A targeted crackdown on “junk fees” makes a lot of sense

I called up comcast&#x2F;xfinity to get internet service. They asked me if I&#x27;d like to add on basic cable for $10&#x2F;month. I don&#x27;t watch much TV, but I figured for $10&#x2F;month I&#x27;d be willing to do it for the occasional live event. So I agreed to it on top of the $40&#x2F;month internet. I figured I&#x27;ll be paying $55ish&#x2F;month when you factor the taxes I&#x27;ll be paying to Uncle Sam. After 20 minutes on the phone, we get to the final payment authorization. &quot;Do you authorize me to charge your credit card $68&#x2F;month?&quot; I asked why so much higher than the $40 + $10 amount?<p>Apparently, there was an $11 &quot;content delivery fee&quot; for the TV. As if buying the cable channels and having them &quot;delivered&quot; to my home are different freaking things. As if you can buy the rights to watch cable at the comcast store, but if you want it at home, you gotta pay an extra $11.<p>These companies are going to whine and scream about these changes, but they really brought this on themselves.

In Germany the price you see is the price you pay. It&#x27;s set in law. This includes taxes and any other fees they might want to add. If someone tried to add random fees like AirBnB does in the US, you would not have to pay them.<p>Wouldn&#x27;t that solve most of the problem?

How about making it compulsory to accept legal tender for events &#x2F;races and other things? How many times do you sign up to run a race and are forced to purchase through vendors like &quot;Event Dog&quot; or other where paying cash is not even an option. And these companies always tack on up to 10$ &quot;convenience fees&quot; that are unavoidable. In places like Canada where currency is legal tender you can avoid these scummy vendors by paying the merchant cash directly

I hate fees as much as the next guy, if not more. But this doesn’t seem like it’s in the same ballpark:<p>&gt; <i>We’ll make cable internet and cellphone companies stop charging you up to $200 or more when you decide to switch to another provider.</i><p>If your cell provider gives you a subsidized phone and puts you on a contract that has an early termination fee, that seems fair.<p>If cable companies are doing this sort of thing, then it would be more of an issue since they don’t provide expensive equipment that the customer keeps. But I mostly hear about cell providers doing this.

I&#x27;d be very happy to see this. Apparently if you change your currency on AirBnB to Australian dollars, you see the <i>actual</i> price, inclusive of fees, because that&#x27;s legally required there. (As is showing the after-tax price on things like restaurant menus.)

The article quotes Republican adviser George Callas arguing that this would be bad economics because it won&#x27;t eliminate costs, just shift them to the primary price of the services in question.<p>I disagree. Shifting the costs to the primary price is good economics because it enables consumers to comparison-shop based on price and leads to a more competitive market. That&#x27;s what companies are trying to hack with hidden fees.

We just need an across the board price transparency law. You should know exactly what you’re going to pay before you agree to any services. It shouldn’t be that hard.

Following in the example of the Airlines I think it should be universally required to disclose all fees up front so that you can do a proper comparison - too frequently you don&#x27;t receive those numbers until the very last step. Like rental cars that are $0.01&#x2F;day plus $150 in fees, or GrubHub vendors that have service fees exceeding the costs of an entree. One of the things I like about Amazon is that they provide a total cost when comparing buying options from their marketplace.

I have paid a _resort tax_ but never a _resort fee_ to my knowledge. All of the taxes were authorized by the city &#x2F; county &#x2F; state.<p>Is there a difference between resort tax on a hotel room and a resort fee as this article states?<p>Can the Federal government ban certain states &#x2F; counties &#x2F; cities taxes?

Yeah. For instance, let&#x27;s talk about the $29 I paid to American Airlines recently for &quot;priority boarding,&quot; <i>before</i> I found out the flight was less than 1&#x2F;3 full. I got what was offered, but I got no actual value out of it. AA essentially scammed me out of $29, because I never would have taken the offer had I known there were so few people on the flight.<p>Edit to add: they made me this offer at the airport kiosk, immediately before my flight boarded. They knew it wasn&#x27;t anywhere near full.

When I was a teenager, a mechanic tried to charge my dad for the use of &quot;shop towels&quot; for working on his car. What?

Most people have been paying $8&#x2F;mo for 3-4 years for a $35 modem.<p>It&#x27;s a sweet deal, if you can get it.

I&#x27;d be happy if they got rid of cleaning fee and chore requirement from AirBnB.