Being treated at an urgent care facility can cost six times less than a visit to a hospital ER. Then again, if you go to a clinic when you really need a hospital, the consequences could be way worse than a fat bill.
The truth is that there are a lot more buyers and a lot fewer homes on the market than you’d expect.
The overwhelming majority of bank customers don’t want overdraft protection. According to one survey, 80% of debit card holders say they’d rather skip on the arrangement, in which banks allow customers to spend more money than their accounts hold, in exchange for a fee of $30 or $35 each time the customer overdraws. The program amounts …
“Pretty please” probably isn’t going to cut it. You want to be polite but firm, knowledgeable but not a know-it-all. And when the time comes, you might have to threaten to close your account—and it’s best if you mean you’d actually do just that.
Here’s a mini round-up of stories of interest to consumers of the value-conscious persuasion.
It’s hard to justify a trip to the drive-thru first thing in the morning when you don’t have a job. Also, when you’re unemployed, “first thing in the morning” may occur sometime after fast food restaurants have already begun serving lunch.
The final step in the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act (or CARD) goes into effect today. That final letter in the acronym is key: Consumers get a lot more disclosure as to rate changes and fee increases (you must be give 45 days notice) and how long it would take you to pay off your balance by making only …
From CVS to Starbucks and beyond, retailers have long been pushing customers to sign up for rewards cards, which allow you to build up points towards discounts or freebies with each purchase (and each obligatory card scan). But while stores love that these cards build loyalty and turn occasional shoppers into habitual devotees, there’s …
By now, you’ve probably heard of IRS rage, with the story of a disturbed man who was apparently so angry at the government and tax collectors that he crashed a plane into an IRS building in Texas yesterday. Here’s another rage-filled incident, with no violence, but plenty of destruction: A man in Ohio bulldozed his home before a bank …
Well, it’s a must-eat only if you like ingesting this sort of thing, and only if want to pay just $1. In April, the price is going up.
So much for making lemons out of lemonade. Sometimes, when you’re given lemons (i.e., you get fired), it just sucks, no two ways about it. And on a broader scale, layoffs and the long-term, perhaps permanent disappearance of jobs could cause more problems for families, neighborhoods, and society as a whole than you can possibly imagine.
When you get laid off, someone inevitably tells you that you’ll soon be telling people that being fired was the best thing that ever happened to you. Your knee-jerk reaction to such a statement might be, “Easy to say from somebody who has a job,” or perhaps “Go away before I cram your face in the paper shredder.” But for some people, …