000 comments about junk fees. The regulator is now seeing a new round of commentary on a proposed rule that the commission says will bring clarity to hidden fees.
Under the proposal, businesses would be banned from advertising prices that hide or leave out mandatory fees.
Ever see a bill and become befuddled about some random fee?
The proposed rule would also prohibit companies from misrepresenting fees, forcing them to disclose upfront the amount and purpose of the fees and whether they are refundable.
If you’ve got fee fatigue, let the FTC know. You have a chance to weigh in on the proposed rule.
You can submit your comments online at regulations.gov/commenton/FTC-2023-0064-0001. Write “Unfair or Deceptive Fees NPRM, R207011” on your comment. You can also mail your comment to: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Mail Stop H-144 (Annex J), Washington, DC 20580.
Comments must be received on or before Jan. 8.
And don’t just send a form letter with language copied from a consumer campaign against junk fees. Tell your story. Make it personal. Be specific. Provide proof of the fees you hate.
Fight for your right to full disclosure, because you better believe that the corporate lobbyists will be making their case against more regulation.
Here’s what consumers have told the FTC about junk fees. Comments have been edited for style and clarity.
Resort fees
“Stopping these deceptive hotel resort fees is long overdue. The internet made shopping for travel much more efficient. Hotels that charge these fees have been duping consumers and circumventing this efficiency with this deceptive business practice. When I compare hotel prices online, too often a low incomplete price is displayed and the hotel is included in my search results and ranked higher than it would be if the fees were properly disclosed. We live in a time of high inflation, and people budget carefully for travel expenses. It ruins a vacation. I’ve received payment shock with undisclosed resort fees of $25 to $50 per night and undisclosed parking fees up to $45 per night. These hidden fees really add up. The hotel is the winner and the consumer is the loser.”
Rental car fees
“From hotels to rental cars to home-sharing sites, there are an untold number of fees ‘hidden’ deep in the reservation process. I reserved a rental car with a ‘total’ of $856. When I got to the final booking page, the total was $600 more. ‘Total’ should mean exactly that, all-in, no further charges.”
Vacation rental fees
“Fees, which are not advertised upfront in their listings, added up to 40 percent of my overall cost on one occasion. The surprise fees make it impossible to comparison-shop hotels across platforms when your real, hidden cost could be 10, 20, 50 percent higher than the rate you are seeing.”
Just-because-we-can fees
“I was recently charged a $17.95 per ticket ‘convenience fee’ for buying tickets at the venue box office, literally 30 feet from the venue door. What ‘convenience’ was that?”
Event ticket fees
— “The fact that more than $100 can be added to a price after the ticket is already selected is misleading and unfair to consumers. These fees should be part of the price, or they should not exist at all.”
— “Ticket convenience fees are some of the most unfair and deceptive in the class of fees under discussion. They can sometimes reach 50 percent or more of the actual ticket price. I recently paid $90 on a $250 ticket, with no indication given what that extra fee was paying for.”
— “I paid $40 plus per ticket to a women’s college basketball game, $27.50 was in fees. Stop the greed!”
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November 10, 2023 at 10:00PM
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