In this tough economy, businesses of all types continue to nickel and dime us to death with add-on charges. Needless to say, they want you to believe that those fees are necessary to cover the additional costs of doing business; pizza delivery fees are a prime example.
In reality, the only thing these fees do is mislead the consumer by adding a hidden mark-up to the advertised price. Sometimes the fees are small; but sometimes they can be quite severe.
Unfortunately for all of us, it’s a practice that has spread like the plague over time.
Here are a few of the most annoying consumer fees — from both the past and present — that still make me shake my head:
Unlisted Phone Number Fees
Yes, I’m dating myself, but back in the day, this was arguably the granddaddy fee of them all. As recently as ten years ago, I was still being charged $1.75 per month to keep my landline telephone number unlisted. Then I woke up and realized nobody under 90 years-old even uses phone books anymore.
Administrative Fees
For many years, my same phone company also had the audacity to add an additional 99 cents every month for something called “administrative fees.” In other words: normal business expenses. Yes, I have a new carrier now.
Convenience Fees
I bought four tickets from Ticketmaster so I could take my family to see the Harlem Globetrotters — yes, this was before the COVID pandemic. Anyway, I paid $300 for the set. Too bad that was before they tacked on a “convenience charge” of $5. Per ticket. Uh huh. That stupid fee added $20 to my bill. And now you know why I hate Ticketmaster. Frankly, I’d like to know why Ticketmaster isn’t charging that fee to the acts whose tickets are being sold, rather than us consumers who took time out of our busy schedules to buy the tickets in the first place. Think about it. If the Globetrotters had to sell their tickets on their own time, they’d never get to practice. Eventually, their skills would suffer and then the Washington Generals might actually start beating them.
Fees for Printing Tickets
I’m not done with Ticketmaster. Before smart phones became ubiquitous, Ticketmaster actually had the gall to charge $2.50 to anyone who wanted to print tickets from their home printer. Ironically, the alternative at the time — having Ticketmaster deliver the tickets to your home via the postal service — was free. Go figure.
Hotel Safe Fees
There are more than a few hotels out there that like to charge you a dollar or two per day just for the privilege of using their in-room safes — whether you use it or not. That’s ridiculous! Which is why I always ask to have it waived if I see it on my bill.
Tax Refund Fees
After spending four hours doing my taxes using TurboTax, I was asked how I intended to pay for their service. Fair enough. Lucky for me I had a refund coming to me. I thought, Perfect! I’ll tell TurboTax to deduct what I owe them directly from my refund! Then I discovered TurboTax currently charges an additional $39.99 if you choose to go that route. Of course, there is another option: pay by credit card. Ironically, going that route is free — which is why I went with the plastic. So much for cash discounts.
Mortgage Junk Fees
There are dozens of mortgage junk fees out there — some more dubious than others — that make you scratch your head and ask what the heck is that for? Reconveyance verification fees, commitment fees, and the infamous “warehouse fee” are just three of the most egregious examples.
And then there’s this…
It’s bad enough that most airlines still impose fees on people who have the audacity to travel with luggage. But several years ago, at least one airline was making their “valued” customers who chose to pay those niggling baggage charges at the airport ticket counter — rather than online — an additional $3 per bag.
That’s right, folks … a fee for paying a fee.
Photo Credit: compujeramey
Solutions:
1.Just use a cell-phone (oops – they still have stupid charges also)
2. Do not use ticket master if you could (though that is unavoidable sometimes).
3. Do not use hotels who charge for safe (as with internet connections).
4. might as well use a CPA
5&6. See what happens when everyone becomes cheap – which pf blogger does not “recommend” turbo tax (BTW – I don’t cos I use a CPA!) – BTW – have not read anything about these “fees” until you brought them up.
7. Pay cash for your house.
8. Sell your blog for $20mm (as some folks have done secretly) and fly private jet…at least you get shrimp cocktails and you can cuddle honeyB in the plane!
BTW – you know I do not mean any of these? maybe some!
