Paying more for online returns

And more of the week's best financial insight

Woman scanning barcode on delivery parcel.
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Here are three of the week's top pieces of financial insight, gathered from around the web:

SEC whistleblower payouts explode

The screen thanks you for its tip

"Guilt tipping" has arrived at the self-checkout kiosk, said Rachel Wolfe in The Wall Street Journal. At do-it-yourself screens at airports, stadiums, and cafés across the country, customers are now noticing requests for a 20% tip. For what, exactly? It's not clear. "Business owners say the automated cues can significantly increase gratuities and boost staff pay." Square, which provides a large portion of the self-checkout technology, "says tipped transactions were up 16 to 17% at restaurants in the fourth quarter." But customers say it is "emotional blackmail" when the help-yourself beer fridge at a baseball game pings for a gratuity. Tipping researchers point out that "protections to tipped workers in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act don't extend to machines," so your generosity might not even reach human employees.

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Paying more for online returns

Retailers are quietly tweaking their policies to make returns more challenging, said Amanda Mull in The Atlantic. "Kohl's, the suburban mecca of affordably priced clothes and housewares, now charges for return shipping, as does REI." Even Amazon has begun charging customers $1 for dropping off returns at a UPS store. "According to one estimate, a single return can cost a retailer $10 to $20 before the price of transporting it back to the warehouse is even factored in," so it makes sense that stores are tightening their policies. Check the fine print: Many retailers are now saying you can't return items at all if they were bought at a discount.

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