Remember when the price on the menu was the price you paid? Those days are gone.
Somewhere along the way, businesses figured out a neat trick. Instead of raising the sticker price and scaring you off, they’d quietly tack on a fee at the end. Service fee. Resort fee. Regulatory recovery fee. Kitchen appreciation fee. Take your pick.
The White House Council of Economic Advisers estimated that junk fees cost Americans roughly $90 billion a year. That’s not a rounding error. That’s real money walking out of your wallet in small, sneaky chunks.
Here’s the good news: Most of these surcharges can be avoided, disputed, or dodged entirely — if you know what you’re looking at. Let’s walk through the nine biggest offenders and what to do about each one.
1. The restaurant service fee
Your $60 dinner shows up as $74 on the check. You spot the culprit: a 20% “service fee” tucked in above the tip line. No, that isn’t the tip. Yes, you’re expected to tip on top of it.
According to the National Restaurant Association, 15% of restaurants had added a surcharge by 2023, and that number climbed to 16% a year later. These fees go by different names — “kitchen appreciation,” “wellness fee,” “living wage surcharge” — and can range from 2% to a jaw-dropping 25%.
Here’s what to do. Before you order, scan the menu for fine print about mandatory fees. If you see one, ask the server exactly what it covers and whether tipping is still expected. In California, Colorado, Minnesota, and several other states, restaurants now have to disclose these fees up front — so if they don’t, say something.
And if you hate the fee? Vote with your feet. These surcharges only survive because diners keep paying them without complaint.
2. Hotel resort and destination fees
You book a room for $149 a night. You get to the desk and discover a $45 “resort fee” that wasn’t in the advertised rate. Congratulations — your room just went up 30%.
Las Vegas is the worst offender, with resort fees sometimes hitting $50 a night for amenities like Wi-Fi and pool access you may never use. As of May 12, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees requires hotels and short-term rentals to show the true total price up front, including mandatory fees.
But the rule is only about disclosure. It doesn’t ban the fees themselves.
Your move: If an advertised amenity isn’t available — pool closed, gym broken, Wi-Fi spotty — ask the front desk to waive the fee. They often will. Booking direct instead of through a third-party site also gives you room to negotiate. For more ammunition, see 3 tricks to uncover the true price of a hotel room.
3. Airline baggage fees (just jumped again)
If you booked a flight before April 3, check your receipt. Every major U.S. airline raised checked bag fees in the first two weeks of April 2026 — the biggest coordinated jump since 2018.
The trigger was jet fuel. Prices nearly doubled after the Iran conflict disrupted the Strait of Hormuz, and airlines moved fast to pass the cost along. Here’s where things stand as of mid-April 2026:
- United: First bag now $45, second $55 (tickets purchased on/after April 3)
- American: $45 online/$50 airport for first bag; $55 online/$60 airport for second (effective April 9)
- Delta: $45 first, $55 second on domestic routes (effective April 8)
- Southwest: $45 first, $55 second (effective April 9)
- Alaska: $45 first, $55 second, $200 third (effective April 11)
- JetBlue: Dynamic pricing — $39–$49 first bag, $59–$69 second, depending on route and demand
And that’s just the first two bags. United bumped third-bag fees by $50, and American, Alaska, and others followed with similar hikes. U.S. airlines collected a record $7.27 billion in checked bag fees in 2024. The 2026 number will blow past that.
Here’s how to fight back. Get an airline-branded credit card — most waive the first checked bag for you and a companion, which pays for itself in a single round trip. If you fly a specific carrier often, elite status knocks out bag fees entirely. Active-duty military get free bags on American and most major carriers.
And pack ruthlessly. Our guide on 6 ways to avoid paying to check bags when flying walks through the tactics. For families hauling lots of luggage, shipping your bags ahead may actually cost less than paying airline fees — and that math just got a lot more favorable.
One warning: As one financial analyst told Newsweek, baggage fees are sticky — once they go up, they stay there, even if fuel costs come back down.
4. Bank fees that punish you for being low on cash
Overdraw your account by $3 for a cup of coffee? That’ll be $35, thank you very much.
The typical big-bank overdraft fee still runs around $35 per transaction, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) estimated 23 million households pay these fees — averaging $225 per year per household.
A 2024 CFPB rule would have capped most overdraft fees at $5, but Congress repealed it in 2025. So the $35 hit is still standard.
And overdrafts are only the beginning. Using an out-of-network ATM routinely costs $4 to $6, often charged twice — once by the ATM owner and once by your own bank. Monthly maintenance fees of $5 to $15 kick in when your balance dips below a threshold.