What I hate are the fees on utility bills that are disguised as taxes. I’m not sure how this is legal.
Another thing I noticed is that some companies are still charging the fuel surcharge, from when gas was over $4 per gallon. Once companies get used to collecting a fee, they never get rid of it.
Those fees disguised as taxes actually are taxes. The craven politicians impose them on utilities, rather than directly on us citizens. Then the utility passes that tax on to you, which is the politicians’ way of shifting the blame.
I have done pretty well avoiding the fees you list, but there are two fees that I can’t avoid and that annoy the living you-know-what out of me. The fuel surcharge on FedEx/DHL/etc. shipments and the fuel surcharge on plane tickets. I always thought that fuel expenses were part of the regular expenses of running a shipping company or an airline. I did not know that these expenses have to be separated out. Fuel must have been free before these charges were introduced. Maybe these companies will tag on a driver or pilot surcharge soon, too. – Oh, and don’t forget. These surcharges kept rising with the price of gas, but they never came down again as the price of gas did. Does that sound like one big scam?
Funny thing is, you can do your Virginia (and many other states) taxes online through the tax authority’s website FOR FREE. And it is actually an easy process! Ridiculous.
Administrative Fees – #1 for me. Hate, hate, hate!
oh, how do I hate ticket master?
I actually think back to when I was a ‘yout’ waiting outside the box office so I could get iron maiden tickets…sleeping in the cold. It was awesome.
Now, as a grown up when I want to see maiden (or whoever…and yes, I still love metal), I have to join the fan club, get an access pass (not free), THEN go on line, THEN pay the “convenience fee” per ticket, etc.
It’s not really that convenient for me to spend ~20/ticket extra per show.
H8!
If I remember correctly, the last time I used Ticketmaster I was also charged a “Parking convenience fee” on top of the fee we were charged in the lot. And that fee is per ticket. We bought two tickets, so paid 2x for the parking convenience and once for actually parking our one car. Yeesh. And the unlisted phone number fee has irked me for ages.
Could you get the parking fee waived if you told them you were walking!
Hmmmmm. Seems to me if it wasn’t worth paying these fees for the goods and services you received, you wouldn’t be paying them. I hate to be simplistic here but if these fees were “outrageous” you would refuse to do business witht hese companies. I don’t like paying conveinance fees either, but what is more convinient for you, traveling to and waiting in line at a ticket office, or buying them from home? I agree the charge for printing tickets is stupid and would never pay it, but if it meant missing an event because I couldn’t wait for the mail, or were worried about someone stealing the tickets, I would pay it.
I could not agree more. My wife knows that if it is only through Ticketmaster, we won’t be going. I wanted to see an act, and the fees from them totaled more than the tickets, I told her: Not gonna happen, have never been back. Its only entertainment, not a necessity.
Also the fees on Turbo Tax. They settled a law suit over their fees, they were actually illegal (although I don’t use them, so not sure what fees they were)
How is it that Ticketmaster still exists? Can anyone say “MONOPOLY”?! You know you eventually reach a point in life where you weigh the real cost of a concert/game with the hassles involved in buying, parking, getting out of the venue with traffic, etc and just decide to stay home!! And as for efiling taxes– we still go the paper route. Took my husband 4 hours to do it and me 10 minutes to make copies, put them in the envelopes and mail them. IF I were to efile I would do the federal which I understand is free and then print out the state and send in. No way I would pay those charges!! I guess that I am just too cheap. Convenience or my pocketbook? Hmmmm. My pocketbook wins every time!!
Fees vary. If you pay with a debit card (think same name in the US? the ones that take money straight out of your current (/your ‘checking’) accounts that same day) then you pay nothing up to £1/2.
Visa and Mastercard you can pay £1/2, too.
American Express I’ve been charged £3.50 for.
It’s annoying because I like the protection that comes with my Amex card, but if you’re buying a train ticket for £12 (/$18) it’s just not worth it. (Unless something goes wrong of course, but you can never know that in advance!)
