Re: Gotcha Capitalism

On Jul 28, 8:03 pm, "Jerry Okamura" <okamuraj...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"mg" <mgkel...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:4b92b513-f206-4282-9704-9e3d94a4ae0a@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Jul 28, 5:28 am, Gary <n...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:



What is Gotcha Capitalism?

Coughing up $4 fees for ATM transactions. Iron-clad cell phone
contracts you can’t get out of with a crowbar. Paying big bucks for
insurance you don’t need on a rental car or forking over $20 a day for
supposedly “free” wireless internet. Every day we use banks, cell
phones, and credit cards. Every day we book hotels and airline
tickets. And every day we get ripped off.

How? Here are just a few examples of how big business can get you:

• You didn’t fill up the rental car with gas?
Gotcha! Gas costs $7 a gallon here.
• Your bank balance fell to $999.99 for one day?
Gotcha! That’ll be $12.
• You miss one payment on that 18-month same-as-cash loan?
Gotcha! That’ll be $512 extra.
• You’re one day late on that electric bill?
Gotcha! All your credit cards now have a 29.99% interest rate.

But not for much longer. In Gotcha Capitalism, MSNBC.com’s “Red Tape
Chronicles” columnist Bob Sullivan exposes the ways we’re all cheated
by big business, and teaches us how to get our money back–proven
strategies that can help you save more than $1,000 a year.

An excerpt from the book at :

http://www.amazon.com/Gotcha-Capitalism-Hidden-Every-Day/dp/0345496132

When my wife passed away (God bless her soul) she had papers all over
the house and the check book was beyond repair. So, I opened another
account in my name only in a different financial institution and then
let things sort them self out. After that I decided to retain the
account for awhile in case any checks happened to float in, in her
name. The problem was that somehow, somewhere along the line, we had
opted for an account with a monthly fee -- I don't know how that
happened.

So, the years go by (I'm terrible about procrastinating) and when I
got the statement I would just file it. Then one day I start getting
overdraft notices. When I got the notices, I figured, "OK they're
going to charge me maybe $25 bucks for being $4 over for a month and
I'll go close out that account when I get around to it. But the
notices started coming in every few days. So, finally, I went to the
bank and closed out the account. The fee for being about $4 overdrawn
turned out to be over $200.

Just out of curiosity, what would have happened if you had simply ignored
the bank? I would thing they would be *** out of luck. At best they may
hire a "collector" who would probably hound you with threatening letters
(they won't spend any money to talk to you in person...that woud cost more
than they stand to make), which you can ignore also can't you?

I thought about that option. My credit rating is currently golden, but
I can't think of a single reason why it matters anymore since I always
pay cash for everything and payoff my credit card balances at the end
of the month. If you are retired, there's certainly no reason you
should be borrowing money in my opinion. If the amount had been very
large, instead of being just a couple hundred dollars, there's a good
chance I simply wouldn't have paid it or I would have been harassing
the bank manager regularly to get the amount reduced.

Here's another story along the same vein. After my wife died and I had
finally managed to pay off all her $80K-plus medical bills, there was
one dangling bill (about $150 as I recall) from some medical clinic
that hadn't been paid. I had 3 medical insurance policies and I called
the clinic a couple of times and made sure they had my insurance
information, but they just kept sending me the bill and I kept
ignoring their mail. Then to my surprise one day a collection agency
called me. I gave them my credit card number and paid it when they
called. Then about 3 months later I got a notice in the mail from the
clinic saying that the insurance had paid off the bill. So, in other
words, I wound up paying the bill twice. I could have really raised
hell with that clinic. I could have went down their in person waving
my receipts, embarrassing everyone within earshot and demanding to
speak to a supervisor but for only $150, I just let it go. I had a lot
of other things on my mind at the time.

.