| Tell us more about how “junk fees” have affected you. 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, 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:
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 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.
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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.
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.
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!) Take our junk fees survey today!
In solidarity,
Indivisible Team  |