Wow, all these fees are sad but true.
Ticketmaster is the worst! I always feel so abused after I’ve bought tickets through those guys, but what are you going to do?
Well, what I have always done is two steps: One, don’t go through them, don’t go to the event, and follow up by making sure the group/band/act knows that since my only option was Ticketmaster, they lost my business. I know that Im not completely effective myself, but perhaps someday somewhere enough voices will make a difference…
I really hate hidden costs… If someone is straight up with me I am much more likely to use them again and again and recommend them to everyone… It’s like these companies think we are the enemy sometimes!!
Absolutely…
how about fines for library books. this is a fee you can avoid people… return the library materials on time.
One way to partially get around the unlisted number fee is to have your number listed, but under a fake name. Then when you get a call for ‘Bob Smith’ you know that it is a telemarketer or something that just got your number out of the phone book, and can deal with it accordingly. It is not as good as having it unlisted, but it is free.
I’m not positive you can do this in the US, but it works in Canada. My friend has his phone listed under his old dog’s name, and often gets calls for him.
Good list…..
Funny though, as it looks like ticketmaster is satan’s spawn when it comes to unnecessary fees! 🙂
Yesterday I booked a “free” reward mileage ticket on U.S. Airways that cost $105–$75 for booking inside 14 days and $25 just for booking. I completed the transaction online; the $25 would have been $35 had I called the airline and talked to a human. I forget what the extra $5 was for, but feel sure it was another “get the consumer” fee.
A friend of mine just uses a fake name for the phone listing, has the same effect as being unlisted, but without the fee… 😉
FYI,
I read a number of books on tax preparation when I started my own business. At least one of the authors said to always send in a paper tax return, as it decreases your chance of audit. You see, if you send an electronic copy, the IRS has a full file on you, and can run all sorts of analysis to find numbers which may be “too high” or low. But if you send in a paper copy, then only a few numbers are keyed in to a database, (such as your income before adjustments, age, income after adjustments, etc.). Who knows how true, but for 39 cents I will certainly follow this advice!
Yikes! When you spell it all out in one place like this, I think more than a few folks will be fuming. I’m sure those alliterative F’s I just (over)used won’t be the only ones uttered when people really stop to think about this stuff.
The trouble is, we’re all so busy trying to earn enough income to cover these ridiculous surcharges that we’re too tired to stop and think about it! Unfortunately, like taxes on taxes, fees on fees may become a way of life.
The scary part is that many of these services were free when they were being rolled out, but now that we’re addicted to the services, or the alternatives have been destroyed, the fees are creeping in. Tax refund fees? Fees for printing tickets?
Technology was supposed to automate and lower fees–exactly what went wrong???
It’s getting to the point where the only strategy to fight back is total avoidance.
I don’t get the hatred for the Turbo Tax stuff. I use a CPA for my own stuff, but I did my brother’s taxes using Turbo Tax. You are not paying for the transmitting to the IRS you are paying for the use of their software. It is just an upsell.
As for that extra fee for them to take the fee out of the refund – I think it is 100% stupid, but they are taking a risk with whether you’ll get audited and then they have to chase you down for their 36.99 lol
Good list of fees. Several of them are very outrageous. I hate credit card fees too. Paying to own a credit card. Absurd.
I’m glad it’s not just me who hates those fees for printing tickets out at home.
I also hate the fact that buying travel tickets with certain credit cards — that give me greater protection as a consumer — I can be charged more as a booking fee.
Coincidence? I think not!
I’ve never seen the hotel safe fee but as a Marriott loyalist, I get ticked at the internet fees at their full service properties when I am given free access at their discount locations? Like you said… WTF
Another fee that twists me is the hazardous waste fees when you get new tires or an oil change!
As for the airlines, carry your bags to the gate and then just before boarding offer to check it for your fellow travelers convenience.
Unreal. I thnk you could change a few of these. The unlisted phone number for example – just get a voip line.
Just get another phone number. As for the house safe fee – pay them the $1 and then tell them the next day that you had like 1k in there and it went missing.
