BusinessWeek lists 25 companies that have great customer service. It may not surprise those of you that read this blog regularly to see USAA at the top of the list.
If you or one of your family members is in the military look into there product, both insurance and finance, and see if they can save you money.
I personally have found their insurance, car loan and credit card terms and services great.
I don’t use there brokerage, banking or custom funds.
Prosper Raises Loan Servicing Fee
Prosper.com raised their loan servicing fee from 0.5% to 1% on loans with credit grades B or lower.
This change by itself has not caused me to reconsider using Prosper.com but doubling the servicing fee has to figure into my ROI calculations for these higher risk borrowers and will certainly tip a lot of borderline loans into my “do not fund” category.
You can see Prosper’s full fee list here.
While there is much good to be said about online shopping there are some areas where it falls well short of the offline experience.
Browsing is too difficult in online stores. No I’m not talking about web browsing. I’m talking about physical browsing. When I’m looking for gifts this issue hurts. I can walk through a store and let many things sweep over me and catch my eye, inspire things to get. I can’t recreate this online. Sure Googling and the various “recommend a gift for…” features are interesting but they fail to stimulate my mind the same way strolling down the aisles of a store does. I know it is comic irony that browsing is the weak spot of a “browser” based activity but such is life.
Online shopping does little to help with shopping for meats and produce. Yes, I can buy my Cheerios online with no problems. When it comes to ordering a rib-eye steak or a tomato I hit a brick wall. Quality is so often lacking. But even beyond quality attributes like color, aroma, ripeness and marbling are difficult to quantify and express so they are simply left out of the online shopping equation.
Online shopping for clothes and shoes exhibits problems similar to those found in meats and produce. Softness of fabric and stiffness of shoe uppers and lowers aren’t listed. Fit of shoes and clothes are nearly impossible to describe. I need a new pair of dress shoes now and want to save some money but I simply can’t trust that a particular shoe will be comfortable.
Companies can go part way to addressing these issues by better describing the products they are selling. Until the internet industry comes up with an effective way to convey product qualities like fit and ripeness and provide an inspiring browsing experience some shoppers will be turned off by the experience and sales will lag.
I just got another credit card offer mailer. It had a 0% teaser on the outside so I opened it to check out the terms. It had an annual fee of almost a hundred dollars. I tossed it, and so should you.
If you have any credit cards with an annual fee that is just money burned. I have never seen a credit card offer a higher cash back rate or other awards in exchange for these fees. Airline and business cards seem to be the biggest culprits.
So look through your mail, or checkout bankrate.com or creditcards.com and find a better deal. Annual fees stink.
I had been seeing the little blue checkmark on many websites. Then I saw a comment from on of my readers on it so I decided to check it out. The blue check is a service called Bill Me Later.
Bill Me Later is a credit card alternative for online purchases. It requires you to enter less information with the merchant, just the last four digits of your social security number and your birth date along with your name.
The Advantages
- The system is very easy to sign up for.
- It is very easy to use.
- It is more secure against merchant database security disclosures.
The Disadvantages
- Worse terms than the best credit card offers. The account does not charge interest during the grace period but there are no rewards and the interest rate is 17.99%.
- No pre-approved credit limit. Every transaction is checked and can be approved or denied unlike a credit card when you know in advance how much you’ll be allowed to buy.
- The potential for more frequent credit checks. There is no data on this but only time will tell how often they review their customers credit records.
Ease of payment is not the only hurdle in the path to internet shopping growth, but making payment easier and more secure is certain to help boost sales.
The service also boasts a merchant fee of only 1.5%. This can be significant as I’ve seen other cards charge merchants over 3% in some cases. For merchants with a large volume this can be a huge benefit and if Bill Me Later gets big enough there will be some good competitive pressure on Visa, Mastercard and friends to lower their rates a bit.
Bill Me Later still has a limited number of merchants and I haven’t been through a full service cycle with them yet but they certainly look like they add value.
I decided to cancel my Blockbuster movie rental subscription recently for two reasons. I have a very busy life and hardly have time to watch movies anymore. I also haven’t felt very compelled to see anything that has come out recently.
