August 22, 2025 • 39 mins
Bradley Jay Fills in on NightSide
What general tricks do companies use to get you to purchase something or sign up for something you don't want? Kevin Brassler, the Executive Editor of Consumers’ Checkbook joined us to discuss consumer red flags. In addition, Kevin can give examples of throwing away money on services and items that, while marketed as useful, are bad buys as well as worthwhile services and products that you could get for free.
What general tricks do companies use to get you to purchase something or sign up for something you don't want? Kevin Brassler, the Executive Editor of Consumers’ Checkbook joined us to discuss consumer red flags. In addition, Kevin can give examples of throwing away money on services and items that, while marketed as useful, are bad buys as well as worthwhile services and products that you could get for free.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
We're talking consumer protection. We're talking getting the most fear
of money when it comes to being a consumer. And
our guest is Kevin Bressler from executive from checkbook dot Org.
He's the executive editor nonprofit consumer advocacy group and they
help you avoid trouble, save money, and they are unbiased,
(00:28):
they don't take money, unbiased rating of local services, it's
not just national. They do secret shopping and each market
like Boston, so you know you're getting a good local advice.
And you do things like even doctors and.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
You cover in you know lots of doctors, dentists, home
and improvement company, h insurance companies, H facts a big one.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I mean you know more than you know two different topics, plumbers,
different types of store. If you need a new hearing aid,
we have ratings and hearing centers. You did mention that
we don't take money, and I think it's important to
say we don't have advertising on our website. We don't
take ads. We don't have ads, and we don't take
referral fees from businesses. We are here for consumers. We
(01:17):
are we were funded only by consumers. And by that
I mean all our advice is free. You can go
on a website read all you want, but if you
want to access to the local ratings, there is a paywall.
Because Light Consumer Reports. The only way we support ourselves
is through subscriptions to our information and donations.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
So once you subscribe, though you know.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
It's you get access to everything. But if you just
want to, you know, read up our advice on stuff,
that's all free. Everything I write is free hard copy
here online. There is a magazine, so you can actually
you can subscribe and we'll send you magazines and newsletters.
You won't be surprised to know that most people these
days opt out of that. But yeah, for now, we
still are printing magazines and newsletters.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
So we can open things up to other things that
should I get that car insurance for the rental? Should
I get that light insurance? And Kevin and I have
done this a lot, and we're going to get pretty nuanced.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
About your contractor. Thing that I did want to mention
that the other thing you did right. You got multiple bids,
But the other thing you did right is you made
sure that the contractor you are going to hire I
think you're sort of going to hire them that you're
not paying too much upfront. This is a big problem
consumers have is that, you know, the they pay for
the entire project upfront or before it's finished, and then
(02:30):
there are problems, and what's the incentive of the contractor
now has done, gotten all their money and they move on.
So so by withholding as much payment as you can
to the end of the work, you get to say, now, oh,
the job's done. And you say that by paying them
so for roofing work usually like if they wanted to
posit at all, ten percent, about as much as I
(02:50):
would pay.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
So because a regular contractor is half now half, then well.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
It just depends if they are if well, you know,
I think even half is a lot. Really, you know,
it's one thing to say no. It's one thing to
say they want a commitment for you to so that
they can you know, book you on their schedule. Right,
That's that's reasonable. It's another it's it's another thing to say, oh,
we're gonna supply you with custom cabinet. Try if you
decide to back out of this, they can't return that
(03:15):
somehow because it's custom or even custom blended paint. They
may say, look, you got to pay in advance for
the paint, because if you back out of this deal,
then I what I'm going to do all these gallons
of paint, right, But for a normal job like roofing work,
things like that. You know, roofers, they should a good
roofer will have good credit, just like you and I do.
They should be able to go out, and they do
go out and get shingles, and they get invoice at
the end of the month from the shable company. So
(03:37):
you definitely just don't want to pay too much.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I would.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I would never pay a company more than half upfront
for work. And if you can avoid even paying that upfront,
it's for the best because again now you have well,
it depends on the job, right, I mean, I would
think that you know, if they're supplying custom stuff, I
think it's reasonable for them to say when that custom
stuff comes in and they can't cancel the order anymore,
(04:02):
if you decide against it, then you should pay for it.
