Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with fees

Tae Kwon Dough

lester's sock puppet — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:52:10 -0800

So the not so little lester offspring (he’s 17) is in tae kwon do. He got his black belt last year. Are they being unreasonable with the promotion fees? So the not so little lester offspring (he’s 17) is in tae kwon do. He got his black belt last year. In the past couple of months, he’s been asked to attend classes on a daily basis … because he’s now doing a lot of the instruction for the younger students. Previously, he attended 1 class 3 times per week. Now he’s attending 2 classes daily, with heavy teaching chores for the first class.

This wouldn’t be so bad except he recently received a “promotion” to a second dan. Along with this was a second promotion was some additional weapons training. What bothers me about this is the extra cost—in addition to the monthly fee, he was asked to pay about $600 for the two promotions.

My question is this, for those mefis involved in martial arts: Is it common for upper levels to pay for their promotions even though they’re also shouldering the burden of class instruction?

Best online broker for newbie investor w/ modest funds?

mintyfresh — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:41:32 -0800

I'm trying to choose an online broker. Fees vs. site functionality and features are my main concern. (1) What is the best online broker for someone who has between 5 to 10K to invest? (2) Is there any advantage to paying higher per-trade or per-contract fees for use of a site that has better features, or can all of the common features be found elsewhere easily? (3) Which discount broker has the best site functionality? I'm afraid of signing up for a discount broker with a site I'll hate later because it doesn't offer enough, and I'm also worried about paying too much for awesome tools I won't really need. With less than 10K at my disposal, fees could easily eat up my profits.

I'll be dabbling in trades and options, so the ideal brokerage would have low-to-moderate fees on both. Bulk pricing discounts probably won't be too relevant at the volumes at which I'll be trading.

I know sites like MSN Money have free tools available, although I'd rather have them at hand on my broker's site. I've also read that some of the best tools are on pay sites, though this may be hype. How do tools from discount brokers such as TradeKing, TradeMonster, and OptionsHouse stack up to the tools from higher-priced brokers such as Fidelity, Ameritrade, and Schwab, and how do they both stack up next to free and pay tools from other sites?

I'd appreciate tales of personal experiences with these sites, or with any others that I haven't mentioned. Are you happy with your broker? Were you ever unhappy enough that you switched to another? Also, do some pay site subscriptions offer a significant-enough advantage to be worth the cost, or are they a ripoff, or only useful for the experienced investor? I'm going to be taking a class from Investools this week, but I don't know if I'll end up paying for the subscription or not. Thanks!

Can I negotiate rental agency tenant-changeover fees?

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:12:42 -0800

I live in London in a flat of three, and someone wants to move out. We have someone else ready to move in. The lettings agency wish to charge £150 for swapping a person over, and £100 for admin fees. Can we dispute this, for a more reasonable fee? The fees were similarly massive when we moved in (and we paid 6 weeks rent as deposit). When I visited the building we ended up saying yes to, the agent actually never came down (the janitor let us in). In fact, the first time I ever actually saw the agent was going into their offices to sign the contract and collect the keys.

While I understand that credit checks must be done, and some phone calls must be made, I fail to see the justification for paying half a months rent to change some names on a piece of paper when I found the other tenant. £100, that's going to sting but it's doable. But £250?

Two options seem to present themselves:

1) Try to negotiate, asking them for an itemised breakdown of these costs and making a case for them to reduce the fees for good tenants who have paid all their bills on time and never broken anything or asked them to do anything or fix anything.

2) Go straight to the Landlord. Do this actually have to be done through the Agency? Problem is in this case the 'Landlord' is a big company and I'd expect they'll just want the agency to handle it and will happily pay whatever they're being extorted for, in turn.

The person moving in is having a hard enough time getting 6 weeks rent, plus one months rent up front together, without high fees adding to the troubles.

Thanks!

fees plees?

violetk — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:06:06 -0800

what other fees will i be paying for shopping internationally? i am interested in buying something from a clothing store in denmark through their online boutique. they ship via fedex. i live in the US. what other fees, if any, will i be required to pay?

How much to charge for conference presentations?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:05:53 -0800

A friend and I have been asked to present sessions at a conference, and we're not sure exactly how much to charge. The venue is a biannual communications conference for a large union, on the topic of social media. The first is going to be about and hour and a half long, one is going to be a powerpoint-heavy what-is-social-media-and-how-unions-can-use-it-effectively. The second is a more technical (but still novice-level) workshop on how to use online tools to make a website (blogger, wordpress, etc) - about an hour and a half of instruction, then three hours or so of helping the attendees build a site using what they've learned.