Yeah there are a few movies that look interesting but certainly not enough to see several movies a month. A while back my girlfriend (hi) went in with my free monthly coupons. We couldn’t find a single movie both of us wanted to see.
I went to there site to cancel my subscription and was a surprised to see a cancel button. Clicking it asked me for a reason why. I picked “I’m not using it enough”. The next screen offered me three cheaper deals and a button to cancel. That was it.
While I didn’t like the extra step it was no where as annoying as many other cancellations I’ve been through.
This makes me that much more likely to rejoin Blockbuster when my (and Hollywood’s) circumstances change.
I occasionally visit new home developments to keep an eye on trends. Recent I went to a development by Lennar where they were touting their Everything’s Included® program.
Only it is just a title. Everything was clearly not included. I don’t expect them to include the furniture or the drapes. But I was surprised to see flooring, counters, fixtures, molding and structural features excluded. Why all the focus on the words “everything’s included?” It seemed as if everywhere I looked there was a sign that something or another wasn’t included.
For the most part these items are not typically included by other developers either. Nor did they fool me. I was simply appalled that Lennar would try and mislead me. It reflects very poorly on them and makes me think they will not deal honestly with me in other ways.
To Lennar: try “free upgrades” or “many upgrades included”. When you say “Everything’s Included®” and it is not you look silly or deceitful depending on the individual. (Even with the registered trademark)
To all businesses: Play it straight, provide a value and promote that value. Don’t even get close to misleading your customers.
If you are paying more than ten percent on your credit card balances you have to get the rate down. Your first step will be to try transferring your balance to another card with a lower rate, preferably 0.
You may have credit so damaged that you can’t get a new card. In that case call your credit card companies and ask to be put on a payment plan with a lower interest rate.
Credit card companies may well turn you down, but you don’t know until you ask.
Here are some points to remember:
• If you’ve been a long time member remind them of that.
• If you carry a balance and pay on time your are likely a profitable customer remind them of that.
As with all negotiations:
• Be polite, if the person you are speaking with has discretion you want them to use it in your favor.
• If you are not getting anywhere ask for a supervisor. The supervisor may be better able to help but the customer support person may not tell you that.
If you negotiate your rate down this will help you eliminate your debt much more quickly. Whether or not this works you should find a way to pay down your debt faster.
Good Luck!
Pizza Hut’s online ordering can save you money. How do I know? Last night I was ordering pizza to launch an evening of handing out candy to the kids in the neighborhood. When I got to the checkout the site asked me if I had any coupons.
I am not generally a coupon clipper and so I didn’t have any.
I did however notice a little button beside the question that let me view their current coupons. I clicked and, at the bottom of the page was one for two dollars off the pizza I was ordering. I clicked it and they took two dollars off my order. Very simple.
Always order your Pizza Hut pizza online. Always scan the coupons page when checking out. It is much easier than clipping coupons.
I had a reservation with a local Marriott for some weekend guests. Plans changed and so I called to cancel the reservation. The clerk was cheerful and helpful. Within half a minute she had cancelled the reservation and given me a confirmation numbers. No up selling, no trying to talk me out of canceling or asking to help with alternate plans.
That is excellent service. Great job Marriott. I’ll remember this, thank you.
I have to use credit cards. I am not a spendaholic. I don’t pile up tons of credit card debt. But I have to use the plastic.
Why?
I keep my money longer. I earn money on the money that I keep. I have more flexibility if my life hits a rough spot.
I get protection from merchants. Some merchants don’t care about their customers. When I use my credit card I have an 800 pound gorilla on my team. When I call attention to the fact that a credit card company is on my team businesses become far more cooperative.
I get protection from criminals. If someone commits fraud with my checking account I have to duke it out with my bank to keep from being held responsible for the fraud. With my credit card I simply let the credit card company security department take care of it.
I get perks. Rental car protection, flight insurance, cash rebates and so on. My checking account and the Federal Reserve don’t offer these deals.
Don’t pile up credit card debt. Don’t spend money you don’t have. Do use your credit cards wisely.
