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Many consumers see junk fees in various forms. Some people use junk fees as a catch-all phrase for any charge they don’t like. The topic is certainly getting attention these days, with the White House talking about a new crackdown, buzz about the Junk Fee Prevention Act introduced in Congress and new rules proposed from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

There are three simple definitions of a junk fee:

1. Mandatory charges that aren’t disclosed up front. It could be a “resort fee” slid in just before you book a hotel room, a required company charge added to monthly cell phone bill, or a service fee you can’t avoid when purchasing an event ticket. Many companies are guilty of “drip-pricing” – prices that don’t include everything you must pay.
2. Optional charges that are portrayed as mandatory or are given official-sounding names to deceive consumers or discourage them from questioning the fees.
3. Mandatory fees or charges buried in an unreasonably long terms and conditions document. You might expect a 10-page document for a car loan, but not to book an airline ticket.

Here’s some simple advice to protect yourself from junk fees:

• Read everything before you pay, sign, initial or agree.
• Don’t sign or agree to anything that you didn’t actually read.
• If there’s something you don’t understand, ask what the fee is for. Getting a clarification in writing (or via email) is better. 
• Don’t be afraid to walk away or from the transaction if you don’t like the extra fees.
• Pay by credit card. Never by debit card. Undisclosed fees are easier to dispute with a credit card. And debit cards expose your whole checking account to all kinds of additional problems.
• Note the names of anyone you talk with. Put a note in your calendar or send yourself an email of the day and time of day when you talked with the person. It helps you fight a fee if you can document that you talked with this person on this day and were told this.
• Keep copies of all receipts, agreements, emails, texts. 
• If you’re hit with an undisclosed or misleading fee, complain to the company and file a complaint with your state attorney general’s office of consumer protection or the FTC.

Find an error in your credit files? Most people who reach out to credit bureaus to address an error have a less than 2% chance of getting it fixed.

The credit bureaus that collect, store and share our data should be accountable to us, not the companies that use them to access our credit information.

We need legislation that puts consumers back in control of their credit.

There are three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. These three bureaus are responsible for collecting our credit data and sharing it whenever we need our credit checked.

Our credit depends on these bureaus’ having and reporting the most accurate information possible about our credit history. But when they get that info wrong, we’re the ones who pay for it — and there’s very little we can do about it.

According to a report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), these bureaus provided relief in less than 2% of consumer complaints — which means, even when you do nothing wrong, you will most likely have no way to fix your credit score.

This doesn’t make sense, and it needs to change. That’s where the Comprehensive CREDIT Act comes in.

If passed, this legislation would make it easier for consumers to detect — and correct — mistakes on their credit reports. It would also help restore credit scores that were unfairly damaged by these mistakes.

This could have a real impact. It would shorten the time that negative information appears on credit reports, limit the reporting of medical debt, and lend a hand to student borrowers as they struggle to repair their credit.

Finally, it would have the CFPB regulate credit scoring models for accuracy and give consumers free credit scores along with their free annual credit reports.

This legislation would play an important role in protecting consumers’ credit from unfair credit reporting practices.

Americans with health insurance now have new protections against unfair surprise medical bills.

On January 1, 2022, the No Surprises Act went into effect, banning practices that had previously led as many as 1 in 5 Americans who visited a hospital or emergency room to receive surprise charges costing them hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars.

But what exactly is in this new law, and what does it mean for you? Here are some tips to help you get to know your new protections.

First, we could use some definitions: What exactly is a surprise medical bill?

Oftentimes, people choose to go to hospitals and see health care providers that are in their insurance network. The thing is, it’s often very difficult for people to be 100% sure that they’re only treated by in-network providers, and most patients can’t know for sure until they get home.

If even one of the health care providers they visit isn’t in-network, then they will still receive a bill charging them for the out-of-network service. These so-called “balance bills” then show patients the difference between what their insurance covers and what they have to pay for themselves.

So how does the No Surprises Act protect me?

The new law protects you from out-of-network charges you might receive from an emergency room, an in-network health care facility, or from being transported by an air ambulance (via airplane or helicopter).

