When Mr. B. and I lost our dental insurance and I discovered how expensive it would be to get another policy, I signed up for a dental discount service. Then I discovered it was mainly useful for the service with its $30 down and $15 a month.
Then I discovered that most people don’t have dental insurance. Possibly because dental discounts are easy to get if you pay up front instead of forcing them to ply an insurance company with paperwork and long delays. Just ask the dentist’s office manager. You might not get more than 10 percent off, but you never know. Especially if you write a check immediately.
So the so-called discount services are little more than a scam for the untutored. It got worse when I tried to cancel the subscription and discovered the “service” web site claiming not to recognize my sign-in and password. I had to go through my credit card company, instead, and ask them to deny the charges. They did.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
When you put the calculator to it, quite a few things are exposed as ripoffs. Most insurance is. But you are betting you get seriously sick, they are betting you don’t.
Well, I never had any (dental plan, I mean, not the credit card). And it shows 😉
Didn’t show in 2012. Must have gotten worse.
Well, you didn’t count them…