I got my car back this week after 14 days in the shop. The insurance company's insistence on attempting a repair that the shop believed was not possible. The insurance company thought they would save about $250 if they could repair instead of replace the bumper cover.
The grand total for the rental car came to $392. Oops. The insurance company managed to blow about three hundred dollars on unneeded rental days. All I can say is I’m glad I’m not a shareholder.
You can read my previous entries on this insurance fiasco and my initial shock.
I’ve been using Emigrant Direct for a while now to stash cash on its way to being invested, for my 0% cash back plan and my emergency fund.
On Sept 30th I was checking on my account and noticed the 5.05% rate on the home page. That weekend I noticed an ad on another personal finance blog for the 5.15% rate but I figured it was just a simple delay.
Today I was reading another blog and saw the same 5.15% ad. I think it is maybe time that EmigrantDirect change their ads. I don’t think the interest difference is huge for most people. The page you click through to for the ad clearly shows the 5.05% rate. Still, a week later they shouldn’t be advertising the old rate.
I dropped them a line, we’ll see what they do. If you have any sightings of the old or new ad please let me know.
Incidentally, I’m not mentioning the blogger as I’m sure he has nothing to do with it, the ads are automated.
I spoke with the repair shop again today. The dealer keeps slipping when they can deliver the part. At this point I'll be in the rental car for 10 to 13 days for a total rental cost of $280 to $364. This wipes out the difference between the repair and replace options of only about $250.
The repair shop and my insurance company were both pretty adamant that (1) a repair would be needed and (2) that they wanted to order the parts before taking the car apart to avoid the unpredictable wait. But the other insurance company, the one that is paying, insisted on trying to fix it.
They are paying a steep price for this mistake.
Trying to save money is good. Trying to save money without thinking it through is bad.
You can read more about this car repair mini saga here.
Someone ran into my car recently. The damage wasn’t horrible but the car is so new I wanted to get it fixed.
I got an estimate for about $700 to replace the bumper cover from a reliable repair shop. This would have taken a day. The insurance adjuster for the guy that ran into me insisted that it could be reconditioned.
The shop said they have to start with what the adjuster said, but that they knew this couldn’t be reconditioned.
I’ve received a series of ads from CVS with $3 off a of purchase $15 or more. These are not as good as their $5 off $10 or more coupons, but money is money.
But all the coupons had "valid in Indiana and Illinois only" in the fine print. I finally was curious enough to send them and email. It took them a few days to get back to me but I got an email from them today apologizing for the mistake. They said they have instructed their California stores to accept the coupons.
It is definitely a plus for me when an organization addresses issues as opposed to ignoring them.
24 Hour Fitness is running a deal that is short lived giving 6 personal training sessions for $49. The deal expires this Thursday so if you want it hurry.
Please be careful. My girlfriend signed us up (Thank you) and they tried a hard sell to get her to upgrade the 25 minute sessions to hour long sessions for only $250. They told her the regular price is $350.
Unfortunately for the poor soul trying to up sell her she had previously checked into this and found out they would go much lower than $200.
She balked, but apparently two other folks there at the same time upgraded for the “super discounted” $250.
Good luck on your physical goals and your fiscal goals!
It is clear that companies are making it very hard to cancel. From AOL to cell phones, gym memberships to online subscriptions many companies have made canceling subscription excessively difficult.
MSN Money has an article giving some tips on canceling service you o longer want or need.
The tips range from waiting patiently on hold to dieing. Yes, they said dieing and yes I it seemed a bit excessive to me too.
One tip that they didn’t mention is to use your credit card as leverage. On some occasions where I encountered unhelpful customer service I politely let them no that they are no longer authorized to charge my account. I let them know I’ll be following up with a letter and that if they charge the card again I’ll report it to the credit card’s security department. I’ve never had to pursue the issue any further once I expressed this.
I don’t know how the credit card company would actually react. I do know that on a few occasions when I’ve seen charges that I didn’t remember making the credit card companies have been very concerned with the charges being legitimate.
Companies should realize that this may give them some small, short lived benefit but in the long run making cancellations excessively difficult alienates customers and drives away business.