What was the biggest "idiot tax" you've ever paid, and why?

1. I bought a non refundable airplane ticket on a whim, for a next-day flight. Turned out my passport had expired. Whelp.
   — SecondSingles


2. I stayed at my internship for 8 years. To be fair, I graduated college in 2008, at the peak of the recession. I was interning there in college, and no one was hiring. They offered me the job, which was just basically a continuation of my internship (the same hourly rate, just some shitty benefits thrown in). Because of the market, I knew I had to take it. They only ever gave 1 to 3 percent raises yearly. Because of my inexperience and my anxiety about the recession, I never really tried too hard to move, although I did apply to things that interested me when they came up. After 6 or 7 years, I found out about Glassdoor and realized that I was being paid 30-40% below the MINIMUM market value rate in my area. I brought this into them and asked for a raise. They gaslighted me and tried to guilt me, and didn't give me anything. Keep in mind that I had moved up four times in the company, but got title-only promotions, and was still doing all the work from the position below me that I had left. I got a new job, got back up to market rate, and I was able to walk out the door. They tried to counter me in the end, because they would have to backfill four positions and pay each new person more than I was currently making. They had the gall to say to me that they had no idea I was upset about the pay, even though I had had a meeting with them about it a year prior. Make no mistake, this whole thing was an idiot move on my part, and likely cost me upwards of $250,000 over the 8 years I was there. THAT'S how underpaid I was. Don't stick around to be shit on, it's not worth it, and it takes money right out of your pocket.
   — Hey_its_me_your_mom


3. I had to pay $50 for a drug test. I couldn't piss on the first time around and they said the $50 is non refundable and I had to come back to pay another $50 when I could piss again. Literally here's my free money you fucks.
   — DetroitEXP






4. I recently lost 100 dollars because I didn't return a textbook I rented before I went on a long family vacation. $100 for a textbook I already paid to rent and will soon be out of date (because apparently the rules of the natural world change every few years).
   — RIPGeorgeHarrison


5. One day I just happened to notice a $75 charge on my bank statement for a monthly Dropbox.com Business account. After some investigation, I found out it was for a business account my wife had signed up for. She had created the account to research the Dropbox business model, intending to cancel it a few days later. She forgot. Well I don't scrutinize my bank statements nearly as much as I should. It was **20 months** after she signed up before I noticed the monthly charge. We had paid $1500 for a service we didn't use, or want, or even know we had.
   — Bostaevski


6. I joined a gym in the fall and promptly broke my leg, but they gave me a discount if I signed up for autopay. When I realized I was still paying for it I kept thinking I’d go once I healed, then it was I’ll go when the summer is over, etc. I paid for that damn gym membership for over a year without actually using it. I jokingly called it my “fat tax”, but idiot tax fits, too:)
   — rubyface






7. I put a batch of potato peels down the garbage disposal and turned it on that immediately created a solid blockage in the drain pipe. It cost plenty to have a plumber snake out the line (far beyond the trap under the sink). He said, "You've just paid an avoidable idiot tax - *never* put potato peels down the garbage disposal!"
   — Back2Bach


8. This is one of those scenarios I relive before I go to sleep and it literally keeps me up at night because I'm kicking myself. So, I grew up in a rural but wealthy area on the East Coast. No solicitors, no homeless people, no petition signature beggers. It was really quiet. All that is to say that moving to a HUGE city on the other side of country in which there's some of the largest populations of homeless people and street corner solicitors in the country was a culture shock for 18 year old me and I didn't know how to handle it. One day, when I was 18 or 19 in college, I was walking to class and waiting for the crosswalk light to change on a busy street corner. I was accosted by a young man (late 20s, early 30s) who looked and acted a little...odd, but was perfectly friendly and polite. He asked if I had a second because he was in a contest, and if he can get some number of people to sign off that he's a nice, friendly guy, he'll win a vacation or something. Sure, I say, just talk to him and he gets a vacation? Good for him! So, we talk briefly, he asks me about my life, where I'm from, my boyfriend, my interests. Then, somehow, he starts in on this magazine subscription pitch (because "Well, hey, you like shopping? What about this magazine that's all about it!"). He spoke so quickly and I was so confused and I just wanted him to go away but, having never experienced this before, I didn't know what to do. So after denying him a few times and that not working, I'm scared and nervous and he's getting more pushy so I just sign his stupid paper - which was a subscription to a magazine. Yay. After signing, I thought I'd just get some email or phone spam for a while. No. Turns out, I needed to pay right then and there. I told him no. That I didn't have money on me and didn't really want it in the first place so he can just keep it. Then, he gets really scary. He puffs up his chest, loses all his friendliness, gets in my face and tells me that I signed a legal contract and he could take me to court. And blahblahblah. I was scared out of my mind at that point so I just told him again that I don't have money on me. And he literally points out an ATM 200 yards from us and walks me there like a prison guard or something. He stood really close to me while I withdrew money. (Luckily, I had at least enough sense to cover the keypad really well.) I shoved the money in his hands and walked away. I skipped class and instead went back to my apartment to cry because I was so scared and felt so stupid. $60 idiot tax right there. Now I don't speak to literally anyone on the street and feel completely comfortable walking away from people.
   — FawnandFern


9. Paid for a "theft warranty" on the first car I bought. Sounded great at the time, had no idea my insurance already covered that.
   — epidemica






10. My school charges everyone in the school $680 a semester for a computing fee. They give us laptops worth 1k and make us pay over 4 grand for them by the time you graduate. I DIDNT EVEN WANT THE LAPTOP
    — Junktionio