Indivisibles, 

Looking to get a little take-out this weekend?
Thinking about planning a vacation soon?
Confused that your bank account seems to charge you to use your own money?

You might need to take into account something that sounds small but has
been adding up for Americans all across the country, taking big chunks out
of their budgets: junk fees. If you’ve encountered a junk fee before and
know exactly what we’re talking about, [ [link removed] ]take this quick survey to let us
know about how they have affected you.

For those of you asking, “what’s a junk fee?” Junk fees are hidden costs
associated with goods or services that are added on later to the price.
They are most-often predatory, unnecessary, confusing, and dramatically
increase the price from what’s advertised.

Does that sound like a lot of jargon to you? Yeah, us too. For a quick
rundown, check out this video from the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau:

[ [link removed] ]Still image of the beginning of a video entitled 'The hidden cost of
junk fees' depicting a person behind a checkout counter

Or, if you want to get into the meat and potatoes, the White House has
provided this in-depth explainer -- complete with charts and side-by-side
comparison -- for [ [link removed] ]how junk fees distort competition. 

Here’s the basics:

You’ve just gotten home from work on a Thursday night. Because of your
kids’ extracurricular schedule, Thursday night is family movie night. It
was a long shift, and the dishes have piled up in the sink from the week
(where does the time go?). Pizza it is! But, your local pizza place no
longer accepts delivery orders directly. They let go of their drivers
and only go through an app now. Ok, great. 

Two pizzas (of course, everyone wants different toppings) come out to
$30 pre-tax -- completely reasonable. You go to checkout and the price
is suddenly almost $45. HOW?!?!

Junk Fees!

Now you no longer only have to worry about the tax, you’ve got to think
about the service charge, the delivery charge, and an insurance charge
that weren’t revealed until you had already argued about which pizza
place, the toppings, and found that coupon you’ve been meaning to use
for a month. You’re locked in.

[ [link removed] ]Junk fees are costing Americans tens of billions of dollars every year.
And junk fees aren’t just on delivery. They are overdraft fees stealing
money from the poorest Americans. They are apartment fees hiding the true
cost of rent. They are convenience fees jacking up the resort vacation you
saved two years to afford. From car dealerships to credit card companies,
monthly internet bills to cell phone statements, working families cannot
escape this financial burden.

We see unnecessary junk fees all over the place bleeding Americans dry.

So we want to hear from you: Where have you seen junk fees? Are they
affecting your life? How are these deceptive practices showing up for you?
We want to know if and how much these fees are impacting you and your
family, so we have a clear picture of how they’re affecting Indivisibles
across the country. 

[ [link removed] ]Fill out our survey on junk fees so we can gain a better understanding
of just how much (or how little) Indivisibles are being affected by these
predatory practices. 

[ [link removed] ]Take our survey >>

President Biden has taken up eliminating junk fees as a banner issue
because they are digging into American’s bank accounts every day. Let us
know if you’re seeing them, and be as descriptive as you can (and if we
get really interesting stories, we want to share them!) [ [link removed] ]Take our junk
fees survey today!

In solidarity, 
Indivisible Team

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