Many consumers see junk fees in various forms. Some people use junk fees as a catch-all phrase for any charge they don’t like. The topic is certainly getting attention these days, with the White House talking about a new crackdown, buzz about the Junk Fee Prevention Act introduced in Congress and new rules proposed from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

There are three simple definitions of a junk fee:

1. Mandatory charges that aren’t disclosed up front.

Find an error in your credit files? Most people who reach out to credit bureaus to address an error have a less than 2% chance of getting it fixed.

The credit bureaus that collect, store and share our data should be accountable to us, not the companies that use them to access our credit information.

We need legislation that puts consumers back in control of their credit.

There are three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. These three bureaus are responsible for collecting our credit data and sharing it whenever we need our credit checked.

Our credit depends on

Americans with health insurance now have new protections against unfair surprise medical bills.

On January 1, 2022, the No Surprises Act went into effect, banning practices that had previously led as many as 1 in 5 Americans who visited a hospital or emergency room to receive surprise charges costing them hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars.

But what exactly is in this new law, and what does it mean for you? Here are some tips to help you get to know your new protections.

First, we could use some definitions: What exactly is a surprise medical bill?

Oftentimes, people choose to go to