Author: Chris Walters

There’s an interesting detail at the end of this New York Times article on borrowers who strategically default–that is, they choose to walk away from the home when its value is significantly less than the mortgage balance. It turns out that the homeowner mentioned at the start of the article applied last fall for a loan modification with Bank of America after his income level had dropped, and this was BofA’s response: “The lender came back a few weeks ago with a plan that added more restrictive terms while keeping the payments about the same. ‘That may have been the last straw,’ Mr. Koellmann said.”

According to one finance insider, BofA’s reaction is not surprising:

Guy D. Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance magazine, says he does not hear much sympathy from lenders for their underwater customers.

“The banks tell me that a lot of people who are complaining were the ones who refinanced and took all the equity out any time there was any appreciation,” he said. “The banks are damned if they will help.”

The paper notes that the whole idea of strategic default may be more hype than reality at this point, as a very small number of borrowers actually do it. But if BofA has to choose between cutting that guy some slack or watching him walk away like he’s a big shot real estate developer, maybe it’s a good time to step up and offer a true compromise.

“No Help in Sight, More Homeowners Walk Away” [New York Times]

CNN Money has put together a slideshow (ugh) of nine of “America’s biggest rip-offs,” and I think we’ve covered all of them at one point or another on Consumerist.

If you’re looking for easy ways to plug leaks in your budget, consider these tips: don’t send text messages, skip the movie concession stand, buy generic OTC painkillers, don’t buy wine at the restaurant, don’t pay for “super” gas, and avoid the mini bar and movie rentals at hotels. Oh, and for the love of money, stay away from freecreditreport.com–the only legitimately free service is offered by annualcreditreport.com.

The one other category CNN Money mentions is textbooks, but since they’re unavoidable for students your best bet is to look for the cheapest solutions, and also petition your professor or school to provide more affordable alternatives.

“America’s Biggest Rip-offs” [CNN Money] (Thanks to JonStewartMill!)

Update: Chicagobreakingnews is reporting that the standoff is over, and the gunman has been found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. No one else was harmed.

Earlier today a man entered a Farm King farm supply store in Macomb, IL, and opened fire, although so far no deaths have been reported. He left five hostages go earlier–two women, two men and a small child, reports the Associated Press–and two other people left the store earlier in the day.

Tri States Public Radio says there’s a store manager who is still unaccounted for.

From the AP article:

Witness Richard Moulton was at Farm King shopping for a battery charger with his father when they suddenly heard someone arguing in another aisle and then yelling.

“I heard him say to a guy, ‘Get away from me if you don’t want to get shot,’” Moulton said. “I couldn’t make out what they were arguing about, but I said to my dad, ‘Somebody sounds really mad back there.’”

Seconds later, four or five shots ran out, and an employee came around the counter, wide-eyed, to say that there was a man with a loaded gun, Moulton said.

“We started looking for a way to get out really fast,” he said.

He and his father bolted out of a rear door and into a parking lot, hiding behind a snow bank. He said police arrived within minutes and surrounded the building.

“Man opens fire in Ill. store; may have hostages” [Associated Press]
“Macomb Illinois Shooting: Gunman Takes Hostages At Farm King Store” [Huffington Post]

The Providence Journal of Rhode Island filmed a service director at a Toyota dealership fixing an accelerator pedal. If you own one of the recalled models, Consumer Reports’ Cars blog recommends that you learn the warning signs of pedal trouble and get to a dealership as soon as possible if you notice any of them.

“At Toyota in Warwick, the fix is in and it’s not that hard” [projo.com] (Thanks to ElizabethD!)
“DOT Secretary retracts advice to stop driving recalled Toyotas” [Consumer Reports]

A Greyhound security guard threatened a stranded passenger in Memphis that if she spoke with a reporter from the local news, he’d kick her out of the bus station. The reporter was there to look at why a group of passengers had been left stranded for 2 to 4 days without any communication from Greyhound, and without any sort of meal or lodging help.

