White House, many others, push back against ‘junk fees’
- Public backlash to hidden fees on food, events growing
- Biden administration trying to end extra fees where it can
- Bloggers, mainstream media have exposed many fees
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(NewsNation) — Bloggers, mainstream tourist guides, legal websites, and now even the White House all agree on something: Junk fees must go.
“Junk fees” are defined as those semi-hidden additions to a bill that you don’t learn about until you look at the bill — be it from a restaurant, ball game, concert, hotel, airline or bank.
“Ten specific kinds of junk fees amount to $90 billion per year in the United States, or more than $650 per household per year on average,” said a White House report last month.
“That’s high enough to deserve a line item in family budgets, equal to about a fifth of the average household’s entertainment spending,” the report said.
The Biden administration has been active in cracking down on junk fees in areas the federal government regulates. It says the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s actions will already save nearly $20 billion a year.
Congress has also jumped on board. It’s working on a bill to “limit and eliminate excessive, hidden, and unnecessary fees imposed on consumers.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, more people are starting to notice the extra lines on their bills and are fighting back.
One couple tells the newspaper they now base hotel and car rental choices on whichever company offers a flat, upfront price.
Restaurant delivery customers are ordering online, then walking or driving to the restaurant rather than charge as much as 50% for delivery.
Scott Roeben, author of the popular Las Vegas blog Vital Vegas, has long encouraged people to demand restaurants remove the 3-5% CNF (Concession and Franchise Fee) from food bills. But he acknowledges that most people who are on vacation in Las Vegas aren’t going to spend the time arguing with a restaurant manager over less than $5.
“Casinos rely heavily on that vacation attitude,” Roeben told the website “Life’s Incredible Journey.”
When it comes to entertainment, sometimes the entertainers themselves get into the fight. According to the Journal, singer Maggie Rogers recently urged her fans to buy tickets to her next show at the box office “like it’s 1965” to avoid fees.
And Minnesota recently passed what became known as the Taylor Swift bill, which mandates transparency when buying tickets to concerts, ball games and other live events. It was inspired by a state lawmaker’s frustration at not being able to buy tickets to Swift’s 2023 concert in Minneapolis,
