Being a conscientious consumer isn’t always easy—between monitoring your credit report, reading the fine print on all offers before signing and scrutinizing per-unit costs on merchandise, you’ve got plenty of financial matters to keep your mind occupied.

And, because you work hard to take care of yourself, it’s important to learn how to usefully complain.

The Difference between Complaining & Whining

Many Americans are afraid to complain when something goes wrong because they don’t want to seem rude or ungrateful, but some situations merit complaint—and can both benefit you and save others from negative experiences.

Here are some guidelines for effective complaining about defective goods.

• Protect yourself and your family. Some botched buys (the canned food that smelled strange, the light bulb that had a crack in it) are health and safety hazards. If you discover that a recent purchase has spoiled before its time, you should complain.
• Be polite and concerned. If your complaint involves an isolated incident or purchase, call the retailer in question and explain your situation calmly. Ask about the policy for such cases. In addition to potentially getting a refund or replacement, you’ll be able to alert the manager to what may be a larger problem.
• Act quickly. Report any defects as soon as you notice them, while you still have a receipt handy. Swift action may also prevent other consumers from having to deal with the faulty product.
• Consider the cost. If the prospect of lodging a complaint seems too unpleasant, consider the amount of money you stand to lose by throwing away your defective purchase.

Larger-Scale Complaints: Getting the Government Involved

While sending back your soup or asking for a refund on some tainted beef may seem marginally important (after all, such items only affect a small group of people), filing complaints about fraudulent practices and scams could help protect millions of other consumers.

The Federal Trade Commission, a government agency designed to protect consumer rights, allows Americans to file complaints online about businesses and organizations.

If you’ve had dealings with a group that you think may have scammed or cheated you, do not hesitate to file a complaint. When the FTC receives a certain volume of complaints about a given organization, it can launch investigations and take legal action to prevent the group from doing further damage.

In some cases, the FTC even settles with scammers and requires such organizations to pay restitution to the individuals who were harmed.

Additional Resources

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (PDF)

Sweeping financial cutbacks since the beginning of this recession have led to the popularity of the phrase “do more with less.”

The newest statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggest that American workers are getting less money for doing more work.

Part One: Productivity Shoots Up

(For statistical purposes, “productivity” is understood to be the amount of product made per man hour – in other words, how efficiently American businesses are producing goods.)

Overall productivity rates for the second quarter looked like this:

• 6.4 percent increase in the business sector
• 6.3 percent increase in the nonfarm business sector
• 5.3 percent increase in manufacturing
• 3.9 percent increase in durable goods manufacturing
• 2.0 percent increase in nondurable goods manufacturing

What does this mean? Basically, people worked fewer hours and produced more goods.

In other words, American workers intensified their time spent at the office or factory.

Part Two: Work Hours Drop

So how much less did we as a nation work in the second quarter of 2009, compared to the first? The numbers paint a somewhat gloomy picture.

• In the business sector, hours worked fell by 7.5 percent for all members (proprietors, employers and unpaid family workers), compared to last quarter
• In the nonfarm business sector, hours worked fell by 7.6 percent
• In the manufacturing sector, hours worked fell by 14.4 percent (19.6 percent for durable goods and 5.3 percent for nondurable goods)

These figures probably aren’t surprising, considering the hundreds of thousands of layoffs and forced part-time work that have plagued the U.S. since the recession began.

Part Three: Pay Dips

The last part of the productivity puzzle comes from looking at how compensation for this increased work has changed since the last quarter.

In the business and nonfarm business sector, compensation has fallen since last quarter (by 1.2 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively) – in the manufacturing sector, it’s actually risen 4.4 percent.

Bottom Line: Many of Us Hanging onto Jobs, But Working More

These numbers illustrate a trend unsurprising to anyone working or looking for a job: employed Americans are apparently happy to be working at all, whether or not their salaries and work hours are better than they were a few months ago.

All of this extra work and less pay has many people considering filing bankruptcy.

Additional Resources
Bureau of Labor Statistics Report: Productivity and Costs, Second Quarter 2009

I knew cigarettes were getting expensive, but this is ridiculous.

It seems a New Hampshire man stopped to pick up a pack of cigarettes and his credit card was charged $23 quadrillion dollars. That’s right, quadrillion dollars.

The exact charge: $23,148,855,308,184,500.

To top it all off, Bank of America charged him a $15 overdraft fee.

Credit card companies, huh? In what is clearly a banking error, they’re still trying to squeeze you for every penny. The man who suffered the erroneous charge spent five hours on the phone with the bank and Visa to get the problem cleared up, reports the Associated Press.