When Action News 5 interviewed another stranded passenger, Cynthia Caponey, a security guard threatened to not let her back inside the station, claiming Greyhound “has that right.”

[…]

Despite the security guard’s threats, Caponey decided to be interviewed in hopes of getting help for the other passengers. After the interview, the security guard kicked Caponey out of the station, forcing her to wait outside in the cold for her bus.

“I should be able to talk to who I want to, when I want to,” Caponey said.

The woman’s son drove up to Memphis to pick her up, and Greyhound contacted the station the next day to say they were investigating the matter and would discipline the security guard. They didn’t mention anything about the stranded passengers and the Greyhound’s unwillingness to help them out in the first place.

“Greyhound bus passengers stranded in Memphis for days” [wmctv.com](Thanks to Kris!)

If you can’t actually manage to get an ad placed during the Super Bowl, the next best thing is to get it rejected by the network so you can make a big deal about it online. The Daily Beast has put together a list of 12 ads that were rejected for a variety of reasons. Well, actually in most cases it comes down to gay stuff, cussing, or sex. One thing you’ll notice, though, is that most of the rejected spots aren’t very well-made to begin with–I’d be happy if they were banned just for that.

“12 Banned Super Bowl Ads” [The Daily Beast]

In my household, there’s an ongoing argument about whether bagged salad can be eaten straight from the bag, or whether it should be washed first, or why did we buy this bag of salad instead of more beer. When not championing beer, I’ve always come down on the don’t-bother-washing side, but I might finally agree to change my food prep habits after this recent Consumer Reports study that says 39% of bagged salads are contaminated with bacteria.

The magazine recently tested 200 samples of pre-washed salad in bags and plastic clamshells, and found 39% of the samples contained coliform bacteria, and 23% had enterococcus bacteria. That second one is an indication of fecal contamination. The worst culprits were samples that contained spinach, and samples that were within 1 to 5 days of their “sell by” date. On the plus side, no E. coli or salmonella was found.

The woman in this CBS Healthwatch clip suggests keeping the salad cold to retard bacterial growth, and of course rinsing all pre-washed greens at home before serving. You might also want to avoid buying salads that are bumping up against their sell-by date, especially if they contain spinach.

A warning to the anti-ad crowd: the clip is front-loaded with a commercial.

“How Clean Is Your Pre-Washed Salad?” [CBS News]
“Consumer Reports: Packaged Salad Can Contain High Levels of Bacteria” [PRNewswire]

Last year Spirit Airlines had something called a M.I.L.F. Sale. They played it off as an accident, but I don’t think anyone believed them. Now they’re at it again, this time with an otherwise generic online ad that “accidentally” puts the word “muff” next to the word “diving.” Hmm, maybe that customer service number that really directed callers to a phone sex line wasn’t an accident, either. I bet if you fly Spirit Airlines and ask the flight attendants for some salted nuts, they burst into shameful giggles and run off.

“MUFF Diving is the New Alternative to Air Travel” [MediaBistro] (Thanks to Matt!)

The numbers are in for liquor sales in 2009, and last year had the smallest increase in sales since 2001, reports Bloomberg. What’s worse (if you own a high-end liquor company), sales shifted toward the products on the cheaper end of the spectrum, and people bought less at restaurants and other public places. But we’re not actually drinking less, it turns out–we’re just doing more entertaining at home.

“Liquor Sales Stagnate as U.S. Consumers Turn to Cheaper Drinks” [BusinessWeek]

A shopper just told us that last night at a Best Buy in NYC, she was taken to a back room, then cuffed by police officers and taken to a precinct for “further investigation,” because she tried to pay with an American Express gift card her father had bought for her.

Last night, I tried to purchase a Blu Ray DVD player from the Best Buy on Broadway just north of Houston. I paid for a portion of the player with my debit card, and for the other portion, I tried paying with three different American Express gift cards I was given as presents, all of which were purchased in California, one by a friend, one by my brother, and one by my father.

