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Surprises Hidden in Credit Card Fine Print

Fidelity Signature VisaRecently, MrConsumer benefited from a bargain he wouldn’t have known about had he not checked the benefit fine print of his credit card’s website.

He has an upcoming trip to Washington, DC and was getting worried about all the airport horror stories of long lines and delays. He knew that TSA PreCheck is a means to get through airport security quicker but wasn’t about to pay close to $80 for a once-in-a-blue-moon plane trip.

It turns out, however, that some credit cards offer TSA PreCheck as a free benefit. But, only a couple of credit cards with no annual fee cover that cost. One is the U.S. Bank Altitude Connect Signature Visa, and the other is the Fidelity Rewards Visa Signature card.

MrConsumer coincidentally has that Fidelity card but never uses it — until now. Double checking the fine print, sure enough that is one of the few extra benefits still offered by this card. And the benefit is available every four years. (TSA PreCheck is a five-year membership for $79.95.)

*MOUSE PRINT:

Fidelity PreCheck benefit

While reading the Fidelity Guide to Benefits, however, MrConsumer found two nasty surprises.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Fidelity Visa lost benefits

Purchase security, which protects goods buyers if what they bought is lost or stolen within 90 days of purchase, has been a mainstay of credit card benefits for decades. Lost luggage protection is less common, but a nice, valuable benefit to have had for years.

This move by Fidelity follows an industry trend of dropping costly credit card benefits, as it did back in 2021 when it discontinued their very valuable “extended warranty” and “collision damage waiver” coverages (see our story back then). After receiving complaints, collision damage waiver was subsequently reinstated.

So keep an eye on your credit card’s benefit list — there may be some valuable goodies there you didn’t know about or news of other benefits soon to disappear.

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MyPillow Sued for Price Misrepresentation

A California consumer filed a lawsuit earlier this year against MyPillow for deceptive price advertising. She claims that the pillow never sells for the “regular” price, so the savings promoted are illusory.

MyPillow ad

*MOUSE PRINT:

But Defendant’s purported “sales” are, in reality, anything but. The substantial “discount” shown to consumers is deceptive and misleading because Defendant’s Products are never sold at the full price represented. Such findings were confirmed through online archives documenting Defendant’s pricing and sale history. Additionally, Defendant has configured its Website in such a manner that a promotional code is trivially available to all consumers, rendering its “promotional code” pricing deal illusory.

The FTC’s Guides Against Deceptive Pricing is clear when it calls out phony regular prices:

If the former price is the actual, bona fide price at which the article was offered to the public on a regular basis for a reasonably substantial period of time, it provides a legitimate basis for the advertising of a price comparison. Where the former price is genuine, the bargain being advertised is a true one. If, on the other hand, the former price being advertised is not bona fide but fictitious—for example, where an artificial, inflated price was established for the purpose of enabling the subsequent offer of a large reduction—the “bargain” being advertised is a false one; the purchaser is not receiving the unusual value he expects.

The consumer’s lawyer also alleges that the company adds on a surprise mandatory junk fee — a shipping protection fee — when the consumer is checking out in violation of California’s Honest Pricing Law [see 29(a)].

junk fee added

The lawyers are seeking money damages, penalties, and an order requiring MyPillow to correct its sale practices. MyPillow recently tried to force the consumer into arbitration, but the judge denied the request.

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Giant Food Makes Digital Coupons More Accessible

Giant digital coupon for TideGiant Food, a grocery chain with 162 stores in the Mid-Altantic region, just announced it has installed “Savings Stations” in each of its stores to make use of digital coupons easier.

These large screen kiosks at the front of each store allow a shopper to simply scan their loyalty card or enter their phone number and then all that week’s advertised digital coupons from their circular are automatically loaded onto their account.

Giant Food Savings Station - digital coupon kiosk

Since 2022, Consumer World and other leading consumer organizations have been calling on top grocery executives to end the digital discrimination of seniors, low income folks, and others who don’t have smartphones or the internet or who are not tech-savvy enough to use supermarket apps to gain access to the grocery savings offered by digital coupons.

To date, Ahold-Delhaize (parent company of Stop & Shop, Giant Food, and Food Lion) and Kroger have heeded the call among others. It is now time for all the various Albertsons supermarket banners like Safeway, Vons, Star Market, Jewel-Osco, etc. to do the same thing and end digital discrimination.

With grocery prices as high as they are now because of inflation and tariffs, every shopper should be able to easily access all supermarket discounts whether they are tech-savvy or not.

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