When Whitney Martin, of Fort Worth, Texas, suddenly lost her job near the end of 2023, she made the difficult decision to move back in with her mom. One thing the recently divorced mother of one knew she wanted when she did so was for the move to be temporary.

“My budget was very, very tight, but my mom’s apartment wasn’t large and I knew I needed a place to store everything until I got back on my feet, so I vowed to make it work,” she says. For $45 a month, Martin signed a rental agreement for a 10-by-10 storage unit to hold furniture, home decor, toys, clothing, and boxes of work and personal documents. After renting a truck and asking her mom and a friend to spend an afternoon getting everything into the unit, she had peace of mind knowing her belongings were safe and sound.

Two months later, that tranquil feeling was shot as the monthly bill for the unit suddenly jumped to $75. Martin reluctantly paid the higher amount, mainly because she couldn’t spare the time and money to find another storage company and move everything and because she continued to believe she wouldn’t be living with her mom much longer. “No one had told me the $45 would be an introductory offer or anything like that,” Martin says, “and when I called them to complain, they just told me the agreement I signed said the rates were subject to change.” She thought such contractual language was standard, but never expected her rate to almost double in 60 days.

Then her monthly rate increased again. And again. “In less than a year, my $45 fee had jumped to $220 a month, and there appeared to be no end in sight,” she explains. “I would have paid $495 for the 11 months I used at the rate I was originally promised. Instead, I ended up paying close to $2,000.” She finally moved all her belongings out.