Len, I think the Harlem Globetrotters have to be the exception to the rule. They rock! Remember when they were on Gilligans Island playing the robots?
So…….
all these fees are sad but true. If you can’t keep your ego under control, it’s going to cost you a lot of money.
how about fines for library books. this is a fee you can avoid people return the library materials on time…
Great list! I’m going to try and implement these into a few sales pages (: (:
Mortgage Junk Fees is the most stupid fees we paid and the fees are usually very high.
The reason all of these companies can get away with charging these ridculous fees, is the same reason the USA’s finances are in the shape they are in.
The American citizens aka American consumers have become sheep. We let it happen. Companies know that as an individul, they have you over a barrel. Politicians know the same thing. Politicians and big companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on
polls researching us.
Bottom line is we have to band together to change the way the system works for us. One of the greatest lines I ever heard is, “if you don’t vote, you don’t matter”, and it is true. By not excercising your constitutional right to vote, you agree to let those in positions of power crap all over you and there isn’t anything you can do about it. We can sit on this site all day long and banter back and forth, but until we come together as a voting nation and fight back collectively we are going to continue to get bent over that barrel……….
Guess what Len ….. you owe me a $5.00 ‘reader fee’. Yes the info was good, enjoyable and at times humorous, but, alas, I read it, and that’s my fee. Contact me by e-mail for payment options. ( I charge extra for dealing with dirty cash).
The check is in the mail, E-dogg. (If you don’t receive it in a few days, the postal service lost it.)
Here is how I beat the unlisted phone number charge. At least in my area as long as U are not frauding anyone, then U can call yourself anything U want to, so I listed my name as DR.ZZZZZZZ [for eaxample]. That way I knew it was a phone solicitor if they asked for DR.ZZZZZZ. I also made sure it showed up as the LAST name in the phone book. That way my friends could find my phone number. But watch out for prank calls.-LOL
How about the destination fees that the car dealerships tack on to the price of your vehicle. They want you to pay the cost of having the vehicle delivered to their showroom from the manufacturer. I’m thinking if you didn’t have the product to sell you’d be out of business in the first place. I also love the restocking fee’s some companies charge you for returning a product you purchased from them.
Yes! Two very good examples there, Michael. Bonus points for supplying supporting logic.
Chevrolet did extra good on fees on that one. All (don’t know about the 2020) Corvettes are build in Bowling Green KY. If you want to pick it up there, your allowed to…..For an extra fee. Yup, a fee for not paying their transportation fee.
You don’t have to pay to have an unlisted number if you are just doing so your name doesn’t show. You can put any name down.
My local county government has a convenience fee for paying your annual motor vehicle tax online. My seven-y-o car’s taxes, plus the 2% ‘convenience fee’ were just shy of $125 this year. So the, what, $1.22 that they charged me as a convenience fee was actually MUCH more convenient and less expensive than driving all the way to the county seat and back. If I’d had a late-model vehicle, that could have been different, though.
I haven’t ordered delivered pizza from anyone who charges a fee in over a year. If the rest of you would do the same maybe we could get some where. When did it become to hard to say NO!
Actually, I did stop buying from my local Papa John’s a few years ago after they started imposing their delivery fees. Sadly, now every one is doing it, so I am pretty much out of luck.
The nice thing about living in New York City is that we have more than just the chains here, so it should not be too difficult to find a local joint.
That being said, PJ’s opened not too far (like maybe 2 or 3 blocks away) a year or two ago. But I will never pay for their pizza. Why you ask? Because they are one of the naming rights corporate johns; in their case, it’s a college football bowl game. I do my best to not patronize companies that pay for naming rights. Buying an ad for a tv or radio commercial or a print ad is not the same thing, and is ok.
But if I buy their pizza then that means they think their bowl game advertising is working on me. And I hate being manipulated like that (or even being thought of as being manipulated). Besides, what’s the ROI on a naming rights deal? How do PJ and all the naming rights johns calculate whether it’s a good deal?