This is yet another example of how credit card companies can make your life difficult at every turn.

If you can’t handle your credit card debt anymore, filing bankruptcy may be able to help.

As if the current state of the world’s economic and social affairs is not enough to produce anxiety filled, sleepless nights there is still the constant fear of the Swine Flu.

I’m taking a break from my typical posts and turning attention on the Swine flu–mostly because I don’t think the media are doing anything about it.

Otherwise known as the H1N1 Swine Flu (Influenza A Novel) Virus, the fear of this viral infection is embedded in the minds of most Americans.

But the media have turned their heads to “bigger news items” and ignored the growing numbers of infected people.

Although Not a Trendy News Topic Anymore, Swine Flu is Still Here

The truth is that the Swine Flu is still very much present. In fact, it may be stronger than when the media frenzied over the bug a few months ago.

It has even hit one of my Chicago coworkers and his family. He just go out of the hospital a couple days ago.

Here’s how he described it to me:

“Have you ever tried typing on a computer and looking at the screen while someone is poking you in your temples with a hot stick? All while a train is steaming past your ears and a piano is on your chest? You have? Well then you understand what the recovery from Swine Flu is like.”

Swine Flu Alerts

The WHO (World Health Organization) has issued the following alert:

“The World Health Organization pandemic alert level is Phase 6.The Phase 6 alert is the highest level of the WHO pandemic phases and has not been declared since 1968.

According to the WHO pandemic response guidelines, Phase 6 confirms that there is human-to-human spread of the H1N1 (swine flu) virus in at least two countries in two different world regions.

This classification means that a worldwide pandemic is imminent and that countries must finalize preparations to deal with the H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak.”

The lack of reporting by the media has lulled the general public into a false sense of resilience to the recent outbreak.

The problem in this false conditioning is that the Swine Flu is still very much in play throughout the country and the world for that matter.

Take for instance, the most recent reporting cycle by the CDC (Center for Disease Control):

“During the time period of June 28-July 4, 2009, the influenza activity in the United States was in a decline, normally this would be good news, however there were still higher levels of influenza-like illness than is normal for this time of year.”

What makes this an even more speculative report is that of all the reported cases over 97% of all influenza A viruses were the novel influenza A (H1N1) viruses.

To further increase the tensions surrounding the Swine Flu, the CDC’s Web site reports that:

“As of July 10, 2009, there were 37,246 confirmed and probable infections with novel influenza A (H1N1) virus and 211 deaths:

• 6 deaths in individuals 0-4 years
• 34 deaths in individuals 5-24 years
• 87 deaths in adults 25-49 years
• 50 deaths in adults 50-64 years
• 19 deaths in adults age 65 and older and 15 deaths with unknown age)

All cases being identified by CDC and state and local public health departments.”

Seemingly, the pandemic the world is currently in, that of the Swine Flu, is far from over.

The questions will inevitable soon turn to culpability in dealing with this matter.

Can You Sue for Swine Flu?

Who is at fault? Who should be held accountable? Can anyone be held accountable for individual accounts of Swine Flu?

With the progression of time, these questions will find their answers.

However, it only seems logical that personal injury will not be an associated legal challenge within the Swine Flu corridor.

On the other hand, if it does come to light that an organization- whether public or private- aided in the spread of, or increased susceptibility to, the H1N1 virus then there will ostensibly be a cause for litigation.

No matter the legal state of affairs as they pertain to a virus outbreak and pandemic status, new ground is sure to be broken with the Swine Flu.

Pharmaceutical companies, such as those that make and distribute the two common meds (TamiFlu & Relenza), are certainly breeding their legal council for the presumed battles which are potentially brewing and will percolate the seems of legal proceedings for many years to come.

If preventive measures are available, you may want to take advantage of them. The old saying “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” could prove true when it comes time to pay your medical bills. If you’re struggling with medical bills, learn more about how filing bankruptcy may help you get out of debt.

Between resisting impulse buys, keeping up on sales and comparison shopping, being a frugal consumer is hard enough.

But, because salespeople are always trying to make a profit, they have plenty of sneaky ways to get us to spend money – and we may not even realize we’re falling for them.

Here’s a primer on what to look out for so you can hang on to money you may not really need (or want!) to spend:

Restaurant Pricing Tricks

Eating out can be fun, but when you’re watching money, it can also be stressful. Consider these tactics restaurants use, from a report by the National Restaurant Association:

• Pricier items in targeted menu spots: Restaurants know that the human eye is drawn to the middle of the inside right page. That’s why they place the more expensive items there.
• Placement in a list of items: Studies have shown that we tend to best remember the first two and last items of a list – and savvy restaurants will put their higher-cost dishes in one of these menu spots.
• Tempting pictures: On menus, pictures sell. It’s easy to be tempted by tantalizing images, but resist if they’re not what you really want.
• No dollar signs: We’re less likely to think of money when prices are listed as a number unattached to the dollar sign, which could lead to spending more easily.