When I tried to use these cards, after the charge WENT THROUGH on two of the three cards, the third was inspected more closely because it didn’t have any raised numbers. The desk clerk, who was extremely rude and started giving me attitude after becoming wary of the card’s appearance, then checked back on the other two cards and saw that they were in fact routing back to a card number which didn’t match the Amex gift cards (the gift cards were routing to another person’s card).

So, Best Buy then called American Express using the number on the back of the card and spoke with one representative in India, who said the account number didn’t match. I of course was concerned and tried to explain these were gifts – I had nothing to hide. I was suddenly surrounded by two officers who first took me to Best Buy’s security room, and not questioned. I put one of them on the phone with my dad who explained he purchased thousands of dollars worth of cards for his customers THROUGH AMEX, this being one of them, and even gave them the credit card number on which it was purchased. I was then told I would have to go to the precinct for further investigation, was handcuffed (after pleas to not to do) put into a cop car and taken to the station on 5th street (9th precinct). They took everything away, frisked me UNDER MY SHIRT, albeit by a female officer, but still — and then placed me in a holding cell for about an hour.

The matter was then looked into by the police who, after making the call to American Express, did indeed find out that all three cards checked out and were legit and purchased in California.

On top of that, upon my exiting the police station finally after being released, ANOTHER young guy around my age was brought in from the very SAME Best Buy for THE EXACT SAME REASON – trying to make a purchase with a gift card, the only difference being that his gift cards were Master Cards.

This is insane and I am in shock, disgusted and traumatized. I don’t know whose fault it was but it was definitely not mine and something needs to be done.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo got Citibank to agree not to implement its new monthly fees on formerly free checking accounts, at least for some customers. If you signed up for one of Citibank’s EZ Checking or Access Checking accounts between January 1, 2009 and November 5, 2009, the new monthly service charge will be waived until this time next year. If you’re one of those customers, there’s nothing you have to do–you’ll get a notice in the mail from Citibank.

“Cuomo Announces Nationwide Agreement With Citibank” [www.ag.ny.gov]

Last month, the Huffington Post launched a campaign called Move Your Money that urged people to support community banks. The idea is that by moving your money to a community bank, you can help put the “too big to fail” banks on a diet so that they get smaller, while at the same time help a local bank remain competitive. The NPR program All Things Considered took a look at the campaign over the weekend, and talked to some experts about whether it’s worth making the switch.

First, all “movement” talk aside, there are a couple of immediate benefits of community banking for many (not all) consumers: they frequently offer better deals and more personal customer service; and by taking your money out of one of the big six banks, you’re giving it less revenue to lobby against your interests at the government level.

But the host of All Things Considered points out that Move Your Money smells a little like a populist movement meant to let consumers strike back against the big banks that they feel powerless against. A bank analyst named Bert Ely says the idea of “punishing” big banks is absurd, and like spitting into the ocean as far as being any sort of movement to effect change. He admits that he banks with a community bank, but that some customers may not be as well-served at the local level if they move their money without making sure the community bank can meet their needs.

IMF economist Simon Johnson counters that it’s not about punishment, even if that’s the first thing people think of when they hear about this idea. (Our first post on the campaign was tagged, “Revenge.”) Rather, moving your money to a community bank is a good idea purely out of self-interest:

NPR: “But why punish the banks if they have almost all paid back what was essentially an investment by the federal government?” [i.e. TARP funds]

Johnson: “It’s not about punishment, it’s about responsibility, about people looking forward, and saying, ‘How comfortable am I with the largest six banks in this economy now having total assets–which of course come from their liabilities, which is money they get from us–total assets of over 60% of the size of our economy, 60% of DGP?’ That’s a big banking system that’s more concentrated than in the past–those same six banks back in the 1990s were less than 20% of GDP.”

Here’s the Move Your Money promo-video mentioned on the program:

Move Your Money

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“Move Your Money From Big Banks To Small Ones”

Richard sent us this screen capture of a chat he says he recently had with a Roadrunner CSR. I can’t figure out why the CSR would withhold bandwidth stats from a customer, nor why she would capitulate so quickly when Richard asks for her supervisor. Maybe that’s one mean supervisor.

