HOW TO FIGHT THE ANNOYANCE ECONOMY

Hidden fees, customer service snafus and other financial hassles cost Americans an estimated $165 billion a year.

- BY KIM CLARK

WITH inflation accelerating, affordability remains Americans’ top financial concern these days, according to a Gallup survey.

Adding insult to injury is the recent proliferation of mysterious or hidden fees, complicated cancellation policies, spam calls, and service inconveniences that collectively make up the “annoyance economy.”

That’s the term some experts now use for the “steady grind of small hassles that eat away at our time, patience, and wallets,” as a recent report from the research group Groundwork Collective describes it. The annoyances include hours spent waiting on hold with customer service, dealing with insurance paperwork, fielding robo calls or navigating AI chatbots, and paying mysterious service, handling and administrative fees, often imposed at checkout.

The annual cost to consumers, the researchers found: $165 billion in wasted time and money. The biggest chunk of that cost—$90 billion, or an average of $650 per household—comes from out-of-pocket spending on so-called junk fees, such as those tacked on to transactions for everything from travel and banking to concert tickets and food delivery.

“Everyday interactions that should be simple too often turn into fraught ordeals, leaving people feeling overwhelmed, ignored, or jerked around,” the researchers say.

There is one positive development in the fight against the annoyance economy: Opposition to junk fees is becoming a rare example of bipartisan cooperation, says Susan Weinstock, CEO of the Consumer Federation of America. “Everybody hates junk fees,” she says.