Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s not a unethical at best, or at worst, a straight-up scam. Anything come to mind?
I’ll go first: Timeshares
The math doesn’t work. You pay $30k+ upfront plus rising annual fees for maybe one week a year. Just booking hotels when you actually want to travel costs way less.
They’re worthless. Timeshares lose value immediately and you can’t sell them. Check eBay - people are literally trying to give them away for $1.
Hidden fees everywhere. Maintenance fees, exchange fees, booking fees, special assessments. The costs never stop growing.
You’re trapped. Locked into specific weeks and locations, with expensive hassles to change anything.
Predatory sales. They use high-pressure tactics on vacationing families to get you to sign immediately before you can think it through.
It’s a depreciating expense disguised as an investment.
Along the same vein as what @charlotteirwin said, it feels very scammy that politicians are allowed to accept massive gifts and hold investments in things they can affect. There are countless examples of this, but a recent ones that comes to mind is Marjorie Taylor Greene. Her net worth was reportedly around $700K before congress, and now it’s around $25 million. How does that happen??
I don’t know if this would classify as a scam, but it does fit the bill as unethical in my opinion.
I live in Northern California and there has been a lot of wildfires in recent years. I don’t understand how you can be with a home insurance company for 10-20+ years and they can just decide on a whim that they don’t want to insure you anymore because you are too “high risk”. Hasn’t happened to me luckily, but know many people who have been dropped and the only options are super expensive state sponsored insurance.
What if you have never even made a claim or had some very small claim? If they can just drop you like that, then they should be required to pay you back for the premiums they made you pay “just in case” that they now get to keep without providing any real service in return. If you were already on the plan, then they already determined as an organization that they were willing to accept the risk and they should be required to honor that commitment for as long as the owner owns that home.
Idk. I may be way off base here, I just don’t see how that’s fair for them to keep all that money AND have the ability to just cancel whenever they want without providing any tangible benefit.
@JoeR I see what you’re saying, and I get it from both sides.
From a consumer’s standpoint, I agree, it does feel scammy that you can pay tons of money over the years and then just be dropped.
This happened to me once when I bought a rental property that had a dilapidated roof. My insurance company said they’d drop me if I didn’t replace it within 30 days… so I replaced it, and everything was fine.
On the other hand, when I look at it from an underwriter’s standpoint, it makes total sense. If I see that someone or something is a huge risk (even if they just became a big risk recently), I shouldn’t be obligated to take a risk, or continue taking a risk for them.
It’s especially unfortunate for those who live in an entire area that’s affected, and there’s nothing you can control about your specific property.
What’s the answer? I honestly don’t know… but I do understand the frustration.
