Super Storm Sandy Scams
Natural disasters bring out the schemers, and don’t expect any less following the devastation from Hurricane Sandy.
U.S. News & World Report offers some tips for people hoping to help out without becoming a victim. Here are a few:
-- Give to familiar organizations. Established nonprofits, such as the American Red Cross, are already well positioned to start assisting storm victims.
-- Just say “no” to phone requests. Not only is it hard to verify just who is on the other end of the telephone when someone calls to solicit money, it’s also likely that a big chunk of any donation will go to that middleman instead of the charity itself.
-- Delete e-mail solicitations immediately. Charity Navigator also warns that e-mail requests for funding—especially those that come from alleged victims—are rarely legitimate.
If you were in the path of Hurricane Sandy, I provide tips for homeowners to stay clear of “storm chasers” or con artists targeting people who need home repairs following the storm.
Talking Your Money Away
According to a recent survey by CTIA Wireless Association, the average monthly cellphone bill is $47.16, reports Brad Tuttle of Time Magazine.
But “the numbers don’t factor in the cost of handsets,” Tuttle writes. “What the numbers also don’t reveal is something that many cell-phone owners know all too well: Verizon and AT&T, the two biggest providers, aren’t getting less out of customers each month.”
A survey sponsored by CouponCabin found that 46 percent of people with mobile phones said their monthly bill was $100 or more, and 13 percent said their monthly bill topped $200 per month.
“So, yes, it is possible to pay $47 or below monthly for cell phone usage,” Tuttle says. “It’s just fairly likely that doing so would require you to switch phones, and switch providers too.”
Guilty Gift-Giving
If it’s the thought that counts when giving gifts, why do so many of us get so stressed during the holidays?
It’s because you often feel guilty for not giving more even if you can’t afford it.
“There’s a lot of guilt and social comparison in holiday shopping,” psychology professor Susan Krauss Whitbourne of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst told Karen Cheney of Money Magazine.
Cheney says: “Want to beat your psychology and that post-holiday hangover? Simply use these strategies to get the names crossed off your list -- without crossing into the red.”
-- Give your time. Instead of buying a gift card, offer your services, such as babysitting or house cleaning, as a gift.
-- Look at the long term. Here’s a sobering way to set a shopping budget: Run a retirement projection just before you shop. Or forecast the cost of your child’s college education, writes Cheney.
--Take more than one trip to the store. Televisions and T-shirts should not be purchased during the same shopping trip says Scott Huettel, head of Duke University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Decision Science. “When you start out with big decisions, your brain has a harder time discriminating with smaller decisions.”
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