I am not always successful in avoiding all the johns, but I try. I will not buy any Frito Lays stuff (as in the tostitos) due to their bowl game. See how that works? I will buy someone else’s chips.
I also do not like the concept of ‘official widget of the xyz club.’ It’s not like the club did an analysis of who made the best widget and picked them. No, they just went with whoever gave them the most money. Telling me you’re the official beer sponsor of the NFL or MLB doesn’t get me to buy your stuff. It just makes me buy someone else’s beer.
Now, naming rights don’t just apply to college bowl games. Look at the stadiums/arenas/fields. Look at golf events. Car Racing (and not just the name of the event, but all the teams and drivers). Basically, all of sports has the naming rights business down. Good thing I don’t care about them anymore, but the names still end up in online newspaper headlines.
So, the next time you have buy something, look to see if the product is made by a company that is not a naming rights john. And if it is, buy their competitor’s product, if at all possible.
/end of rant
Thanks for reading.
All you need is a name in the phone book, you do not need to give any address. 40 years I have had “unlisted” number by putting in one of my pets name, as long as they live in house it is legal. then you know if it is ~~~ when they ask for them, I just say Sorry asleep
How about satellite box / DVR rental fees? $7 a month = $84 / year. Go with the company for 5 years, and that’s $420 to rent something that would probably sell for about $75, if you could buy it.
….the “fee” you have to pay to add money to a prepaid card.
Some other fees I hate are: Sales tax, businesses pay tax on all items they buy to sell and they tax customers at a higher rate and so on, from manufacturing to consumption some items can be taxed several times.
then theres toll roads, you pay taxes to build the roads why pay a toll too?
public information fees, to search databases online of what is supposed to be public information,if it is supposed to be public information let the public search for free.
the price of software dvds or cds of anykind they cost less than 50cents to manufacture each disk and companys charge from 20 to 50 bucks each for them and wonder why piracy is so popular whos screwing who?
Both Wes Fargo and Bank of America backed down and dropped their stupid idea of charging their customers for having and using a debit card. Maybe we should start a week-long boycott of Ticketmaster and use the web to let it be known it’s to protest the “stupid fees” they charge. Make NOISE! The squeaky wheel gets the grease …
Really? C’mon on now. STOP complaining because you DO NOT have to pay these fees. You need to educate yourself about the fees you are being charged instead of making up your own theory as to why you are being charged in the first place. As far as I can see, these are ALL convenience fees therefore you’re being charged because you are to lazy to, for instance, learn how to file your own taxes and pick up your own show tickets. Your complaints are so invalid ESPECIALLY because you could avoid ALL of them by simply getting off your own you know what! It sounds to me like to just enjoy complaining about spending your own money. Yet you spend it anyway even though you disagree about whatever fee it is that you’re CHOOSING to pay. You cause yourself to lose your own money. Stop using business fees as a scapecoat and learn how to do things for yourself instead of GIVING your money away. Another thing, find a more concrete and factual way of presenting your complaints. Maybe a pie chart on what the average american spends on fees? Anyone can rant as you clearly see you clueless consumer.
However, the airline baggage fees are nothing but highway robbery. Just charge a higher ticket price in the first place instead of making you think you’re getting this cheap ticket and then charging a baggage fee, a pillow fee, a soft drink fee, a charge for the lousy little bag of peanuts fee, etc… How about some actual customer service, too, for all of this payout??? However you do have a point with regard to some of this, for example; get off your butts and actually GO and get the pizza yourself…My little brother worked pizza delivery a number of years ago and he sure didn’t see any of these extra fees go into HIS pocket. Shoot! They didn’t even help him with gas; he was totally on his own regarding upkeep of the car that he was using to enable their business to succeed. BTW, it was Little Ceasars he worked for. They can sponsor a college bowl game, but they can’t pay their employees anything resembling a living wage. It’s not just the consumers getting it in the you-know-what.
hi there…
I have read with interest the posts on fees, and am thinking that Americans are easy to trick.
