Why Oh Why: Why You Should Care About These 8 Consumer Questions Asking ‘Why’

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For instance: Why in the world would you have to pay a fee just to pay your bill?
Why?
Because when there aren’t laws banning such fees, banks, phone service providers, and other companies will try just about anything to generate more revenues out of customers. The LA Times’ David Lazarus tackles the nonsensical pay-to-pay issue, revealing that several banks charge $15 or $20 to customers paying their mortgages over the phone. One former economics professor quoted in the story estimates that the fee must be “99% profit” for the banks. Banks and other companies use these fees not only for quick profits, but as a means to discourage customers seeking out customer service help, so that the companies can save money by providing less customer service. The result? Customers are disgusted with the state of customer service.

Why should you be monitoring Bank of America’s new policies, even if you’re not a customer?
American Banker explains that BofA’s new tiered pricing systems—which basically charges higher fees to customers who have low balances and don’t use their credit cards often, and minimal or no fees to customers who swipe their cards regularly and maintain high balances—is being watched closely by all the other banks out there. If BofA’s plan proves profitable and isn’t met with much resistance from customers, the other banks are very likely to follow suit with tiered pricing systems of their own. And if your bank does that, you face the prospect of getting hit with more fees.

Why are the unemployed less healthy than people with jobs?
There’s the simple, eminently sensible explanation: People without jobs have less money to spend on health care. But Slate points out, the issue is more complicated than that. Some people become unemployed because they’re sick, and there is also some evidence that losing a job increases the chances you will become sick.

Why are grocery store-brand products a better value than ever?
Blind taste tests have demonstrated that store-brand foods often taste as good or better than national brands. And now, as the WSJ reports, while major food companies like ConAgra and Sara Lee look to raise prices, supermarkets like Kroger plan on keeping “private label” (i.e. store brand) products cheap. Considering that you can already save 30% or so by choosing a store brand over a national product, it looks like shoppers are bound to save even more by going generic as the nationals continue to jack up prices.

Why do you pay extra for certain kinds of multivitamins?
Consumer Reports says that most multivitamins are indistinguishable from the others, so it’s totally OK—smart even—to simply select the cheapest option. An even more noteworthy point is presented at the end of the CR story:

Many people taking the pills don’t need to. Despite their popularity—Americans spent almost $4.7 billion on multivitamins in 2008, up from $3.7 billion in 2003—there’s virtually no evidence that they improve the average person’s health.

In other words, vitamins wind up amounting to “expensive urine.”
Why should you ignore those credit card minimum payment hardship plans?
The concept sounds enticing: If you lose your job, your card’s minimum payments are suspended or covered according to a payment protection plan. But, as Baltimore Sun sums up, these plans are expensive, and the benefits are pretty measly:

You’d be better off applying the money to reduce your card balance or socking it away for emergencies. Plus, the programs often have so many exceptions that your claim could be denied anyway.

Why does everyone love online banking so much?
A new American Banking Association survey shows that consumers overwhelmingly prefer online banking to other modes of banking like using an ATM or dealing with an actual live person face to face in a bank branch. Why the preference for e-banking? It’s “quick, convenient, accurate and safe.”

Why can’t you buy 11¢ Gillette razor blades in the U.S.?
Gillette is only selling the cheaper, single-blade razors in India, per a WSJ story. Apparently, we’re too good—or our beards are too formidable—for a shaving device that comes with merely one blade in the U.S. of A. Rest assured that you can, however, buy Gillette razor blades with five blades for $4 a pop in the U.S.