Canadian Personal Finance Blog

I have had some fun with a few over the top ideas for folks who cannot control their spending (i.e. their internal shock collars seem to have gone off line), but I have thought about a service that banks might offer that would be worth their exorbitant monthly service charges.

Think of a system that:

• Sends spending alerts to your cell phone when you make the purchase. Sends your spouse an alert of what you have spent and an itemized bill of what you bought.
• Sends you updates to your PC or Cell phone warning you that you are close to over-spending on a specific budget areas.
• Causes your credit card to explode if over used. OK, it disables the credit card and forces the user to call with a specific pass code to have this overridden (and they have to give a reason for this override, which is noted).
• Allows you to set up a “budget” for the month on line which you can easily monitor, or get daily and weekly reports on how your progress works
• Sends a large wrestler or MMA fighter to your house to go over your monthly spending habits, and if they feel you are not following the plan, put you in the sleeper hold, or use a guillotine choke hold on you, to stop you from doing this in the future. Maybe they send over a financial advisor the first time, to discuss these points, and show you a picture of the wrestler, pointing out what might happen if they don’t follow the plan.
• Rewards the consumer with a higher interest rate on their savings, or a lower service charge for each month that the consumer follows the financial plan (I realize that you must give positive feedback some time).
• Offer a points reward system that you can redeem for various rewards like Air Miles or such, thus creating a Rewards system for people who save instead of a system to reward spending that are currently in place.

If a bank offered this or a service similar to this, I might view that as a good use of my money if I had to pay for the service. I don’t think I’d use this service (although I might try it out for a while), but this might be what some folks might need, almost a Financial Nanny or Money Conscience concept (both terms copyrighted by me).

Do most people need these kind of services? Maybe not, but it is evident that some folks might benefit from this kind of helpful concept.

Some banks already offer parts of the service, by giving their customers access to cheaper or free copies of Quicken to help track their spending, but the financial feedback loop needs to be much tighter than the control that Quicken puts out (and maybe needs to be a little more severe in it’s ramifications as well).

Is this kind of interventionist methodology needed? My opinion is, in some instances, yes because there is a shocking lack of financial training for consumers. Money and manipulating it is one of the top skills any adult needs to survive in this world, yet the amount of training given to teenagers and young adults is negligible.

After yesterday’s epiphany of the Financial GPS, I think I have streamlined the concept and gone to exactly what might be needed with today’s chronic over spender, the Financial Shock Collar.

This device, will look like a fashionable necklace for the ladies or simply a gold chain around the neck for men, and when it is activated 10,000 volts are instantly activated from a small power source (at milli-amperage levels) causing sudden and excruciating pain for its’ wearers, until they stop the spending which activated the collar (yes I borrowed this idea from a Star Trek episode, but aren’t all the best ideas from Star Trek?).

Is this a severe and dangerous tool to use? You are darn right that this is a ludicrously severe tool, but given some folks ability to completely lose their minds when it comes to:

• Financial Decision
• Overspending
• Use of money they don’t have
• Live now pay later thinking

This may be a useful “last hope” type of device.

Self-Destructing Debit/Credit Card

Don’t like my shock collar idea? A much less severe idea (depending on how you look at it) would be the self-destructing debit/credit card. Given most new cards come with a great deal of “smart card” technologies this one may be simpler to implement (and much more fun to watch).

The concept is quite simple, if the consumer attempts to use the card by either swiping it or “tapping” it, the card receives a simple message destruct and the card emits a high pitched alarm sound and 5 seconds later the card explodes, with a small charge embedded in it, when it was manufactured.

This makes the whole scenario of the credit card company rejecting a purchase and asking the vendor to seize the card a much simpler scenario, and it makes stolen cards that much more lethal for the thieves as well. If a card is stolen, it will automatically self-destruct when it gets near ANY credit card terminal.

Sure, there will be occasional glitches where cards may self-destruct without warning, but those small glitches and maiming of their owners are assumable risks for those who wish to have the privilege of carrying a credit card.

