Love this article I found about the biggest rip-off’s in America. I could add one about my cable company but I won’t ! Ha ha. I wouldn’t mind paying for theatre popcorn IF it was fresh…who has the freshest theatre popcorn? Can you add anything to this list? -Barry

AMERICA’S BIGGEST RIP-OFFS

From CNN.com, here are America’s Biggest Rip-offs:
1. Text messages – 6,500% markup. The messages are such a tiny piece of data that they cost carriers only about one-third of a cent to deliver. But on a pay-per-text plan, the 160-character messages typically cost 20 cents outgoing and 10 cents incoming. That’s a markup of as much as 6,500%.
2. Movie theater popcorn – 900% markup. A medium bag of popcorn costs just 60 cents to make but retails for $6. Theater owners mark up the snack so much because they don’t make a profit elsewhere. Out of your $10 movie ticket, only a tiny percentage goes to the theater’s profits.
3. ‘Free’ credit reports that’ll cost you. When you sign up at Freecreditreport.com, you’re asked for your credit card number. Then the site automatically enrolls you in its “Triple Advantage credit monitoring,” which pledges to continuously track your credit status for $14.99 per month. Technically, you have nine days to cancel the credit monitoring service before being charged, but many consumers have felt duped. Instead you can go to AnnualCreditReport.com, which is run by the Federal Trade Commission, and get a truly free report once a year from each of the credit agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
4. Name-brand painkillers – 60% markup. A 50-count bottle of 200 mg Advil tablets costs $8.49, versus just $5.29 for the exact same bottle of generic ibuprofen
5. Wine at restaurants – 500% markup. Restaurants mark up cheaper bottles by an average of three times the retail price, while the prices of higher end wines are typically doubled. Prices for wine sold by the glass are tripled or even quadrupled.
6. College textbooks – $900 a year (which is the average estimated cost of books and supplies). Greedy publishers drive up prices by issuing unnecessary new editions that render older texts worthless without adding much new information.
7. Super gasoline – 15% markup. Hi-test gas costs up to 20-40 cents more per gallon than regular gasoline, even though it doesn’t do anything to improve the performance of most cars.
8. Hotel mini-bars – 1,300% markup on candy, snacks and drinks.
9. Hotel in-room movies – 200% markup