And usually with big contracting jobs, you pay as you go.
You pay a little bit upfront to secure their place,
your placing their schedule. You pay another you know when
they've done a certain amount of work, but your pain
as the job progresses and you're happy. That's the important thing.
You don't pay until you're happy.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Our old job is less than your paining way less
than your painting job.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah, well yeah, yours. Someone is a small job. So
it's not so bad. You're not risking that much by
paying half up front.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
But half is a lot, okay, Gene and Everett, thanks
for joining us on w b Z.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Hi Hi Bradley, Hi, Kevin yees. So I'm calling about
my sister had a problem she had in reveal. She
had a brand new sidewalk put in by the city.
The city had a brand new sidewalk put in for
her and a couple of other neighbors, but her sidewalk
(04:57):
cracked within one season. Is all cracked in one area,
And she contacted the city, the mayor's office, and they said,
we can't help you. And this was a big contractor
who did this, who does all sidewalks in the whole
area most of the time. And then she contacted the
(05:19):
city engineer and they said, well, if we patch it,
it won't look ecstatically nice. And she's like, well, it
doesn't look ecstatically nice at all now and it's all
cracked and it shouldn't be and the tax days all
paid for it. Right, what do you do? How do
you get this resolved? They're not doing anything at all,
and the sidewalks all cracked near her wall and it's
(05:42):
affecting the you know the strength of her brick wall.
And the AsSalt man comes by in the winter and
salt they put salt on the sidewalks and it's going
to deteriorate her bricks.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, she should probably talk to a consumer attorney to
see what if they can do anything for it. They're
probably maybe I don't know right, I'm not there, But
if the city owns the sidewalker, if there's some easement there,
they may not have to do much to fix this, except,
you know, to do the right thing that it looks bad.
It may be worth also, you know, her contacting the
contractor and saying, hey, you know, can you fix this? Right,
(06:16):
I mean it doesn't look good.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Well, it's up to the city to do it. They hired.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
There'reparently not going to though, was it Is it dangerous?
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Well, yeah, it's dangerous to her property because it's going
to deteriorate her wall that's right beside the sidewalk. Water's
getting in there.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I don't know that's going to be a stretch. I mean,
if it was something where there was a risk of
people falling down and breaking their leg, that'd be well.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
The kids come out of school and they pick up
the cement that's breaking and fling it a cauz and
swing it all over the place. That's kind of a risk.
Great there. Yeah, I think it's a toy.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
That's not the city's fault. I think is a home
cost to do some mitigation on her own? Like can
she is there something and she can patch so something
won't leak.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
I'm gonna say, see, if a big contract made a
lot of money by doing ten houses, why should anyone
go and try to patch up something that they did.
They're responsible. You'll take the responsibility away from them once
you start doing something to it. Now it's not the
problem anymore.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
At some point you have to get real is it
going to happen? And do you want to have your
home get damaged or you want to pay a few
bucks and stave the big repair ability your home?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
And I just don't know that, you know, I'm into
consumer uh business relationship is not and I don't know
how it works with them. I mean, I'm sure there's
a performance you know, the contract that contractor signed with
the city has a performance gearing, you know, a standard
in there and a warranty and they're responsible.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
How would you feel if that was in front of
your house and they made a big mess.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I would both.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I would be annoyed too, and I just don't I
don't have I guess what I'm saying is I don't
know the answer here because it's not my you know,
that's okay.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
No, it's okay that you don't. But I'll leave it
at that. I don't want you in it pick it
because you really don't know alone. But I just wanted
to ask. But I think we can drop it because
I think we'll drop it because I don't think you
really know. It's okay. I don't want to go on
with it because I don't want you to say anything
(08:21):
that's gonna hurt her trying to get what she needs
to done.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Thank you, thank you very much. If it was if
it were me and the city hired somebody that did
it well the contract job, then you try to get
the city to take the guy and come.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Back and contract the contractor signed with the city or
whatever that's going to be public records at least look
through there and is there some kind of performance guarantee
that the concrete that they laid is going to last
more than a year or something. I don't know, I
know if it's a consumer, if you're a homeowner. It's
another thing to look for in contracts you sign, is
you know what's the warranty and who who's carrying the warranty? Right,
(08:56):
if you're getting a new furnace installed, well it should
say what the manufacturer's warranty is for that furnace and
also separately what the installer's warranty is for labor because
the furnace, if something goes wrong with the furnace usually
within six to ten years depending on what you're buying
the parts, in terms of replacing those parts is covered
by the manufacturer's warranty, but the labor to put them
(09:17):
in is covered by the installer's warranty. And usually to
install furnace usually only get a year or two warranty there.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
So here's a quick one, very very important and this
has to do with payment method and like Venmo PayPal,
credit card, How do you know what you're not to use.