Additionally, your health plan now has to provide you with a document, called an Explanation of Benefits (or EOB), that details the cost of in-network service. To protect yourself, you should always compare your medical bills to your EOB.

There’s an important exception here though: Protections from the No Surprises Act are not extended to out-of-network ground ambulance rides.

And there’s another caveat: These protections DO NOT apply to all types of medical facilities.

You will be protected from surprise bills when visiting hospitals, hospital outpatient departments and ambulatory surgery centers that participate in your plan's network. However, you WILL NOT receive these protections in other types of health care facilities, including birthing centers, clinics, hospice, addiction treatment facilities, nursing homes or urgent care centers.

If you’re scheduling a visit to any of these other facilities, be sure to ask before treatment if the facility and its providers are part of your health plan's covered network.

Anything else I should know?

If you’re scheduling treatment ahead of time, some out-of-network physicians might ask you to sign a document (called the Surprise Billing Protection Form) that would commit you to paying their out-of-network charges. We recommend that you don’t sign this form; ask for an in-network provider instead.

If you think you’ve received a surprise medical bill, reach out as soon as possible to your insurance and your provider.

If you want more information, you can check out this helpful guide from our friends at U.S. PIRG. Read up to make sure you and your family can avoid these unfair bills.

It’s illegal for a candidate for office to accept foreign campaign contributions. But that rule doesn’t apply to campaigns to pass ballot initiatives, even though they’re also a crucial part of our democratic process.

We have a chance to change that. A new bipartisan federal bill would ensure that ballot questions are given the same protections against foreign influence as candidate elections.

Send an urgent message today telling your U.S. House representative to support the Stop Foreign Funds in Elections Act.

When we step into the voting booth, we’re given the opportunity to not just help decide who will make our laws, but also to decide certain laws directly.

In other words, these initiatives are the people's way of making law where lawmakers have failed. They may not always be front-page news like candidate elections might be, but they’re just as important to ensuring that our democracy is as strong, fair and participatory as possible.

That’s why the current gap in federal law that leaves ballot initiatives vulnerable to illicit foreign contributions is so alarming. For our democracy to thrive, it’s just as important to prohibit foreign influence in this direct lawmaking process as it is in choosing our lawmakers.

Will you raise your voice to protect our democracy? Tell your U.S. House representative: We need to pass the Stop Foreign Funds in Elections Act to keep our state and local elections free from foreign influence.

These loans are easy to get -- and they're likely to trap you in debt.

Right now, high-cost payday lenders are allowed to give loans with triple-digit interest rates to people with low but steady incomes -- including veterans. Thanks to this practice, lenders can demand sums of up to three times the amount of the original loan.

This isn't right and shouldn't be allowed -- tell your U.S. senators today to pass the Veterans and Consumers Fair Credit Act (VCFCA).

You’ll find them outside military bases, in low-income neighborhoods -- wherever you find people earning small but steady paychecks. It’s there that high-cost payday lenders set up shop -- like “bears on a trout stream,” according to experts -- and offer predatory loans with sky-high interest rates.

To keep these lenders from taking advantage of active-duty service members, Congress passed the Military Lending Act in 2006, which capped interest rates at 36% on predatory loans given to those serving in the military. These protections are great, but so many other consumers can still find themselves hooked into high-interest loans, owing double or triple the original loan amount in interest.

If passed, the VCFCA would extend the Military Lending Act’s protections out to all Americans -- keeping these predatory lending practices away from our country’s most vulnerable populations.

The bill would cap interest rates at 36% for all sorts of loans, including various short-term loans that some people need to make it from one paycheck to another.

Tell your senators to protect consumers and back the VCFCA.

This bill would help a lot of Americans -- but it has some powerful and vocal opponents.

In the past, the American Bankers Association has spoken out against similar measures -- and lenders who profit off high-interest loans are already making their opposition heard.

That’s why it’s so important that Congress hears from us too. If we stand up and speak together, we can make a difference.

Take action now to protect consumers.