In a lot of countries, fees and taxes must be included in the price advertised. If what is advertised/published is different than what is to be paid, then the seller is breaking the law.
This idea is supposed to protect the customer, as you dont get funny surprised at the time of purchasing. and for the un-educated customer, it is actually a great way to help them manage their money better…
Some airlines have tried the “fuel surcharge fee” in Europe. Well, if an American airlines is doing it, it would only be fair that a Europen Airline is able to do it to. Well, the various european courts of law have rejected that argument.
There are exceptions of course, but mostly, European customers don’t get any fee/taxes surprises.
Tell your politicians. That is free of taxes and fees… (but wont get you anywhere… just like in Europe…:-(
I was booking a rental car the other day and the quote for the week was $400, but when I went to pay, it was $505. They had fees for everything. $20 here, $10 here, etc.
I don’t care about the pizza delivery fee.
All those pizza places are disguising, but I can especially confirm that Papa Johns pizza is so full of MSG that it causes projectile diarrhea within 7 hours of eating it.
I recently bought a new car, refused to pay the “Doc Fee”. The dealer then took it out, but then attempted to add it on to the bottom line. I walked out, and they came and begged me to come back in. I did only after refusing to pay them a dime in Doc fees or any other fee. They are sneaky, they think we are all stupid, and all one has to do is remember that they are all fundamentally dishonest, lying, deceitful crooks. Once you understand that, you can decipher the code on not paying the fees.
Great deal of wisdom there, far to many people are willing to pay the doc fees. I did on my very first car (OK, so at 20 I wasn’t to smart). I have waited until the moment of signing and then refused to pay it every time, had the dealer take it completely off every time. Only once did I even have to get out of my seat and attempt to leave. I wish everybody else did the same thing.
One area I have not seen fees mentioned is with regards to gas and electric bills. They are outrageous!!! My delivery charge for these services is almost equal to the cost of the gas and electric I am using for example a recent gas and electric bill was $333.97 of those charges $124.64 was in delivery fees. An additional $32.21 was for government taxes and misc. fees. Those extra fees added on that no one could adequately explain could not be removed. After speaking to three people I was told that the fees are mandatory and my only option was to shut my service off. Oh and there would be a fee for that too! As if you can really just shut off your gas and electric.
Because I bought a house on a hillside, my water bill has a $42 delivery fee added on to it. My charge for the water is always less than $20, but the cheapest bill I have had is over $70 a month. All because I have a view.
I don’t understand why we have to pay to take our money out of the bank from our atm machines. Remember when banks wanted our business? They bribed us with toasters and silverware and place settings of china? Now they ding us with all kinds of fees for everything we do, with our money!
If you do a breakdown on your phone bill, (like they have to do with the state utilities regulators), part of your monthly fee is for listing your phone number, so on top of paying to have your number listed you have to pay more to have it unlisted.
I don’t know if the situation has changed in the last 20 years but, if it hasn’t, you might be able to beat Ticketmaster by doing this. Check the events schedule at a nearby university for any concerts or other events you’d like to attend. When you find one, go to the university the day the tickets for the students go on sale. Talk to the students who are buying tickets and find one that’s willing to buy guest tickets for you. Chances are that they can get these at ridiculously low prices so they can take their parents or out-of-town friends. If a student ID has to be presented when you use the tickets just find another willing student when you go the event. Don’t forget to show your appreciation by giving the student an appropriate amount of cash for their help.
Another possibility, if you’re an alumnus of a university, is to call the alumni association and see if they can help you get tickets. Sometimes they have left over tickets from their fundraising efforts if you call the day of the event or on Friday if it’s a weekend event. Even if you’re not an alumnus, you might be able to get them if you offer a donation to the school.
Hey Len, As a former/retired, Parole Officer I was always leery of listing my home (land-line)
number. Additionaly, I also resented having to pay to keep my number unpublished. Until the day I had an epiphany. I published my number under an alias e.g. Donnie Brasco.The number WAS published, but you had to know under what name.