There's one payment method that you should always use when
you can.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
If you can. When I said before, the other's no
one that's going to come in and swoop in and
save you. But I would really think that like the
strongest consumer tool we have in terms of dealing with
trouble is paying with a credit card. For consumer advocate
to say that because credit card companies over you know,
(09:58):
our history have been predatory and continue to be predatory
in terms of getting people to sign up, getting them
to overspend. But the unique thing about using a credit
card to pay for something is is that you automatically
get protection from something called the Federal Fair Credit Billing Act.
And what that law says essentially is if you're paying
(10:19):
for something via credit card, that if fraud occurs on
your credit card, if somebody charges a bunch of stuff
to your credit card, that it's not you. You're not responsible
for those charges. If you order something or buy something
and it doesn't arrive, you're not responsible for pain for
that purchase. If and this is probably most important when
(10:42):
it comes to local services, if you pay somebody to
do something and you're unhappy and you tried to work
it out with that person, but they wouldn't budge. And
you can pretty easily prove I'm not happy that they
didn't do what was agreed. You can dispute that charge
with your credit card company, and nine times out of
ten they're going to side on behalf of you, the
card holder, and they do what's called a charge back.
(11:05):
So essentially, you say, look, you know I had this
work done, I'm not happy with it my car, I
took it in to get repaired. The thing, whatever was wrong,
it's still wrong with it. They're like, too bad, we're
not going to fix it again. You call your credit
card company and protest the charge, and nine times out
of ten they'll side on your behalf, not the business.
You'll least get your money back. The headache won't go away,
(11:26):
but at least you can get your money back.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
And I've heard this, tell me if it's true. If
you tell them I am going to dispute this, they
don't want that goes on their record. The more disputes
they get, the worse it is for them, and they
don't want that dispute, so they may be they may go,
oh okay, they'll fix it. If you say I'm going
to dispute this with my credit.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Card, yeah, they're more likely, you know, not everyone, but
sometimes they're more likely to go ahead and make it right.
Because when you ask for a charge back, that business
doesn't just lose the money. It basically gets pulled out
of their accounting back into yours, essentially the way it
works on these chargebacks, So they not only lose that sale,
but also they get hit with a chargeback fee, and
(12:07):
chargeback fees range from like seventy five dollars to one
hundred and fifty dollars, So in addition to losing that
money the sale, they have to pay the fee. And
if they get too many chargebacks, their credit card company
could drop them and then now they have to shop
around for another one.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yeah, and I never use a debit card for anything
because when the money's gone, it's gone. Am I correct?
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Well, that's the problem. So if you use a debit
card to pay for something and the transaction goes through
Visa and MasterCard system, you still can dispute charges. The
problem is the credit card banks. The debit card banks
basically are less likely to side on your behalf and
the bigger problem is the risks are different. See with
(12:45):
a credit card purchase, you go to your credit card
company and say, you know what, this happened. I don't
want to be responsible for this charge, and they freeze
that amount on your credit card. You don't have to
pay that back while they.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Have had the money has not It hasn't gone.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Even if it had, even if you've paid the bill,
they have to freeze a certain amount on your credit
card right for the future. Whereas with a debit card,
the risk is different because the money's gone and now
it's up to the goodwill of the bank to help
you out. And some banks are not very goodwilly whatever
the word is. But credit card banks in general are
pretty they again I said, nine times out of ten
(13:19):
they side and we have to consumers. Some are better
than others. Uh, you know, I know we're not supposed
tonic a brands here, but American Express has a great
reputation for helping its card holders out when they have
these sorts of troubles. Some credit card companies, if it's
a small charge, they'll say, you know what, as a
you know, they won't even investigate it as a matter
of goodwill. We're just going to go ahead and give
(13:40):
you that much money because I want to deal with it.
