Loaded Up With Junk

[Passages]

Extra profits are the only explanation for many fees businesses charge.

BY HASSAN ALI KANU JUNE 6, 2024

Most Americans are unfamiliar with terms like “ancillary revenue,” “shrouded attributes,” or “partitioned pricing.” But we’re all well acquainted with the feeling that we’ve been scammed, tricked, or flat-out deceived when shopping for products and services.

That’s why the phrase “junk fees,” coined by Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) director Rohit Chopra, makes intuitive sense, even if you’re just hearing it for the first time.

The fact that “fees” almost always refer to non-optional costs was an important factor in settling on that descriptor, Chopra told me.

“I saw this as part of a really disturbing trend in the economy that was really about cheating rather than competing,” he said. “Rather than fess up to the real price of a product or service, you saw a swarm of consultants getting companies to price in ways that are much more difficult to understand, and the result is often a way to gouge people.”
https://prospect.org/economy/2024-06-06-loaded-up-with-junk/

[alwaysinasnit]

1. k&r

[FakeNoose]

2. They call them "junk fees," I call them "unexplained add-on charges"

Never let a company add-on a charge that isn't explained, and that you didn't agree to pay.

[dalton99a]

3. A must read.