How to avoid concert ticket fees?

When it comes to buying concert tickets, many people are not aware of how to avoid the many fees that are associated with purchasing tickets.

Yet, the amount spent on a concert ticket can be high given that additional booking and service charges push the price up by between 15 and 30%. Most of those fees are received by the ticket retailer and not the artist or venue, so you end up paying for nothing.

Fortunately, there is always a way to avoid such charges if you have a clue where to find them and how to source them without incurring additional costs. By doing some prior planning and ticket shopping, you can get a lot of bargains for your next concert without having to pay all those extra charges to all those middlemen. So here are a few methods that are pretty much guaranteed to help you avoid those dreaded concert ticket fees:

It has always been advised that one should buy directly through the venue, as it helps in avoiding any extra expenses.

Doors and box offices are often the least expensive since they do not have to cover the cost of an online ticket service or a ticket vendor. Areas in the interest of getting rid of their products quickly, and therefore you rarely find them charging the same level of fees as you would find when purchasing through ticket giants such as Ticketmaster.

Finally, a majority of venues for ticketing have online ticketing services through their websites without additional booking charges. It is advisable to call the box office to know if the venue has service fees when buying online tickets and to ensure that you buy directly from the venue’s website and not from third parties. This is often possible, and you can walk away with up to $10–$20 cheaper tickets.

If the venue that you want to make the transaction with charges extra for online transactions, then go to the physical cashier location. Some of the box offices do not add any service fees on top of the basic ticket price, especially when buying them on-site at the window. Additionally, purchasing the ticket at the traditional over-the-counter box office gives you a chance to reserve specific seats in advance before they are released online.

Watch Movies and Shows of Your Favorite Celebrities

Concerts are usually pre-promoted in advance through an artist’s official website as part of an exclusive fan club or through sponsors such as credit card companies or a particular phone operator. For presale tickets, supply is lower and demand is higher, but usually there are no service charges involved most of the time.

Subscribe to an artist’s official fan club, as these often cost about $20-$50 per year. This also means that you are given a special presale code that will enable you to buy the tickets before the general public does. Not only will you see that you take the position of a more avid fan, but most of the time fan club presales do not include processing fees.

However, particular credit card providers such as American Express and Citibank or cable operators like Verizon or AT&T offer presale of the tickets. Rakuten and Groupon also often send information on presale tickets if you have a free member account in them. For instance, in the case of presale providers, as long as you are buying directly from a presale provider, service fees are exempted at the time of checkout.

Negotiate Circuits with Ticket Promoters

Nevertheless, some ticket promoters and resale sites are able to purchase tickets at lower average face value and sell them to customers at extremely good discounts than what is offered at the box office. Although some of them have a rather small stock, there are codes such as Goldstar and Scorebig that do not charge you service fees after you have secured heavily discounted tickets.

Goldstar is a company that offers half-price tickets for thousands of concerts and theater shows in over a dozen cities in America. It is a $5 flat service fee which is charged at the time of ordering and not as part of the ticket price and this means that the more tickets are ordered, the cheaper it gets since the cost is divided. Check out with a site promo code to avoid paying Goldstar’s charges at all.

'Scorebig', as a rule, gives at least a 50% discount to the concertgoers besides having no service fee. Nevertheless, inventory is changeable, so ensure that you set particular offer notifications and take a purchase as soon as you come across a fee-free solution.

Buy Refurbished from Fans

Platforms such as Lyte enable sellers to resell tickets on safe and legal grounds since the initial ticket holders cannot use the tickets. This tends to involve tickets purchased well in advance through presales, club memberships, or box offices that never charged a fee in the first instance. It is based on a dynamic pricing model, although sellers on Lyte are seemingly likely to sell at a cheaper price compared to StubHub or other secondary markets. Lyte fees range from 5%-10% depending on the transaction, but coupons often apply to most additional charges.

The Free Entry Ticket Scandal

If all else does not work, you may opt to physically attend the concert location on the day of the show and stand a chance to be sold a ticket by the organizers once they open the doors in the evening. There is always a case where at the last minute or there are unsold tickets, this sale extra tickets at the box office for a song.

In most cases and unless otherwise stated, tickets sold at the box office at the venue or on a walk-up basis are often sold at face value and do not attract surcharges. Minimize the last-minute surprises by acquainting yourself with the venue’s policy on admission after the show has begun as well as its policy on accepting cash only. Try to get there very early in the day, wear a nice outfit, and then politely inquire about any last-minute tickets that are available. Could not agree more! Even if you have your eyes set on premium seating, you have chances to get them for the base price.

In essence, the excess charges are mainly added to tickets when being bought from other sellers as opposed to the original sellers. Second, obtain free tickets in advance through fan clubs and presales by buying them for free. If this is not possible, then line up at the box office and hope for a good bargain towards the end of the event. There is nothing wrong with paying $2 to get into a concert; however, if you know how to negotiate, you can get into virtually any concert without paying the normal fees.

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