Proud to say-Beat the phone company at their own game!
I disagree with pretty much everyone who suggests avoiding the “unlisted number” fee by letting them list you under the wrong name. Doing that gets you all the same disadvantages of having your name listed, with none of the advantages.
People will still call you, and you will still have to get up from dinner to answer the phone, figure out they’re a telemarketer–perhaps, if you are lucky, because they actually say the wrong name from the listing–and hang up on them, but when someone who actually does know you wants to talk to you, they can’t find a listing. Maybe it would be different if you are a celebrity, and a lot of people you don’t want to talk to are looking for *you specifically*, but telemarketers are looking for *anybody* to call, and your benefit of being unlisted is that they don’t get your number (quite as easily,) NOT that you stop them from knowing your name when they dial it.
These what ever services used to be free. But now because ppl do not say NO and like it this way, The taxes are raising for no reasons at all.
As many of you, I manged to run away from few taxes..But hill.. Ticketmaster is unbeatable.
Guilty for Unlisted Phone Number Fees… Definitely wasting about $20 a year on those…
For #1 on this article, why does it cost less to have your phone number out of the phone book than being in-the-phonebook?
In California we have to get a smog check certificate every two years for each car. The issue is not that you are required to go to a limited number of facilities to do this (and they charge outrageous fees) but once the testing is done, all that data is transferred electronically. Aside from the smog test fee, they charge for the electronic data transfer!! As if I had a choice to send it in any other way. I don’t even have the option to send it in manually (which I would prefer causing massive manual labor).
Here in New York State, we have to get our vehicles inspected every year. The nice thing is that the fee is set by the state, so it’s the same everywhere (I don’t know if there are any variations by locations due to a specific issue, but I know that right now [August 2013] the fee for a car is $37.00). So long as the facility has the ‘NYS Inspection Site’ plaque on the wall, you’re good to go. And the data is transferred to the NYS DMV as part of the process.
8 August 2013.
Yes, taxes are free on many state websites now. I use Turbo Tax to start mine to see the maximum refund I can get, then go to the state website to make sure I get that number, then file it for free! I just ignore the reminder mails that come from Turbo tax to come back and finish my taxes. Sorry dummies, but no thanks!
One fee that I avoid is going to car dealers that charge those ridiculous $600 doc fees (Mazda dealers especially). Oh Pls how much does it cost to print out a few pages to sign!? Just be aware of them and have them waive it. Of course they’ll say they can’t, its in the computer and can’t be changed, etc…just walk away and go somewhere else or just buy your car from a private party.
Great write-up, Len!
Great post. I’m inspired!
Len these fees are charged because people like you pay them. Some are avoidable, but don’t some make your life easier, hence you pay them?
I never go to major concerts, unless someone else is paying. Luckily for me I find them too loud, a traffic hassle to get in and out of the venue, and then paying parking. I rather listen to the CD or mp3 of the band, where I can control volume and they sing it they way I’m use to. If I want to see them in concert I’ll watch a YouTube video of it. I am probably as old as you Len, and my for my first concert I was in college and saw Def Leppard for $8. Well my friend who couldn’t go gave me his ticket. But now many concerts are over $100.
I fly Southwest almost exclusively, no baggage fees or ticket change fees. You can even cancel your ticket 10 minutes prior to take off and use the funds for another ticket up to a year with no fee.
As for the house phone, those fees are tough to get around and they are numerous. For my cell phone I use a prepaid Andriod TracFone. I’m not a heavy cell phone user so it works fine. You can avoid the taxes and fees buy buying renewal cards on Ebay.
If you find Turbo Tax to expensive, try TaxAct. There’s almost always a promo or coupon that lowers the price significantly from Turbo Tax price. Since my income is below the threshold Turbo Tax is free. You can use the IRS forms but not sure it’s worth the hassle, online is much easier, especially for complicated returns.