An added side-effect might be less people wanting to carry around credit cards with them, for fear of the occasional random self-destruction as well. Think of someone carrying around 6-8 credit cards, what might happen if one goes off accidentally? The chain-effect might well be complete destruction of the owner.

More interesting new “outside of the box” (unless the box is a coffin) ideas for financial safety may come, as I think of them.

Yesterday we learned of my quandary with Bell Mobility who seemed to have overcharged me for a phone that was no longer on their network, today we learn just how obfuscated this can all become.

Billing a Number Not On Network

Billing for a service that was not delivered was the first point I brought up with the young lady from Bell which I spoke to. I attempted to remain well behaved and was not rude, since that is the first rule of negotiating with a customer service agent (if you want to succeed, keep your cool, stick to your guns but don’t swear, or you automatically lose).

I pointed out that my wife’s cellular phone was no longer on the Bell network, however it took about 10 minutes for the service agent to confirm that yes the phone had been “suspended” from the network. That term “suspended” worried me, so I probed about what that meant, and she pointed out that the phone goes to “suspended” when it is ported out of their network and then a month later it is in “Removed” state (remember that part it is important).

I then pressed the point about why was I being billed the entire month for a number no longer on the network. My service agent wasn’t very clear on that so she went away to get the exact details (this took about 15 minutes on hold) and when she finally returned the answer left me with a very sour taste in my mouth.

Evidently in the Bell system, if you have your number transferred to a different carrier the number “stays on the books” with bell for a month, and thus the consumer is obligated to pay for that number for that entire billing period. That was kind of what I expected, so I then made an assumption and asked, “So it will not show up on my bill next month, correct?”, silence again. More consultations on hold were held, and when my agent returned I was told, No, I would be billed for the next period as well, since the 30 days “on the system” was linear time and thus it overlapped into the next billing period so I have to pay for it for two months. I asked for that to be repeated, and it sounded just as much like a rip off the second time. I asked if there was anything that could be done (for a long time customer) to waive that fee, but was told brusquely, No!

This is your warning that if you plan on moving away from a Bell Contract figure out when your billing period is and transfer your phone out as close to the end of that period as you can, to try to mitigate the penalty fees you will incur.

Changing My Service Package

After failing miserably on my first point I continued on my discussions about how MY phone had been transferred into a strange billing package, which ended up charging me $22 extra for text messaging. The service agent was not sure, so she disappeared on hold again to go find out, and when she returned she implied (but did not say directly) that I must have changed service packages and that was why.

At this point I could have flown into a rage and pointed out how screwed up that was and how that was just WRONG, but I managed to keep my cool and I pointed out that the change in service package happened on the exact same day that my wife’s phone moved over to the Telus network. Silence for a few seconds was my answer, and then another prolonged wait on hold, for more consultations about what I had just said.

My agent returned again, to say, yes in fact the service package had been changed on that day, but I must have done it when I called in the phone number transfer for my wife’s phone. My response to that statement was that I did not actually call that in, the nice people at Telus did all that for us, so I did not agree or ask to have my service package changed then. Silence for a few seconds, another pause on hold to consult.

Upon return I was told that yes, that must have been what happened however, Bell had tried to call me to tell me I HAD to change my service package and what did I want to change it to? I pointed out that I didn’t receive any calls like that, and no messages were left on my phone (or text messages on my remaining form), but my agent was determined to tell me that someone had tried to call me.

I continued my statement of the fact that Bell had put me in a service package without my ok and now was attempting to gouge $22 in services from me that I was not going to pay for. My agent said she needed to consult a bit more, and disappeared on hold again.

Upon her return her tone seemed to change and she said that Bell would be willing to “forgive” the charges for this past month and she would now help me to put me into a Service Package to my liking. Quick thinking on my part caused me to point out, “I am not prepared to make this a NEW contract, my contract has expired and I am happy to not renew at this time”, causing more silence and a return to the land of “On Hold”.