We've both presented and led workshops before, but with a much higher technical skill level (and for smaller organizations), and we're not sure what a good baseline would be to charge. The registration fee for attendees is just under $100, and while I'm not sure how many people are expected to attend, the capacity for the venue itself is between 500-800.

Any advice would be appreciated!

How do I get my bank to refund my overdrafts?

AngryTypingGuy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:32:28 -0800

How do I get my bank to refund my overdrafts? I had a family emergency I had to attend to that required me to leave home and fly to another state. I spent my whole time at a hospital and bought nothing else but food. About a week later, a day before I left, I got the chance to sit down and check my online banking. I discovered four $35 overdraft fees ($140 total). The weird thing was that while I was actively using my card everyday for that last week, none of the charges appeared until five days later. This was a little unusual considering that in the past charges usually went through within a couple of days. I immediately transferred money into my account. Since it was midnight there was nothing else for me to do but wait until tomorrow to call them.

The next day I called my bank and explained the situation - that I was in the middle of a family emergency. At first he said there wasn't anything he could do to help me but eventually he offered to refund two of the four overdraft fees. Even so, I continued to ask him to refund all of the overdrafts, but without any luck.

A day later, when I arrived back home, I noticed two additional overdraft fees practically canceling the refund that I had received earlier. I guess that was just a shrewd way of getting me off the phone.

It's been a week now. I've been busy resituating myself but I'm still looking to get refunded for all of my overdrafts. Is this possible? I thought I had a pretty good explanation but it still didn't seem to get through to them.

Thanks for your help.

Lot Rent

VC Drake — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:07:10 -0800

Do mobile home parks always charge lot rent? Has anyone ever heard of an instance when a mobile home park doesn't charge lot rent? Are there parks that don't charge lot rent at all? Like is there ever just a one-time fee only? Are there ones that sell the lot to the owner? Any other alternatives? Thanks.

I'll take Painful Medical Procedures for $4000, Alex!

spacewrench — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:18:31 -0800

What's a typical range of discount negotiated by insurers with ambulance companies? I dislocated my shoulder and had an ambo ride to the local ER. Since I have only high-deductible insurance, I ended up out-of-pocket for all the charges. The insurance company got a reduced rate on the ER fees (they have a negotiated schedule, I guess, and their interest in reducing my charges stems from their desire to keep me below my deductible, so they don't have to pay anything at all). However, they merely declined to pay the ambulance bill (perhaps that doesn't count against my deductible? I'd have to check the policy more carefully.)

Anyway, I would like to ask the ambulance company for a discount, and I would like to propose something in the range that they would already expect to give if an insurance company was paying.

Does anybody know what that range is?

(For anyone who's interested, it costs about US$4,000 to dislocate your shoulder in Portland, Oregon. Unless you want to do something more than get it popped back in.)

What does it cost to attend your house of worship?

LyzzyBee — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:50:21 -0800

How much does it cost to attend worship/services in different religions? I recently found out that Synagogues charge an annual fee which gets you into (I think) all the regular and special services and pays for your burial costs. I was raised nominally in the Church of England and, while people were encouraged to "tithe" (ie contribute a 10th of their income) into the collection or by direct debit, there was no actual charge to be a member of the congregation. This got me to thinking, what about other religions? And I can't find the info on Google of course! Please note: I'm asking out of curiosity, not out of preference for any religion in particular or being against any religion. Just interested. And Judaism just happened to be the example that cropped up. Quick note: I'm not interested in costs for weddings, baptisms, funerals but for attending weekly services and being a member of the congregation as an Anglican would call it.

PR success fees: I need the skinny

OctopusRex — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:43:24 -0800

How exactly do big PR firms calculate success fees? Do they "cap" them, or is the sky the limit? Or do they structure them so that no one would use them? Do they use the face value of AVE (1 page in newspaper = 1 page advertisement value) or do they use multiplicators?

What can we do about all these overdraft fees, which we think are unjustifiable?

GrooveStix — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:51:07 -0800

My girlfriend received $506 in fees for overdrafting about $40 from Bank of America. Is there anything we can do about this? Here's her question, since she doesn't have an AskMefi account:

Hey Everyone, I urgently need guidance on how to deal with some outrageous banking fees.

