fine print

DirecTV False Advertising Says FTC

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For years, everyone involved in the TV or phone business has boosted their profits using increasingly dishonest tactics, all made legitimate by a few paragraphs of fine print on ever advertisement. For example, the advertised rate doesn’t actually include all of the costs necessary to use the package you are buying. There are plenty of add-on fees, plus modem rental, DVR rental, and so on, which I noticed not long ago when comparing Comcast to CenturyLink here in Denver, one of many articles about cable bill scams I’ve written over the years. And, then of course, there is the gold standard of trickery, the limited-time offer, where your cable or satellite provider starts by offering you a reasonable competitive rate for a limited time. Then, your rate goes up, automatically, and all those great offers are for “new customers only.” FTC Claims DirecTV False Advertising Since all the TV and phone companies use this low-priced trial offer, it was somewhat surprising today to see that the FTC is charging DirectTV with false advertising regarding it’s introductory trial offer of service. Or, as the FTC blog says, “there’s DIRECTV — and then there’s Deceptively Advertised DIRECTV.” – Ouch. The key to …

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Little Things Can Cost Money

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Generally, this website focuses on the slightly more complex personal finance advice and other money issues. However, every once and awhile, I get enough motivation to fire off a tidbit of money saving advice on something smaller and easier. This evening, I finally got pushed over the line by one of those little things that companies do to wring a little extra money out of their customers. The Laundry Soap Scam Years ago, laundry soap came in big boxes and big bottles. The bigger the bottle of laundry soap, the more loads of wash it did. Then, laundry soap manufacturers figured out they could concentrate their liquid laundry soap. In doing so, they could ship more product to the stores for the same cost, and stores could keep more product in stock thanks to smaller bottles. Of course, at first, this took a fair amount of consumer education because people were very used to the concept that bigger meant more. Finally, laundry companies settled on printing on the bottle just how many loads of laundry each bottle could do, and that was that. Along the way, however, those same companies couldn’t pass up a chance to cheat their customers out …

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Car Rental Scam Fees Explained

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Recently, I had a very nice family vacation. Now, I travel on occasion for business, and often when we travel we setup via the same system. The rental companies don’t really bother with the tricks, because they have a blanket contract with the company. This time, however, the family and I went on our own. In doing so, I noticed more than a few of the most common travel company tricks have been updated, and some new ones are out there as well. So, without further ado, let’s look at the latest car rental company tricks to increase your bill. Rental Car Fee Scams The travel industry was once the domain of luxury travelers and big spenders. Travel companies just charged high, profitable rates for everything from hotel rooms to car rentals. But, along the way, travelers got savvy. Internet travel websites opened people’s eyes to the vast difference in pricing, and the race to the bottom was on. One way travel businesses, like rental car companies, compete is by offering a rock bottom, low price, for a car rental, with every intention of boosting those rates back up with fees when you actually rent the car. Avoiding a high …

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Give Gift Cards for Christmas The Finances Pros and Cons

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Thinking about giving someone a gift card for Christmas? You are not alone. Last year, billions of dollars of gift cards were purchased in the days and weeks leading up until Christmas. In fact, Google reports that searches for "Gift Cards" continue to rise until December 26th when they finally peak. I guess some people are looking for after last-minute gift ideas. Not long ago, Gift Cards replaced the gift certificate as the present to give to someone that either you don’t really know what to get for them, for people who are very picky (and thus better off picking out their own gift), for people you don’t want to bother shopping for, and for people on your gift list who live far away because gift cards can be shipped easily and cheaply tucked into a Christmas card. Reports about gift card tricks and things to beware of when buying gift cards have those with savvy financial planning skills looking for unbiased financial advice about whether or not giving gift cards is a good idea. Fortunately, in most cases, giving them as presents works out just fine for everyone. Gift Cards Losing Value There are some concerns regarding Gift Cards, …

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Top 10 Fine Print Gotchas

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Being a smart consumer, or smart investor, or smart anything really is all about knowledge. Understanding the world you are playing in just makes good sense. I can spot most finance scams by reading the title. The reason? I’ve spent plenty of time reading the fine print and have grown accustomed to what fine print goes with that BLARINGINGLY GOOD TITLE! So, without further ado, here are the Top 10 Fine Print Gotchas: That’s Not It One of the most common fine print gotchas is when the really great picture you see isn’t actually what they are talking about. For cars you’ll see a fully equipped XJT9X version in the picture when the ad is talking about the base no-options model. For others, the fine print will point out that the picture is only “representative” of the product, meaning it is pretty much like that, but not just like that. Rebates The one I really hate these days is rebates. Electronic store ads are filled with them. A great deal on a monitor for $199? Sure, but you will pay $279 today. Then, you can get a rebate from the store (but it’s an “easy” rebate) for $40 and then you …

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Ah…the Fine Print

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houseofmoneyEver read a newspaper article where someone is suing a company for misleading them? The company always says something like “we disclosed all the information to the client” as their defense. Want to see it in action? Countrywide Home Loans recently sent a client some unsolicited mail (i.e. junk mail) in which they offered a No closing cot Refi! At the top in big letters on a stand-out blue background it says:

“Pay hundreds – or even thousands at closing

or PAY ZERO with Countrywide.

You Decide.”

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