Fine Print: Read it if you can

Car Dealerships, Banks, and Computer Companies add MORE in smaller size to CHARGE More

Fine print is everywhere growing in use against consumers and shrinking in size.  Big deal?  Did you know fine print means the consumer loses big money. Transparency Labs, which administers a national database of consumer contracts, estimates that information buried in these disclosures generates fees, exclusions, waivers and the like that cost each American household more than $2,000 a year—for a total of about $250 billion annually. On other fronts, fine-print agreements take more than just your money — they take your rights.  Most notably, a Supreme Court ruling last year strengthened companies’ ability  to use mandatory arbitration, a dispute-resolution process designed to keep  consumer cases out of court. Consumer-protection group Public Citizen says that in seven major businesses—including banks, credit-card companies,  computer manufacturers and brokerages—at least 75% of companies now include such provisions in their fine print.