Surcharges are suddenly everywhere—and grumpy Americans are paying up

Consumers already weary of rising inflation are now contending with a new crop of costs that are hidden in plain sight. New fees or surcharges are popping up everywhere as companies search for ways to recoup their own rising costs while blaming outside pressures.

In recent weeks, package-delivery companies and airlines have announced new or higher fees, citing increasing fuel prices. Economists expect more to follow unless oil prices rapidly fall.

Surcharges increase pressure on consumers, whose spending drives the economy. On Friday, the University of Michigan’s survey of consumers reported its lowest-ever sentiment reading, beating out the 2008 recession and the pandemic, pointing to Americans’ increasing concerns over rising prices.

Yet there is a simple reason why companies like these types of fees, which often don’t show up until a customer is already checking out: They work.

A J.D. Power study released in 2025 found that 34% of small businesses were adding credit-card surcharges. A fifth of restaurant operators, meanwhile, now add fees or surcharges to customer checks, according to a 2025 report from the National Restaurant Association, up from 16% in 2022.

“Consumers tend to pay less attention to surcharges than to base prices,” said Vicki Morwitz, a marketing professor at Columbia University.

Researchers call this phenomenon a “lock-in effect.” By the time a surcharge appears at the end of a transaction, consumers have already committed to the purchase and are far less likely to abandon it than if they had seen the full price from the start. That makes them mad. But it doesn’t cause them to change their behavior.

“The next time I come back, I’m still drawn in by that initial low price,” said Morwitz. “Even if I may have felt tricked the first time.”

Hans Sauer ran a swimming-pool repair company during the 2008 oil-price increase. The 59-year-old, who is now retired, said he added a $5 monthly fuel surcharge to his customers’ bills at the time, removing it a few months later when prices dropped. About 95% of his customers accepted it without complaint, he said.

“If it’s temporary, people are mostly OK with it,” he said, adding that he has more sympathy for small businesses passing on fuel costs than for large corporations. “The problem is when it never goes away.”

How much a surcharge irritates consumers depends largely on where it appears in a transaction. Fees disclosed upfront and included in an initial purchase price are generally better-received than those that show up only at checkout, a practice known as drip pricing.

The Federal Trade Commission banned drip pricing in short-term lodging and live-event ticketing in 2025, citing research showing that consumers were manipulated by low initial prices even when the full cost was eventually disclosed.

Companies sometimes prefer surcharges to straight price increases because they shift blame to an external force. When airlines or shipping companies label a fee a “fuel surcharge” they are pointing at a circumstance outside of their control rather than appearing to pad their margins, said Rebecca Hamilton, a marketing professor at Georgetown University.

If a company raises the price of a snow shovel after a storm, Hamilton cited as a classic research example, customers are upset. They know the business is just capitalizing on the surge in demand. If that same business blames rising costs instead, Hamilton said, “consumers feel it’s more legitimate.”

In that way, the current wave of fuel surcharges might be easier to swallow because consumers know where the increases are coming from. “We all see it every day passing by the gas station,” said Michael Weber, a finance professor at Purdue University.

Not everyone is convinced the current wave is as justified—or as temporary—as companies claim.

Corey Andrews, 32, views the fees as a one-way street.

“If jet fuel goes back down, the baggage fees won’t,” he said, referring to nearly every major U.S. carrier’s recent decision to raise prices for checked baggage. Andrews, a laid-off market strategist in Denver, tries to avoid fees in his day-to-day life. He has at times not returned to restaurants that pass wellness service charges on to customers, and he avoids fee-heavy food-delivery apps. He waits until he has multiple items to buy from a retailer to avoid paying for shipping, and signs up for credit cards with travel-status points that make checked baggage free.

“I consider myself a savvy consumer,” Andrews said. “But when everything goes up, you run out of levers.”

Ben Weinhart, a 27-year-old accountant in Cincinnati, now goes into every restaurant meal or travel booking as a skeptic.

“Covid kind of opened the floodgates,” he said. “I feel like I need to be my own detective.”

One of the favorite parts of his trip to Europe last summer, he said, was the all-inclusive pricing when he bought a train ticket or a souvenir.

“The price was just the price,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t mind paying more for the luxury of less mental math. “It’s exhausting to have to be so aware all the time.”

Write to Rachel Wolfe at rachel.wolfe@wsj.com