If you’re thinking of buying a digital reader in the next six months and you’re wondering what device to get, here’s a handy chart that compares six of the most highly publicized models side by side. As you might guess, bigger screens and more flexibility with file formats means higher prices. Also, the iPad is sort of a misfit here as it’s the only device that’s not a dedicated ebook reader.

It’s also likely that the feature set on several of these models may change in the coming months, but PaidContent.org says it will update the chart as needed.

“How Do E-Readers Stack Up With iPad In The Mix? Use Our Chart As A Guide” [MocoNews.net]

V. and her parents are having a heck of a time cashing in the certificate of deposit they opened jointly. She says it just matured, but she’s in Canada (she doesn’t say where her parents are) and they gave power of attorney to another party. BofA won’t deal at all with this other person, but what’s worse, V. says they’ve taken her name off the account entirely.

Here’s her story.

I have a CD account with Bank of America. This is a joint account with me and my parents. Now, both I and my parents have been denied access to this account.

In November 2009, shortly before the maturity date, my parents authorized our friend who lives in California as our power of attorney to act on our behalf to close the account. She was treated poorly, and after several attempts, she was told that the letter authorizing her as a power of attorney has to be notarized by the US embassy (I have never heard of that kind of request coming from any bank in first or second world countries). Nevertheless, we had the letter notarized at the US embassy, and brought it back to Bank of America, Sunnyvale Branch. The branch manager told her that they will contact her, but that never happened. So, she contacted the branch again, only to be told that we need a court order to get our own money back, i.e., she could not act on our behalf, even with a notarized authorization letter that the manager himself had requested.

What was worse, I called several different phone lines trying to access my own account from Canada, only to find out that somehow, someone had removed my name from the system, i.e., they refused to talk to me over the phone because my name is no longer showing up as the one of the account holders! If this is not a technical issue, then, this surely would be a serious legal issue. Because that is to say someone has changed our records without notifying any of us.

I have called Executive Customer Relations general line: 704-386-5687 (which I got from consumerist.com), but I was not satisfied. They asked my parents to contact the bank, since they are showing up as account holders, but my question is, if this was not a joint account, or if my parents had died, who do I talk to? I have the physical evidence that clearly shows I am one of the account holders. Nevertheless, my parents sent another notarized letter to the headquarter to reinstate me as the account holder, but till this day (Feb. 1st, 2010), we are still not able to redeem our money in any way.

Does anyone know how a Canadian can get Bank of America to work with her to get her money back?

Michael S. Rosenwald saved $15 on a pair of shoes at Macy’s, $3 on a steak at Giant, $6 on a DVD set at Best Buy, and $100 off his next Verizon bill (plus a 10% discount on future bills) during one week spent haggling. In this Washington Post article, he describes how it felt to switch from the habit of paying full retail to looking at a price tag as a “suggestion,” in the words of one expert he met with. The executives Rosenwald spoke with repeatedly said that bargaining is not standard practice, but that didn’t stop employees and managers from making deals in order to close the sale.

Maybe you don’t feel comfortable with haggling, though. Rosenwald has that covered–he negotiated his Verizon bill down by using the services of a “professional haggler” who keeps half of whatever he saves a person on a transaction.

I decided to try him out. If I left Verizon Wireless, I’d owe it about $600 in early-termination fees, so the odds were against me. I had no edge. But then Stark went to work on the customer service reps with me on the phone.

Some of the things he said: “I’ve got my friend Mike on the phone, and he’s inundated with competition — they are all over him, and we don’t want to leave because you guys are the best.” . . . “Where are you right now? Where are you from? I like to know who I’m talking to, you know?” . . . “You’re doing great. I’m gonna tell your supervisor.” . . . “What can we do without him losing any features? Will you give us a deal because I’m overweight?”

