These Are the Stupidest Fees You Should Never Pay.
Over the course of our lives, we collectively die of nickels and pennies. There are things we need (or want) to pay for, as well as fees we must pay on top of the supposed cost of these things: mysterious hotel fees, flagrant airline fees , youth-punishing car rental fees. -This list has no end. But what’s really annoying about these fees is that they make you feel like they’re being manipulated – we have to play along with the fictitious ideas that this isn’t just a money grab on top of an already negotiated price.
That being said, some fees have a much higher bullshit ratio than others. You can’t avoid all the fees our capitalist masters throw at us, but there are plenty of stupid fees you can avoid – and never have to pay.
Commission Coinstar
If you haven’t made the transition to a cashless lifestyle yet, you’re probably still dealing with piles of change that pile up in your pockets throughout the day. After all, you have a brine jar filled with coins, and when your check is stretched out enough that you can see through it, that change starts to look like real money. And the local grocery store has a Coinstar machine… that will eat up almost 12% of your coin value in fees.
The term scientists would use to refer to this fee is outrageous . To avoid commission, you have two options:
- Gift card. Coinstar gives you the option to get a gift card instead of cash for change, and there is no fee if you go that route. Gift card options are limited , but they’re just as good as cash if you need what these retailers sell.
- Bank. Most banks do not offer coin counting services and will politely refuse a pile of dirty coins thrown on their counter. You can usually get coin tosses from them for free (just ask!), and then toss the change yourself – correct change can be deposited into your account fairly easily. It can take a long time, but a relatively cheap coin counter will pay for itself pretty quickly.
ATM commission
Charging a fee for accessing your own money is one of the dumbest fees of all time, but ATM fees are hard to avoid when you need cash, and your only option is a sketchy 7-11 ATM. However, there are some steps you can take to eliminate these fees, in the first place by transferring the money to a bank that will refund these fees .
If you’re in a pinch, another tactic is to ask if the store can refund your purchase. It only makes sense if you really need something in that store – otherwise it’s a funny hat fee.
Credit reports
If you don’t check your credit reports on an annual basis, you should start – it can take a long time to notice identity theft, and even honest mistakes on your credit report can have a huge impact on your credit score, and therefore your credit score. rating. life. But if you are ever asked to pay for a credit report, you are being scammed. All three major credit card companies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) are required by law to offer you one free report each year. Just go to AnnualCreditReport.com and follow the procedure. Some banks and credit card companies also offer free credit reports as part of their account, which can give you an extra report – and you can’t have too many.
Late payments
Late fees on your credit cards or other lines of credit are unforgivable. Paying the minimum amount on an account is a bad idea, but it’s a lot better than charging an outrageous fee on top of everything else. Setting up automatic payment is a smart game: you can still manually set your payments to pay more than the minimum, but if you forget, you’re still immune to stupid fees.
If you forgot or just made a mistake on your schedule and are facing a late payment, contact your lender. If this is your first late fee, there’s a good chance they’ll cancel it if you offer an explanation.
Most dealership fees
Buying a car is a tedious and depressing experience for most people. Driving around dealerships, talking to aggressive salespeople, and trying to figure out all the options just sucks the life out of you. To make matters worse, many dealerships are in the game by adding stupid fees to your purchase agreement. Advertising fees, shipping fees, priming fees—some car sales have so many unnecessary fees attached to them that it’s hard to keep track of them. The good news is that getting rid of these fees is often as easy as asking about them – for some reason, as soon as you point them out, they disappear.
Entrance fees to the gym
If you’ve been to a gym at any point in your life, you may have noticed the “entry fee” on your first bill. This is a classic stupid fee as it is just extortion of money.
To avoid this fee, ask about it when inspecting the gym and then ask them to waive it. Gyms are almost always under member pressure as people come and go and many salespeople trying to lure you into joining have a quota they must meet. This means that they will almost always waive the entry fee if you make it a condition of signing up for an annual membership.
Investment fees
If you have an Individual Retirement Account (IRA), well done. Putting deferred taxes into retirement is smart, and an IRA is a relatively safe and easy way to make that money work for you. Just make sure you don’t get account maintenance fees. These fees may seem insignificant, but trust me when I say that the institution that manages your money is already earning a lot from you – the service fee is simply outrageous. You can transfer your IRA to another account at any time, so find a place that doesn’t charge fees, or contact your current bank or financial advisor and ask them to get rid of the fees. Most of them, instead of losing their business.
Car insurance fees
Owning a car means owning a lot of expenses. In addition to fuel, maintenance and depreciation, your car will cost you insurance. And if you pay monthly, your insurer may charge you a “handling fee” for the benefit. This fee covers their expenses because every time they take money from your credit card, they receive a commission from their side.
If you can, by paying the entire premium up front, you will get rid of that fee. However, if you can’t collect the one time payment, you’re probably stuck with a monthly fee.
Mortgage Fees
Buying a house is expensive. In addition to the down payment, there are the interest you pay on the mortgage and closing costs. Folds up quickly.
As such, you need to be vigilant when it comes to avoidable fees that some lenders include on your mortgage. They often add application fees, underwriting fees, bid blocking fees, mysterious processing fees which add up to a pretty mind blowing amount of extra money you have to pay. The main thing to remember is that you are negotiating – there are many lenders out there and unless you are desperate to buy a specific home or within a certain period of time, you can find a better mortgage deal. . This means that you can always ask for these fees to be reduced or waived, and you should always ask your potential lender to do so. You may not shoot them all down, but even some cuts will make a difference.
Fee for issuing a communal card
The world is moving to paperless and online. In many cases, you no longer receive paper bills from utilities and the like, and when you go online to pay your bill, you face processing fees when using a credit card.
But you don’t have to pay that stupid fee. Most utility, water and sewer providers allow you to pay by electronic check or direct withdrawal from your bank. Electronic checks are essentially the same as paper checks: you provide a routing number and an account number, and your bank processes the payment as if you had written a check. It may take a few minutes to set up, but it’s a safe and free way to keep the lights on.
Overdraft fee
Your bank can seem very helpful when it offers you “overdraft protection”. Rather than bounce checks or refuse your card when you make a mistake and let your checking account go to zero, the bank kindly covers your excess until you transfer some money into your account. Of course they charge, usually less than $50 for their problems.
However, if you overspend by a few cents, $50 is an outrageous fee. Instead of using your bank’s overdraft protection, see if you can link your savings account to a checking account so that overdrafts can be drawn from there. If that’s not possible, you can opt out of overdraft protection and just pay attention to low balance alerts, which you can set up with your bank’s app.