I have a checking account with Bank of America. My card has a credit card function on it, which I used last week in order to purchase food. Meanwhile, I had not realized that the bank hadn't processed several of my other past charges - they decided to process all the charges at once, over-drafting me by $40 and slamming me with 5 $35 overdraft fees. Apparently (I just learned this tonight from a cold-voiced manager at a Customer Service center) it's the fault of the merchants, since they gave me a receipt, meaning the charges would be consider debit - NOT credit, even though each of the 9 charges were specified as credit. When I called on the 22nd, I learned that if I didn't pay what was originally $216 in fees, the total balance I owed would jump with 6 more incoming overdraft fees. Being a struggling college student, I couldn't just pay it all off and move on; the total balance is now $506 and are about to jump again. All of my attempts to escalate the problem via phone have failed, despite my threats to use legal and public action. I am also awaiting replies from emails I sent to CEO Ken Lewis, as well as several other executives - I am sending more emails tonight.

Is there anything else I can do? I really need help soon! I have a paycheck coming in next week that auto-deposits and, if I don't have a solution before next Friday, I will have MORE overdraft fees (as explained to me by a service rep) and I won't be able to cover a payment to my University, which was a strict agreement.

Please let me know what can be done. Thank you so much!!!

I want my two dollars!

Nathanial Hörnblowér — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:14:42 -0800

I need advice on charging fair fees for IT consulting work. My husband started an IT consulting business where he goes into small businesses or someone's home and helps them determine their computer needs (hardware and software), does installation, sets up routers, networks, servers, etc. and troubleshoots problems. He's very knowledgeable but is new to some aspects of this industry, so he takes it upon himself to learn as much as he can before going to a client's location. There are a couple of scenarios he can anticipate coming up and doesn't know how he would charge the client. One would be when the client asks him to do something that my husband hasn't necessarily done before but is confident he can do, although it may take him a little longer than someone with more experience. He knows that if he's learning as he goes he should not charge the client for all of his time at the site, but wants to charge a fair rate for his work. How can he determine his rate for this situation? Is there some resource that might give the average amount of time it should take to complete X job? The other scenario is when he's troubleshooting an issue and initially misdiagnoses the problem. How common is this? How do you handle the charges when this happens? In some cases it could be because he's not as experienced with certain issues, but I'd think that even experienced consultants go through this from time to time. Do you only charge for the initial diagnosis and work? We are located in the DC metro area, if that helps at all. Any advice, suggestions or resources you may have would be greatly appreciated.

Bank account with free incoming wire transfers?

perrce — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:02:25 -0800

Wire transfer fees are eating up all my app store profits! Help me find a bank (online or brick & mortar) that won't charge me fees on incoming wire transfers. When you sell an app in the iPhone app store, you receive your payment from Apple in the form of wire transfers into your bank account. My bank is currently charging $15 per transfer, and it's eating up all my profits.

I'm looking to open a new bank account to receive these wire transfer. My criteria:

1. Both online or brick & mortar banks are ok, but if it's brick & mortar it needs to be a national bank (U.S.A.) with branches all over.

2. It must be able to accept international wire transfers.

3. It must have a SWIFT code. This might effectively be the same as requirement 2. (I'm not exactly an expert on this stuff.)

4. Incoming wire transfers must be cheap or free.

5. Minimum balances must be $1000 US or less.

Does anyone know of a bank that meets these critera?

Inhospitable Hospitals

johannahdeschanel — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:36:17 -0800

Can anyone point me towards detailed comparisons or information about the management fees and/or costs at hospitals in other countries? My uncle, who is a doctor in the Philippines, had a stroke and was in a coma for months. He had brain surgery and doctors will not complete the procedure (i.e. place the part of his skull that was removed due to swelling, back on his head) until payments are made in full. Since my relatives are short 12,000 USD, he is stuck in the life threatening situation of an incomplete brain surgery. It is a bit unbelievable that it is standard procedure for hospitals in the PI to not complete emergency procedures without full payment. The sad thing is, since he is a doctor, the procedure itself was free. All of those hefty fees are just management fees - fees for using hospital equipment. It does not seem that there is any way out of this situation now, but after the fact, I would like for there to be press exposure on the topic of changing these unreasonably high management fees and lack of ethics in certain hospitals.

I came across BioMedCentral - Ethics as well as Medical Decision Making but I would appreciate any further advice/sources covering the issue. Thanks.

The Bank of Mum and Dad

Wilder — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:41:21 -0800

How do we best finance our daughter's Irish University career (we're in the UK)? We're Irish, 8 years resident in UK. Daughter started a university course in Ireland last September.

