VIRGINIA – Virginia Western Community College student Bakari Deskins said his wallet is hurting after booking a flight to Colorado for spring break.
“It doesn’t seem fair if I’m being honest,” said Deskins. “It’s almost like you’re getting scammed really.”
He said he was forced to spend more on hidden fees that weren’t listed at first.
“It went up probably an extra hundred bucks from when it was first listed on Google to the final purchase price when I actually bought the plane ticket,” said Deskins.
President Joe Biden reaffirmed his promise to combat these costs during Thursday night’s State of the Union address. This week, federal regulators capped credit card late fees at $8. That’s down from the average of $32.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau also proposed to curb excessive bank overdraft fees with hopes of saving Americans $19.5 billion annually.
However, Virginia Tech Associate Professor of Public Policy Dr. David Bieri said the crackdown on junk fees won’t really save Americans a meaningful amount of money. Instead, he said it’s a political distraction during an election year.
“It is money. It is money that people can use. Eight bucks, ten bucks here and there. But again, in the grand scheme of things, not something that we should be wasting too much time thinking about. There are much more important things that are pressing,” said Bieri.
He said the conversation needs to center on regulatory reforms of the housing market, corporate monopolies, and lowering inflation.
“Appeasing the electorate domestically by helping them save 15 bucks every other month, if that’s the best that he has to give, I worry,” said Bieri.
Nevertheless, Deskins said anything would help.
“Hopefully [the government] can do it. Hopefully, they can make a lot of those prices a little more clear, a little bit more transparent for the public,” said Deskins.