Finally a return, and a confirmation that yes this was not going to be a new contract and I was put into a package that should fit my usage needs (I suspect it is going to be a lot more expensive than I want to pay, but I still have the option to “Vote with My Feet” next year). After about 66 minutes, I finally hung up with $22 back in my pocket and a very sour taste in my mouth.

Will I stay with Bell? For the next few months I guess, but as soon as the new Wireless Carriers in Canada come on line, I will be looking into what they offer and more likely than not will be leaving Bell for a cheaper Wireless service.

OK, Air Canada has been an important part of my life, but their new “Leg Room Tariff” is one step too far in my estimation. Over the years I have watched traveling in an airplane going from being an elegant thing, where civilized folks dressed well and were all civil with each other, to these days where I think it’s lucky that folks are wearing clean clothes (don’t get me started about the people who travel in sandals and then complain that the plane is too cold).

As time has passed, we have gone from complimentary candies at the start of flights and on landing to help you with “popping ears”, to the point now where I would not be surprised to see pay toilets offered by an airline.  Hidden costs abound in air travel these days, where they could just as easily offer a free flight to Toronto from Ottawa and still end up charging you over $150 in service fees (there is a landing fee, does that mean if I don’t pay it we don’t land?).

This new tariff for the seats in Economy that have a bit more leg room are now going to cost more is beyond gouging. Being someone who does not fit in airliner (unless I am in Business class or First Class) being able to sit in a seat that allows me not to have to fold myself in half to be able to fit was nice, but now I will not have access to these seats unless I am willing to pay for them, and the seats are “available”.

The fee will only be $14 for each leg of your trip, to sit in a bulk head seat or in one of the emergency exits, but it stinks in my estimation.  So if someone who cannot open the emergency exit pays for the seat, and refuses to move people may die in an emergency situation? Seems like a safety issue to me.

Will you pay this fee? Me I don’t travel these days, so it is a non-relevant question for me right now, but for the frequent fliers out there are you going to pay? I single out Air Canada on this one, but I will bet other Airlines will add this fee quickly if Air Canada succeeds with this new fee.

PC Repair For Fun and Profit

After reading an interesting blurb in Wired about the Geek Squad I am astounded at what passes as genuine good customer service. I have seen more articles about “We’ll Come Fix Your PC at Home” services (maybe I should copyright that name) and what they charge, it really does make me scratch my head.

I am one of the folks that people call when they aren’t sure what to do about their computers. I am by no means an expert, but more of a well informed “noodler of technology” and the stuff I know, I usually have learned through trial and error (emphasis on error), however I am glad to help friends who ask questions or need help (I am also quick to point out when I am in an area I have little experience in). Most of the people I help, usually pay me back by helping me in other areas, or they let me drink their liquor or beer (which is fine payment by me).

The “We’ll Come Fix Your PC at Home” seem to offer similar services, but their fees seem much higher than the job warrants (yes they have overhead like those annoying VW Bugs with logos all over them, and all those nifty T-Shirts they wear), and I wonder if this is really not just a “mugs game”.

Who really uses these services? Let’s assume small businesses use legitimate service providers in these areas, so the folks that are using this are families and folks that do not know computers, and thus are easy prey to these “Technology Buzzards”, who can do what they want to your system and you won’t know whether they caused the problem or not (much like a lot of Car Repair shops work, but let’s stay away from that subject for now).

How can consumers protect themselves from this techno-scurge? Find friends who know computers and ask them questions, most folks will gladly help out (but make sure they know what they are talking about too). Take courses at your local community college, if your PC is an important part of your life maybe you should know how it works? Only use repair services that have been recommended by people you respect and who you think know computers, better still ask the folks at work that support your computers about things, sometimes they are glad to help out too.

Don’t pay $249 to get someone to come to your house to do an Operating System Installation/Upgrade, unless you really don’t want to do that, then Caveat Emptor is all I can tell you.