Comments on: The 7 Most Hated Fees & Price Bumps

By: J. Money

J. Money — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:31:31 +0000

OUCH. I really do not like Bank of America – it’s rare that they look out for their customers… and double ouch on those tolls too! haha… unlike banking, you sometimes don’t have many options w/ roads :) Hope it gets better!

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:13:39 +0000

Oh, I remember when I was in college and 18 I opened a bank of america bank account and they were charging me $4 a month to have a debit card. Seriously? Let’s just say, sometimes I ended up in the negative JUST because of that. My car insurance ($1200 for 6 months), cell phone, and food were more important than $4. But I’d have the money for all those but be at like $3 something or a a couple cents and then they’d tack on the $4 charge. It was really annoying. Needless to say, I changed banks real quick.

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:05:02 +0000

I can’t STAND tolls. I live in upstate NY so there’s no tolls. But I have to drive to my parents in NJ every month for drill (thank you army for having no openings close to me for my job) so I end up paying a ton in tolls. Thankfully, I’m pretty sure I can claim all of them and the gas on taxes due to having no other option in the reserves (since I’m traveling over 100 miles). Oh, and for paying so much in tolls the roads aren’t that great.

I can’t stand that we downgraded our internet through time warner and the bill is exactly the same because of a price hike. So much for trying to save money there. We’ll probably end up getting rid of the cable next.

The best I can do with our 2 cell phones with the cheapest plan is $129. That’s insane. We have a couple more years and then I think I’m switching to straight talk.

We buy less and less food every month, but our food bill seems to always go up even though I basically buy the same stuff. And I use a lot of potatoes and beans, or I substitute with those so we can save money somewhere.

I really hate the bottle deposit (5 cents for every glass or plastic bottle drink you buy in NY, so if you buy a case of 12 waters, you get charged 60 cents). You get it back if you bring the bottles to a redemption center, but sometimes I just want to put it out with my regular recycables.

By: Money Wizard

Money Wizard — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:03:10 +0000

@J. Money – I can see that. I don’t know about you, but 9 times out of 10, I don’t want to continue the subscription. But, you also have to think about how companies will make it easy for you to continue the service. Many of the companies who engage in this kind of practice make it nearly impossible to cancel their service. A phone call, text, or e-mail would be all that’s needed to remind leads to continue the service.

@Edward – Yeah, I’m afraid your wife ran into one of those companies that make it difficult to cancel. That is actually the one service I use now, but only because it provides a little peace of mind. But, I did the same thing as your wife with FreeCreditReport.com a few years back before they got scolded. I ended up having to just tell them, “Look, you either cancel my service and refund my money for the month you charged me, or I will just call my credit card company and dispute the charge. They cancelled it and refunded the money they charged me because dealing with me is easier than dealing with credit card companies. Use what you have as leverage and trust me, companies like that don’t want to be investigated by credit card companies.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:06:01 +0000

@Matt — Awesome! haha.. I knew I liked you :)

By: Matt, Tao of Unfear

Matt, Tao of Unfear — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:16:12 +0000

@J$ Oh, I know how much it takes! I rocked the Knox back in the day while I was sporting a 5-6 inch ‘hawk. It’s a lot of work. :)

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:30:43 +0000

@Money Wizard – Yup, the more automated subscriptions the better for companies — one of the best tricks in the book. They leave it up to US to do all the work and bring in the dough in the meantime… on the plus side, it’s also GREAT for those who want to keep the service live and in action. I’d be pissed if I had to contact all of them to keep it going all the time – I’d much prefer to call to cancel.
@Matt, Tao of Unfear – Haha… if it weren’t for my mohawk I’d be able to do the same thing too ;) Do you know how much hairspray and items I need to get that thing up every day? (you don’t want to know) Though I also travel with a billion extra clothes too cuz I’m a girl like that. To me it’s worth the fee to have all the options I want when out in another land, but of course I liked it a helluva lot better when there weren’t any too ;)
@Edward Antrobus – HAH! Yeah, not as easy being married traveling unless you’re BOTH minimalists.

By: Edward Antrobus

Edward Antrobus — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:58:00 +0000

J, I always wondered how they dealt with rental cars. Apparently, if you have a temporary tag in a tinted window, the camera can’t see it.

Money Wizard, Earlier this year, my wife made the mistake of getting her credit report through freecreditreport.com. When she tried to cancel, their customer retention specialist actually brought my wife to tears.

Matt, For the limited travel I did, I traveled that way before I got married. That ended when I got married. Minimalism is not something my wife could be accused of. :)

By: Matt, Tao of Unfear

Matt, Tao of Unfear — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 06:37:47 +0000

I’m pretty sure I’ve only been to one place here, a club, that actually offered to check coats. Yeah… we’re just that casual here.

I dropped Netflix like they were ice cold long before there were ever any price hikes because they don’t support linux with their streaming service. If I pay good money for the service, I expect to be able to use any of my devices which has the hardware to do so. If you are going to bite that bullet, I would definitely get the streaming service. It’s not bad, for what it is. I watched more documentaries than I knew what to do with.

As far as luggage fees are concerned: when I spent a week in NOLA, I only packed whatever I could fit in a small backpack. I didn’t even use overhead bins, let alone check baggage. It was so much less stress (and less pricey) to have all of my stuff with me at all times. Not that minimalist travel is for everyone. I definitely wasn’t packing the big bottle of conditioner and the apricot scrub. ;)

By: Money Wizard

Money Wizard — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:15:00 +0000

I really don’t like offers where, once you sign up, you are bound to the service if you don’t cancel within a specific period of time. Years ago, these offers used to cancel themselves and you were responsible for contacting them if you wanted to keep the service going. Now, if you forget to contact them, you will be billed each month until you either cancel the service, which is nearly impossible for most of the companies that market their services in this manner, or call your credit card company and tell them not to authorize any more charges. To me, these are basically “hidden” fees that can really bite you hard if you don’t create a cancellation reminder on your phone.