Problem: we had saved enough for year 1 and Grandmother always offered to finance the rest. (Daughter contributes 20% through a summer job) But she very recently changed her mind as our daughter's focus has gone more towards the language and linguistics part of her degree course, as opposed to the Psychology part which Grannie favours.
We're very happy that she has discovered something in her first year that makes her passionate, so we support her choice and her results speak for themselves.
Daughter perfectly happy to get student loan but she has been turned down here in the UK as the course she accepted is in the Republic of Ireland. There is no student loan system in Ireland that we can identify.

So, as we had not planned on being in this position, we hadn't researched it enough, (and we are too ignorant of the tax system here. We are both PAYE workers) so Mefites, what are our best options?
We have good equity in our home and presently have a mortgage for about 50% of the current market value. Should we remortgage at these historically low rates and give her a loan from the Bank of Mum & Dad?
Do we gift her some money which might have tax advantages for us?
She will need approx 10,000 Euros a year as she gets a summer job that earns her a 2,000 euro surplus to put towards the costs

Traveling Light

netbros — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 06:59:22 -0800

When packing for two seasons, how can I avoid airline baggage fees on size and weight? In a few weeks, I am flying (Delta Airlines) to an area that will have chilly autumn mornings followed by very warm desert afternoons. As a result, I will have different clothing requirements depending upon time of day. I will be packing for two seasons. The trip duration is six days and I will have no access to laundry facilities. To avoid extra airline baggage fees, I want to keep size and weight to a minimum.

What are your suggestions for what I should take and what I should leave at home, as well as any useful packing techniques? Thanks as always for your assistance.

How did mortgage HAPPEN so quickly?

Amizu — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:36:20 -0800

How late is too late to negotiate with mortgage broker for fees? And how can I track mortgage interest rates to get a better rate before closing? I'm in the process of buying a home (I hope!). I shopped around for mortgages and about Sept 4, I found one with a great rate (5.875) that was otherwise better than any of the other packages offered to me by other mortgage brokers, my credit union, found online, etc. I locked in that rate, and one thing seemed to lead to another, and now my mortgage broker has done all kinds of work for this mortgage (appraisal, gotten title company researching the title, processed our paperwork), etc. I have the GFE. But nowhere in there did I have a conversation with her about which fees might be negotiable, and I'm feeling like an idiot.

She also says if rates go down between now and closing (mid-Oct), she'll give us the better rate.

She is really nice, has a good reputation, and is a friend of a friend.

I'm in DC.

So the questions are:
(1) How late is too late to keep shopping for a better deal and go back to this mortgage broker and ask her to lower her fees?
(2) Mortgage rates seem incredibly varied by location and personal finance details. Is there any way for me to track mortgage rates and figure out when mortgage rates go lower than they were when she gave us the 5.875 rate so that I can proactively approach her and ask for a lower rate? (I have been to bankrate but it seems very general.)
(3) Any special tips about home buying in DC would be appreciated as well.

Show me the money!

sabotagerabbit — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 08:01:40 -0800

I've been asked to write the web content for a site for my previous place of employment, and I need help figuring out fees. I'm not a professional writer, but I think they're willing to pay me like one because they don't have to fill me in on the organization, etc., and they trust my work (I've written another site for them, but it was part of a larger project, so I can't use that as a guide).
I'm looking for some idea of what to charge per hour, or whether I charge per page or per word or what. I will be required to do some research for the project, but they will provide most of the background (or it's very easily accessible). They are a mid-sized non-profit.
I'd really appreciate any help! Let me know if any further information would help to answer my question...
Thanks!

Desperately seeking Erin Brokovich - need sliding scale family law attorney in San Francisco Bay Area (Peninsula / South Bay)

ebellicosa — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:43:57 -0800

Desperately seeking Erin Brokovich - need sliding scale family law attorney in San Francisco Bay Area (Peninsula / South Bay) Hi:

A friend of mine just got served by her ex-husband who is seeking to change child custody arrangements.

When he filed for divorce 4 years ago she did not know better and signed without a lawyer. He currently pays $800/mo in spousal support and child support for her and two children - a tween and a teen.

She works full time at $13/hr and is still working her way out of medical debt. He works full time at $16/hr for the family business but it's more like $35 if you factor in free rent and food. This is not a complicated case - there are minimal assets involved.

So far, all the lawyers she's contacted want a $5000 retainer and $350/hr. Not practical both because the amount in contention is so low ($5k/yr maybe) and because she's barely making ends meet.