The fuel surcharge FedEx and UPS charge even though gas has gone way down is crazy. I try to ship with the Post Office as much as I can. It’s usually cheaper I found.
Buying a car, house, or funeral? Watch out for all sorts of hidden fees. As we went over the contract with the funeral director when my father died, we noticed a fee for $750 that really didn’t make sense so we asked him to explain it. He had a hard time coming up with an answer and said it was to let people know the funeral was over and stuff like that. We figured we can tell everyone when the funeral was over or they would notice when everyone started to leave. He waived the fee.
Lens we may not like the fees but unless we do something drastic by refusing to pay them and give up the services, I guess the best we can do is vent about them here on your site. Thanks for giving us a place to do that.
Yes all those fees which adds to woes are always been treated as a irrelevant ones, as no one wants to pay something out of their pocket, for which they don’t want to take any liability. So it would be smarter to check the terms of any services thoroughly, before enrolling self into it.
Really? Most hotels are charging us for hotel safe fees. I gotta check this the time I rent a room. This should be free and I don’t see a good reason to charge us for this. By the way, I always ask to remove the phone charges as I never use this.
Excellent post. I hate paying all of these — especially the second one.
This was a great post. I’m glad that about half of those are not around as much. However Ticketmaster needs to be upfront with all of their charges. It should be illegal to conduct business the way they do.
Tires – a tire costs $50 plus tax. Simple. Oh, did you want that on your car?
I get shipping, but handling?
Airlines: I could go on and on but my favorite is $20 per bag, then don’t forget to tip the baggage handler.
Same thing for valet parking. $20 to park your car, and don’t forget to tip.
I’ve had two companies try to charge me “sales tax” for services that are not taxed in my state.
The most outrageous fee I’ve heard of, but never saw a bill to confirm this, was a Bell System “lamp wink” fee for businesses. I heard about this when the company I worked for was doing work on customer-owned phone systems in the 1980s.
The office phones of the last century, with five or ten line buttons and a cord as big as your pinkie, had an electro-mechanical control box in the basement or closet of the business. Inside the box, there was a separate circuit board, or line card for each outside line.
For most customers, the lamp behind each line button on each phone would slow flash while ringing, be steady when one of the phones had the line off-hook, and fast flash or “wink” if that line was on hold. I was told that the Bell System charged a fee per line for the optional lamp wink feature. If you didn’t pay, the lamp for any line on hold would glow steadily as though someone else was using it.
In order to provide lamp wink, the equipment installer would use a pair of pliers or his fingers, and move a certain jumper on each line card from Position 1 to Position 2. There may have been a second jumper to run the “interrupter” motor during hold as well as during line ringing. The interrupter cycled the continuous lamp power to the ring and wink power sources on and off. Thirty seconds work per line to enable forever a supposedly billable feature that was already built in.
p.s. I always calculated my own taxes. I can’t stand the idea of paying someone else for the privilege of paying the government. But with tax law changes several years ago, after calculating the total both ways I find that taxes are now less by taking the standard deduction than by itemizing, so there’s that. And who is going to audit the standard deduction?
Oh boy, you’re talking to me. I have recently written several letters to places that decided to charge extra fees. My dentist charged me $20.00 for PPE for their employees. I wrote that the dental office owners should be responsible to keep their staff and patients safe. No word back from them. I also wrote a letter to a company who does heart checks off site and was coming to my area . They had raised their fees since I last went but they just started adding a $5.00 charge to read the test results. What? Who was reading the results before, which was included in the past fee. No word from them yet. And, our spend thrift Governor Pritzer added a $50.00 fee for license plate renewal. Yep, after he raised the fee even more than that when he was elected into office. This just burns me up. It’s not like it’s a huge amount of money but more and more places are adding these service fees just to make more money from customers who often have no choice but to pay them.
i am no where near 90 and I still look up a business in a paper phone book from time to time.
There’s always the exception to the rule. Even so, I didn’t know they still issue them. In the old days they dropped them on your driveway once per year; just like the newspaper. How do you get one now?