To counteract these tricks, take your time ordering.

Consider what you really want and, if price is a concern, don’t be tricked by the tempting tricks menus are so good at playing.

The Skewering of Price Perception

In a study by two business school professors at UC Berkley, researchers found that comparison shoppers are influenced by how many choices they have.

First, shoppers were given the choice between two microwaves, a low-priced one and a slightly higher-priced one. The shoppers split about 50-50 on their choice of microwave.

Then, the researchers added a third microwave to the mix – one with a much higher price. With the higher price available, 60 percent opted for the mid-range appliance.

Lesson: know how much you would like to spend on an item, and don’t by swayed by a perception that your price may be too low. A more expensive alternative doesn’t always mean you should pay more than you expected to.

Reciprocity

We all know the saying “I scratch your back, you scratch mine.”

And so do people trying to sell stuff to us.

At home-based sales parties (for Tupperware, jewelry, etc.), people often feel obligated to buy, since they’ve already been granted a favor of hospitality and snacks by the host.

Similarly, various charities have found that sending a “free gift” (like return address labels) along with a request for money nearly doubles their donation success rate.

Lesson: Don’t let anyone guilt you into spending money! There’s no reason you should be considering filing bankruptcy because of ridiculous restaurants.

I’ve been following the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights as its snaked its way through the Senate and House.

Now that our Senators have approved their version, I think it’s time to post about what the credit card bill of rights might mean for you and I.

Keep in mind that the two houses of Congress currently have different versions of the bill, but both versions have similar terms.

Proposed Consumer Protections

• Card issuers must wait until a borrower is at least 60 days late on a minimum payment before increasing the interest rate on an existing balance.
• Issuers must give 45 days’ notice before changing any terms of the credit card agreement, including increases to the interest rate and alterations to rewards programs.
• Payments must be applied to the balance with the highest interest rate first (for cardholders with multiple interest rates on a single card).
• Issuers must mail a bill at least 21 days before it’s due. The current limit is 14 days, which gives borrowers less time to allow paychecks to arrive.
• Issuers cannot charge late fees until the due date has passed. Currently, many card companies consider payments received in the afternoon of the due date “late.” Further, if your due date is a Sunday or holiday, payment will be considered on time if it arrives by the next day’s mail.
• Exceeding your credit limit (and paying the accompanying fee) will require you to opt in (rather than occurring automatically if you make a purchase that puts you over).
• Credit cards will be more difficult to obtain for students and those under a certain age (18 in the House bill, 21 in the Senate).
• Limits and expirations on gift cards will be slackened, and vendors of such cards will be required to print and explain their terms more explicitly.

Potential Side Effects of Credit Card Rights

Although these protections are generally considered necessary and long overdue, they may come with certain drawbacks for enthusiastic and responsible credit card users.

Because card issuers will (hopefully) be picking up less revenue from penalties and fees, they’ll need to find ways to cut back their spending.

Some commentators (e.g. New York Times) suggest that certain rewards programs will be scaled back, so that benefits like airline miles and cash-back bonuses will be smaller.

Card issuers will still have incentives to reward big credit card spenders, though, since they’ll earn money from such users in the form of fees companies must pay to accept credit cards.

Stay tuned in–I’ll be posting about this legislation again if/when it passes into law.

As cell phones become less like traditional telephones and more like all-in-one personal computers, I’m hardly surprised by the new gizmos and applications I hear about. Bt this one caught even me by surprise.

According to an article on May 13’s BusinessWeek.com, MasterCard is rolling out MoneySend, a service that allows cell phone users to transfer money by text message.

Insiders apparently claim that MoneySend will make sending money from person to person easier and more convenient than traditional methods.

Here’s how it works:

1. Using a debit card, credit card or bank account, a customer registers online for a prepaid account.
2. A user can then transfer between $1 and $500 to a recipient by simply sending a text message.
3. A representative from MasterCard calls the sender to verify the amount of money sent and the intended recipient. This information is protected by a personal identification number (PIN).
4. In order to complete the transaction, the recipient must register online to select an account into which the money can be placed.

As of now, the service will be available for a fee, but sources suggest that some participating banks may waive the fees (at least initially) to encourage people to sign on.

Are Money Text Transfers Safe?