She has a decent chance of getting attorney's fees awarded. She's contacted the Bar Association and will apply for the limited income program.

Is a full-priced attorney that much better than someone on sliding scale or from legal aid?

What should be a reasonable fee (or time allotment) for a lawyer to
1) negotiate a settlement with the other party
2) arrange for mediation
3) file a motion for attorney's fees?
If we do all our homework, to the point of having motions written up for the attorney to review, would any or all this be achievable on $1000 (2.5hrs)?

What does $350/hr realistically break down to? Is there a generally agreed upon schedule of how long it takes for common tasks - letters written, motions drafted, court appeances made?

I've been helping her fill out forms and get things organized. How else can I help her get the most bang for her legal buck?

What's the profile of the type of lawyer she needs? Should she be looking for a recent grad looking to prove herself? A bleeding-heart liberal out to save the world? A flint-eyed veteran who can juggle dozens of cases a day? How do we get somebody on her side who doesn't turn up their nose at anything less than $5000 up front and $350/hr?

thanks in advance!

We the People Divorce Help Please!

matthelm — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:00:31 -0800

I was wondering if there is an equivalent to We the People, whom took care of my divorce paperwork in California, in Chicago for my sister unfortunately needs to file for divorce... http://www.wethepeopleusa.com/ is a service that saves you tons of money on legal fees and my sister and her husband both don't own anything together so a divorce through such a service would cost under $1000. The only problem...there are no offices in Chicago....can anyone help?

How to cut my bank fees?

mpls2 — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:17:52 -0800

How can I get these fees reduced? I have a checking account (TCF Bank, fwiw) on which I recently overdrafted by a couple hundred dollars for a couple days. I was getting low, and I forgot about some automatic payments that were coming due.

Today, I see that I've been hit with a $136 fee, which seems excessive to me.

Has anyone successfully had such fees reduced? Any suggestions for how to argue it?

Thanks!

Missed Australian Census date

Anonymous — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:01:14 -0800

I have missed my (Australian) university's census date. Am I screwed? Without getting into the details too much, I've been having a rough time over the last few months, and decided that enough was enough and that I needed to leave university. I spoke with the head of my department weeks ago and informed her I was dropping out, and have spent the time since then locked in my house feeling miserable (I mention this by way of explaining my lack of organisation - I am booked to start seeing a psychiatrist to deal with my depression).

This morning I realised that my census date was yesterday, meaning that I now must pay for the entire year even though I will be leaving. I'm doubtful I can do anything about it now, but in desperation I am asking Mefi in the hopes that someone may have any suggestions. Knowing I've managed to add $4000 debt to everything else that's gone wrong this year is not helping my state of mind, and knowing that I either have to accept it or that I may have other options would make me feel a lot better.

Refi Time

6:1 — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:15:34 -0800

How much should one expect to pay for fees on a mortgage refinance? Are the figures for the fees on the "good faith" estimate actual or negotiable? We were originally told one number for closing fees, a different number showed up on our good faith estimate. If it matters, we are not going through a bank, but a private mortgage broker.

Thanks in advance.

Debit/Credit card fees in Europe

timory — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:55:53 -0800

How do I avoid excessive credit card/ATM fees when traveling in Europe this summer? I'll be studying abroad in Europe for 6 weeks this summer, in 6 different countries. I'm trying to figure out the best way to handle money out there. I know that it's best not to carry cash or use local currency exchanges, but is there any particular credit card or bank that I should apply for to avoid conversion fees and other surcharges? Ideally I'd just be able to get cash out of most ATMs without having to pay an arm and a leg for each individual transaction.

Right now I have a checking account (debit card) with PNC Bank, and a credit card with Bank of America, just FYI.

In state tuition fees for out of state students?

worker_bee — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:58:56 -0800

College tuition fees for out-of-state students question. Before I go to my sons high school counselors and chat to them about this, I am hoping the collective MeFi mind can confirm I have all my facts correct. My son is a high school junior and we are now in the midst of looking at how he can pursue a career in the field of Photo Journalism. In our home state (Virginia) there are Journalism schools, but none that offer a major in Photo Journalism although there are out-of-state schools where he can take it as his major.

I have been told by friends that you can sometimes apply for in-state tuition rates if the major being taken is not offered by any schools in your home state. Is this correct? We are planning to meet with his career counselor in the near future and want to bring this up as a possibility before we start the application process. Thanks.