That happens a lot too, but usually when they do investigate,
they saw them and if it's fraud, they have to
deal with it by law. It's not even a decision
tree process. If a bunch of charges occur on your
credit card, you didn't make them, please contact a credit
card company because what they have to do is remove
those charges and probably will issue a different credit card
hard a number because that frauds occurred. Somebody has stolen
(14:02):
your number.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Okay, after the break, there are a couple other payment
methods which are problematic and will at least well, yeah,
they're problematic, and we'll share those with you in a
moment on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news radio
Consumer Questions.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
You want to get all the amo you can to
protect yourself. Well, that's what we're doing here with Kevin
Bresler of checkbook dot org and oh, we were talking
about payment methods and which is the safest, Which are
the safest. We talked about credit card being the safest,
debit card less. So, but if you make a mistake
with a couple of others. It's even worse like and
(14:44):
this is Venmo. This is a payment method, So I
it's a fair game to talk about because it has
inherent problems and to not address this would be we'd
be remiss. I guess if you send if you had
to send Venmo money via Venmo that is the wrong person,
you can't get it unless they want to give it back.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
They call them peer to peer payment systems. It's not
just Venmo, there's a dozen other companies where you know
you're you're essentially whatever paying through your phone. You're you're
sending it to a payment to a phone number directly.
One problem is if you send money to the wrong person,
if you punch them the wrong phone number and send
to the wrong person, it's up to the person who
got the money, it's up to their goodwill to send
(15:25):
it back to you. But the bigger problem with these
these payment systems is that criminals absolutely love them because
once they've gotten your money, it's impossible to get it back. Basically,
they can just grab it and then send it somewhere else,
and even the even the payment apps at that point
can't get it for you.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
And so if someone is kind of scamming to begin with,
and they add that layer of payment method on, then
there's no way you're gonna be able to un.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Here's the thing about these payment systems. They were set
up to do things like Bradley, you and I go
for dinner, to split the check, right for me to
send you what I owe you for dinner.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
They were set up to, you know, gift money to someone.
They were set up maybe to you know, deal with
a small gambling transaction, a little bet you made with
the friends, stuff like that. They were not set up
to buy products and services. And you have no protections
under these things. If you send it to someone, just
assume it's gone. Some of these companies, they do have
(16:27):
dispute resolution, now you know a few finally kind of
one is one big company out there, Zell's kind of
like finally caved and has dispute resolution. But you can
assume they're going to make things right when things go wrong.
There are with some of them, Like I think PayPal
is a good example where when you buy stuff on PayPal,
(16:47):
it might it will tell you the site will tell
you whether or not you qualify, whether that purchase qualifies
for their purchase protection elements to where if you have
a problem you can go back to PayPal and maybe
get your money back. Just you have to be very
careful using these things. It's why scammers it's their preferred method, right,
denmo me, cash at me, all these different apps that
are for Is.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
It safe to say that if they're asking for payment
by a venmo that I don't ast a little doubt on.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
That, don't do it. I really would say that if
you don't know that seller, that service, whoever it is
selling you that thing, just don't do it. Unless you
have that product in your hand and you've had a
chance to check out its quality and make sure it's
not some counterfeit or whatever, then yeah, I wouldn't use
those at all to pay for goods or services.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
All right. In a related thing, I have really adopted
the use of Apple Pay. And the reason I like
it is because I'm not going to lose the card.
I could walk. It's a lot more likely i'd lose
my card than my phone, and my phone locks up
after a short period of time, and there's another layer
of numbers on the receipt. It doesn't actually have even
(17:53):
the less for the credit card number, it has some
other weird numbers that are completely unrelated. And am I
correct assume that it's the same way to pay.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
I think it's a it's likely a safer technology than
credit card numbers. It's on your phone. It's unlikely that
somebody steals your phone. They're gonna be able to crack
into it right to access that payment method. It's got
you know, ending encryption. These are all important things. Just know,
if your Apple pay is connected to a debit card,
(18:23):
then those rules for disputing a transaction are going to apply.
