I am a big music buff. There is nothing I enjoy more than seeing a live band. But again this morning I was reminded – as I am every time I buy a concert ticket online – about one of the biggest scams going: “convenience” fees on event tickets. Today I bought a ticket for the Band of Horses concert in Baltimore. (You might recognize Band of Horses from this Ford commercial.) As you can see at this link the tickets are going for $25. But by the end of the transaction, I was paying $33.50 thanks to $2.50 in taxes and $6 in fees. $2 of that fee was assessed when I chose to print the ticket on my own computer. What?! How is there a fee for that? I’m incurring all of the costs! The fee would have been even higher had I chosen to have the tickets mailed to me or retrieved them at the box office. So I ended up paying a fee that amounted to 24% of my purchase, which is more than fees for a $25 ATM withdrawal, short-term loan, or wire transfer. The only scam worse is those pesky overdraft fees (which can run $35 a pop even if you only go over by 1 penny)!
You might wonder if this fee is just elevated because your blogger is an indie rock snob going through an alternative ticketing agency… You would be sorely mistaken. The McDonalds of ticket services, Ticketmaster, is bleeding people dry all across America. Want to take your kid to the circus? That will be $21.20 (21%) in fees.
How about 2 nose bleed seats to give your son a chance to see Lebron James come to town? Ticketmaster hits you with $14.65 in fees on those two $20 tickets. 36% of the value!
And it’s not the circus or your favorite indie rock band that wants to hit you with these exorbitant fees. So luckily some event centers allow you to avoid these fees by purchasing the tickets at the box office. With gas prices dropping, if the trip isn’t far that is sure to save you a couple bucks. So make sure you call the box office before hand to see if a little extra time will help you avoid these mindboggling “convenience” charges.
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[...] get away with murder for charging you massive surcharges on your concert and sports tickets — even if you print them out off your own computer. You could save more than 20 percent in fees if you buy them directly from the venue box [...]