Some experts worry that MoneySend will not catch on because of security fears; apparently, Americans have been slow to warm up to other online banking technologies. This is a major reason why the security features resemble those of PayPal, which many Americans are already familiar with.

A bigger concern might actually be how the banks, cell phone companies and credit card issuers will divide the profits from the new technology.

Potential Uses for Money Texts

Although cell phone money transfers may sound futuristic, they could offer real benefits to certain groups of people.

A press release from Obopay, Inc., one of the companies involved in MoneySend’s launch, suggests using the text transfer for:

• Scheduling children’s allowances
• Sending children money and monitoring how it’s spent
• Sending money to family members across the world
• Getting money to people in emergencies

The article reports that MoneySend will be available later this month. If you’re having trouble managing your money, and are in serious need of debt relief, learn what filing bankruptcy might do for you.

Identity theft can cause financial trouble and administrative headaches for its victims, but medical identity theft can literally put your life at risk.

Here’s what you need to know about this dangerous and growing information crime.

The Basics of Medical Identity Theft

Someone uses your information (SSN, health insurance number, etc.) to get medical treatments or services, or someone makes medical claims using your identification information.

Research from the World Privacy Forum shows that 3% of all identity theft victims in the U.S. (nearly a quarter of a million people) were victims of medical identity theft in 2005.
Despite its dangers, medical ID theft is perhaps the least-studied and worst-documented type of identity theft.

The Health Risks

Imagine this: someone uses your information to visit a doctor and maybe has a couple procedures performed. After the crime has been committed, here’s what might happen to you:

• You’ll get billed for the medical care you never received. This could harm your credit and drain your finances.
• Your medical record could include information that doesn’t apply to you, including illness history. This could hurt your chances at qualifying for medical or life insurance down the line.
• Your blood type may be incorrect. Should you need a transfusion or blood work, you could be out of luck if your chart has the wrong type recorded.
• Your medical allergies could be wrong. Whoever stole your medical information may have different allergies from you – which could lead to serious problems if you’re ever unable to speak for yourself and in need of medical care.

The risk of medical ID theft grows as the medical services industry moves toward digitized records.

Prevention

Your identity is valuable. Take these simple steps to protect it:

• Take a close look at the “explanation of benefits” section of each medical bill you receive from your insurer. Any inconsistencies with your own records should be a red flag.
• If you have more than one doctor, ask each for a list of benefits provided.
• Guard your health insurance card as you would a credit card – don’t leave it lying around.
• When checking in at the doctor’s, be sure no one can overhear you give out your personal information.
• Contact any care provider from whom you receive an incorrect bill. Assertively pursue corrections.
• Report all mistakes or miscommunications to your insurance provider.
• File a police report if you find the incident was more than an administrative error.
• Take steps to correct any wrong information in your file.

Medical bills play a role in more than 60 percent of all bankruptcy cases. So it pays to make sure that you fully understand your medical bills and aren’t charged too much or incorrectly.

If you’re in debt and considering turning to a debt settlement agency for help, be sure to conduct a little background research on the agency.

Not all debt settlers are created equal. Unless you know what to look out for, you could end up in more debt than when you started.

You Should Find Another Debt Relief Agency if:

• They’re Forcing the Contract: If a representative discourages you from reading the entire contract or if he tries to “explain what it says” to “save you time,” watch out. NEVER sign a contract without reading it, especially if your finances are on the line.
• They’re Promoting Default: If a debt settlement representative suggests allowing one or more of your accounts to go into default, DON’T work with the agency. Some companies insist they can’t negotiate with creditors until an account is in default, but this is untrue. Defaulting on payments can cause serious damage to your credit score, wage garnishment, foreclosure and more.
• They’re Discouraging Direct Creditor Contact: Direct contact with creditors is an effective way to address your debt issues. Suggesting you refrain from contacting them can indicate questionable methods.
• They’re Demanding Unreasonable Upfront Fees: This company is supposed to be helping you get out of debt. If you’re asked to pay enormous fees or if you’re asked to pay fees before the company helps you, walk away. Consult with a trusted resource before making a final decision.
• They’re Pressuring You to Sign Up: Ask yourself why a company would do this – because it loves helping people in distress? Probably not. Any company that pressures you to sign up right away is likely arranged so that it will make a large profit off you and maybe not offer you much in return.
• They’re Rushing the Consultation: If a representative is trying to sign you up without really listening to you, don’t bite. Effective debt settlement agencies will help create a program that will work for your specific needs.

Remember… You’re The Boss

In the end, you’re there to help yourself. If the agency is legitimate, it should understand and encourage your desire to do your homework.

If you’re not comfortable with debt settlement, you may want to consider filing bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy was designed to eliminate debt.