If it's connected to a credit card number, then different goals.
I have stronger credit, stronger yeah, so you know, just
know that that whatever payment method it's connected to, those
are going to be your rights when things go wrong.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
So I don't like taking out my credit card with
me when I go out. If I lose my wallet, Yeah,
I don't lose my credit card and I don't have
to get a new number.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Correct, Well, it depends. If there's been fraudulent charges on
your physical credit card, right then then they're probably gonna
issue a different card number. The nice thing is this
is just if I lose the card, not with froudel
lose the card, you definitely want to report it to
the company so that they can cancel that number.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
The nice thing need to cancel the number.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
If the nice thing with apple Pay is the last
time I lost my card or there were fraudulent charges
on it, I've had both happened to me recently, uh
Apple Pay somehow since my new card number, like that,
that information for the new car was communicated Apple Pay
and I didn't have to change anything up on my phone.
That was kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I'm not sure you want to listener my question. If
I lose my UH card, I'm I need to get
a new card. But if I if I don't take
the card out with me and lose my wallet.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Oh, then you haven't lost her.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I haven't lost my card, which is why I like
Apple Pay because it just seems easier. But lost like
inserting the card or tapping the cards, you lost your wallet, you.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Still lost your driver's license, which is the next thing
that I'm actually looking forward to is that that states
are finally going to start issuing virtual driver's license. Oh wow,
to have this physical thing anymore. And I'll tell you
why I'm really excited because in July I went out
to Oregon, UH for a little trip, and somewhere between
security at the airport and UH my gate, I lost
(20:09):
my driver's license. And I can't tell you what a
pain it was to run a car without a driver's license.
And none of them will let me do it, except
one company will let me do it.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Have you ever lost your passport?
Speaker 3 (20:20):
I have not yet, and I'm really paranoid about it.
And you should be so paranoid. What happens if you
lose it while you're you're in Europe or whatever, how
very bad? You got to go to the consulate or
the I always.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Taking a copy, like you do?
Speaker 3 (20:31):
You do that well? I used to have like a
backup driver's license, Like I'm.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Talking about a passport copy?
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Oh? Like take a oh like I have a picture
of it on my phone.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I think either way, you still got to go the embassy.
They're not gonna let you get on a plane.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
It's a little story. Of these two little stories. One's
very short. I found somebody's passport on the ground in
the airport and took it to an official. But check
this out. I'm I'm out set to go on some
big trip. I'm sitting in my seat at the airport.
I feel good, I'm all organized. A woman across the
(21:05):
aisle says, and something under your chair is that important?
And it was my passport. If that woman didn't have
said anything, I would. And another thing, Remember, folks, if
you go on a trip, chances are you need to
have six months remaining on your passport from the date
(21:25):
of your return. If you don't, they won't let you go.
I saw that happening to a guy that came from
Mexico and was going some fire away place and they said, sorry, dude,
you can't get on the plane. Then go back to Mexico.
Too bad.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
So what they look at is if your passport has
to be good to an equal or more amount of
time than the tourist visa is for you're visiting. So
if you're going to I don't know, the EU, your
tourist visa from the US is like, I don't know,
I'm making this up three or four months, your passport
has to be good for that long, even though your
(21:59):
return maybe five days later. Basically they're saying, as well,
you could decide to extend your stay, and so your
passport has to be good for that long. And in
some cases, it's just a blanket like six months. So
you think, ah, I'm good, my passport's good for a
long time, and then you they won't let you on
the plane here, right, And so I've had having to
a few of my friends where they showed up and
they're like, hey, your passport's not good for long enough.