Fight back on three fronts. Move your checking to a bank that doesn’t charge overdraft fees — Capital One, Ally, and Citibank have all eliminated them. Use only in-network ATMs (your bank’s app will show you where).
And if your account charges a monthly fee, switch to one that doesn’t. Credit unions and online banks offer free checking.
5. Credit card surcharges
It used to be that paying with plastic was free. Not anymore.
A December 2025 merchant study found roughly one-third of businesses were adding credit card surcharges, up from under 5% in 2021. These charges typically run 2% to 4% of your total. On a $200 grocery run, that’s up to $8 you didn’t budget for.
The workaround is simple: Pay with a debit card or cash. Federal rules prohibit surcharges on debit card transactions in all 50 states — only credit cards are fair game. States including Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts ban credit card surcharges entirely.
Before you pull out the plastic, glance at the register for a surcharge notice. If you’re earning 2% cash back but paying a 3% surcharge, you’re losing a point on every dollar.
6. Food delivery app fees
This one hurts. A McDonald’s order that costs $36.95 at the restaurant can cost $63.21 through DoorDash — a 71% markup, according to a 2025 study by Self Financial.
How? Restaurants often inflate menu prices on delivery apps to offset the commissions the apps charge them. Then the app piles on a delivery fee, a service fee, a small-order fee, sometimes a “regulatory response fee,” and asks for a tip.
In a 2024 letter, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bob Casey, and Ben Ray Luján alleged delivery app fees can inflate order prices by as much as 95%.
The fix isn’t complicated. Pick up your own food. Most restaurants now offer direct online ordering that bypasses the apps entirely. You’ll save 30% or more and get the food faster. For more tactics, read up on how to spot and avoid delivery app price tricks.
7. Ghost subscriptions you forgot you were paying for
You signed up for a streaming service for the free seven-day trial. That was 18 months ago. You’ve been paying $14.99 every month since.
Sound familiar? A C+R Research study found the average American spends $219 a month on subscriptions but thinks they spend just $86 — a $133 gap. And 42% of consumers admit they’re still being charged for services they no longer use.
That’s not a small leak. That’s hundreds of dollars a year walking out the door on autopilot.
Here’s the cure. Pull up your last three months of bank and credit card statements. Highlight every recurring charge. For each one, ask: Did I use this in the last 30 days? If not, cancel it today. Apps like Rocket Money can scan your accounts and flag forgotten subscriptions automatically.
The FTC’s Click to Cancel rule, finalized in 2024 but vacated in 2025, was supposed to make canceling as easy as signing up. But now that it’s gone, you’ll have go back to the old way and jump through hoops.
8. Concert and event ticket fees
You see a concert ticket for $75. By the time Ticketmaster is done with you, it’s $112. The “convenience fee,” “service fee,” “processing fee,” and “facility fee” have done their work.
The FTC’s Junk Fee rule, which took effect in May 2025, now requires live-event ticket sellers to display the total price up front, including all mandatory fees. That’s progress. But the fees still exist — they’re just visible earlier.
To fight back, buy tickets directly from the venue box office whenever possible. Some venues charge zero fees for in-person purchases. For secondary market tickets, check multiple platforms — fees vary wildly between Ticketmaster, StubHub, SeatGeek, and Vivid Seats.
And watch the clock. Last-minute prices on apps like Gametime often drop dramatically an hour before showtime.
9. Telecom and utility recovery fees
Look at your cable, internet, or cellphone bill. You’ll see line items like “regulatory recovery fee,” “broadcast TV fee,” “sports programming surcharge,” and “administrative fee.” These aren’t taxes. They’re charges the company invented to make the advertised price look lower than your actual bill.
These fees can easily add $15 to $30 a month to what you thought was a $70 plan. Over a year, that’s real money.
Your best weapon is the threat to cancel. Call your provider, ask for the retention department, and tell them you’re shopping competitors. Ask specifically for the hidden fees to be credited or reduced. You’d be amazed how often they cave — I’ve done it personally, multiple times, and saved hundreds a year.
If they won’t budge, switch. Services like T-Mobile Home Internet and YouTube TV advertise “all-in” pricing with no surprise fees.
The bottom line
Surcharges work because most people are too tired, too polite, or too distracted to push back. Don’t be most people.
Read your bills. Question every line you don’t recognize. Pay in cash when a surcharge applies to cards. Book direct when possible. And for a broader playbook, see our guide to 11 fees that are robbing you blind and how to fight back. Every fee you successfully dispute or avoid is tax-free money back in your pocket.
The companies charging these fees are betting you won’t notice. Prove them wrong.
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