“In tough economic times, shoppers take haggling to new heights” [Washington Post]

If you wish hard enough on your next JetBlue trip, maybe the airline’s People Officer will magically appear and hand out free tickets. That’s what happened on David’s flight home over the weekend. To be fair, the free ticket giveaway probably happened because JetBlue asked everyone to show up two hours early due to a computer glitch. It’s still a much nicer airline story than what passengers usually send us. Also, this People Officer hinted to the OP about the airline’s future Wi-Fi plans.

I saw that you wrote about my JetBlue/Twitter/sunglasses experience last week. So I thought you might like to hear what happened on my return trip. It was even more above and beyond.

I got an e-mail from JetBlue saying I should get to the airport two hours early on my return flight because they are overhauling their computer system and might have some glitches. I wasn’t thrilled about that, but whatever. So I got to the airport (Orlando International) two hours early and stood in line. Predictably, it was moving slowly. It was made a little better by the JetBlue rep handing out free water bottles to people in line. That was a nice touch. But then this happened:

Someone from JetBlue came over and made an announcement to the people in line. He was giving away free tickets to anywhere JetBlue flies. The first free tickets would go to anyone whose birthday is today. It was nobody’s birthday. Then he moved on to trivia: free tickets for anyone who knows where JetBlue’s original destinations were. I didn’t hear the answer, because at this point I made it through the line and was headed towards the gate, but I heard applause as I walked away. This was applause from people who had to get to the airport two hours early on a Sunday morning because of airline computer glitches.

It turned out that the same JetBlue guy was on my flight to JFK. He stood up midway through the flight and announced that he had more free tickets to give away. It was nobody’s birthday on my flight, so he moved on to trivia. The first question was: What are the names of all three flight attendants, plus the pilot and co-pilot (you would know if you paid attention to pre-flight announcements)? Someone got that right. He asked a few more questions. Some were standard trivia (“Name all seven dwarfs”) and some were pretty much guessing games (“How old would you guess your flight attendant Juan is?”). I’d say he gave out about a dozen free flights in total. He seemed to really enjoy it.

I spoke with him afterwards, as he walked down the aisle asking if people had any comments about JetBlue. I learned that his name is Dave Clark, and he’s JetBlue’s Chief People Officer. I asked him when JetBlue is getting wi-fi, and he countered by asking if I’d be willing to pay for it. I told him yes, but maybe not for short flights (although I suppose the answer would probably still be yes for short flights, if it was a smaller fee). He said that wi-fi is in their “product plans,” adding that they were also working on new features for their in-flight entertainment system. But he didn’t elaborate on what those were.

Update: JetBlue has written in to us to point out that they’d never be caught dead in the airplane interior I used for the photo illustration. This is what their planes look like. Also, the “arrive early” request wasn’t due to a glitch, but rather was “an extensively planned transition to a new booking system. JetBlue cutover to Sabre on Friday, Jan. 29, 2010. So far, we are satisfied with the performance and we are taking several steps to reduce hold times for specialty desks in our call center. We ask our customers to arrive 2 hours prior to departure for domestic flights and at least 3 hours prior to departure for international destinations, as we gain experience with the new system.”

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“JetBlue Responds To Tweet, Goes Looking For Passenger’s Sunglasses”

(weeta, WexDub)

The blog for OkCupid.com recently looked at over 7,000 profile pictures of men and women on the dating site, and compared various poses with the number of new contacts made each month. If you’re using a dating site you might want to read through their findings and fine-tune your presentation.

Some examples: Men, don’t show your abs if you’re over 20 years of age–it will backfire on you. Women, the older you are the better off you’ll be if you show some cleavage. Men, don’t smile in your pic, and make sure you’re staring at something out of frame. Women, smile and flirt directly into the camera. However, for both sexes your odds of a new contact leading to an actual conversation is best if your photo shows you doing something interesting, posing with an animal, or traveling.

I have no idea if this scales to same sex dating sites.

“The 4 Big Myths of Profile Pictures” [oktrends]