(22:20):
And they're like, what do we do? And they're like, well,
we're going to rebook you tomorrow. And then first thing
in the morning, you're gonna go to the embassy and
you're gonna do this. Are the state Department, You're gonna
do this, and you're gonna do that, and this is
the emergency thing. And it costs them hundreds or even
thousands of dollars to make this change you easy.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Okay, it's time. Yeah, let's do this. We're gonna we're
gonna start doving into airline ticket purchasing and insurance and
rental car renting and insurance and myths about that. After
this on WBZ, you're.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
On the Night Side on WBZ Boston's news radio Consumer Issues.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
You've come to the right place, WBZ. This is Nightside
with Dan Ray Bradley j for Dan with Kevin Bresler
checkbook dot org. He has answers when it comes to
the consumer angles. And now we're going to get into
you call them the mini insurances. Yeah, the mini insurances.
And so there's not only a car insurance, airline trip insurance,
(23:27):
but there are automobile extended warranties and stuff like that
that they try to put.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
The warranties. Home warrantys is a big one.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Home warranties. Yeah, Oh my god. So I'm going to
go to the rental car first. I'm always I go
to the rental car online. Oh, look at this and
that c UV for thirty seven dollars a night, and
then you go, okay, I'll take it for four nights
(23:58):
total seven hundreds seventy dollars.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
I don't know after they add in taxes and their
usual jumble of fees.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
So how can we cut back on that? One is
to not yet the collision damage Waiver or CDW.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Right, So I guess to back up one step. If
you have a car, and you already have a personal
auto insurance policy, and if you're renting a car in
the US, then what the rental car companies are offering
you in terms of their protection plans or full coverage
or whatever. It's duplicating coverage you're already paying for with
(24:37):
your personal auto insurance company. And so the risks that
are associated with driving a car, that you may damage
the car, that you may hurt or kill someone, that
somebody in the car may get hurt, those risks you're
already ensuring against if you own a car, so long
as you're renting within the United States. If you leave
the United States, the whole different rules apply, but it's
kind of a different system most countries. It's just kind
(24:58):
of baked into the plan. But when you're running in
the US, the real risk you're assuming by saying no
to what the rental car companies are offering you is
that if something goes wrong, you're going to have to
file acclaim with your auto insurance company. You're going to
have to pay a deductible. It's possible your rates will
go up. And i'd say the other risk is that
if there's a little dent in the car, you know,
(25:22):
if it's on your own car, you may not care
so much about it, and therefore the cost to you
is zero. Right if it's the rental car company, Oh no,
they're definitely if they spot it, they're going to charge
you for it. Then they're going to charge you, maybe excessively.
But again you can still file acclaim with your insurance company.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Okay, but you're still on a hook a little more,
a little more, it was just your own is that
just for the deductible.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Maybe deductible the chances that your rates may go up.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
So is it true or not that if you have
the CDW, your insurance company never finds out about it.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Okay, In theory, if you are if you're in an
accident and you are cited as if you broke the
for example, aggressive driving, excessive speeding, distracted driving, that's still
going to go on your driving record is that you
were the one who caused the accident. So your rates
may go up because of that, especially if you're in
a state that has reciprocity. The problem is, insurance companies
(26:15):
these days get a lot of information about us, and
so yeah, they're probably going to find out it could
affect your rates. But you didn't file a claim, and
then nobody filed a claiming against you, And that's really
the important thing. I would say. The other thing about
when you buy we're not even considering what the rental
car companies are offering. Is that the CDW coverage basically
(26:36):
the collision damage waiver where if something goes wrong with
the car, the rental car company is going to deal
with it, they're not going to charge you. That's usually
thirty to thirty two dollars a day for most rental cars.
All the other stuff they add on, the liability coverage,
protection for your own belonging, stuff like that. Basically it
(26:56):
balloons the price per day to like fifty five to
sixty dollars a day for most rental cars. So that's
the equivalent if you just want to cover the car
of paying more than eleven thousand dollars a year for coverage,
if you multiply it out like you would with throw
an insurance policy, and if you want there what they
always call full coverage, it's more than twenty thousand dollars
(27:18):
to cover this car if you were you know you're
not going to rent it all year. But that's the
way you would compare the math that you wouldn't pay
that much to rent to ensure your own personal car.
There's no way nobody would sign up for that policy.
But that's essentially what they're offering you, And so do
you take some risks by declining their coverage. You do,
you might have to file acclaim with your insurance company,
might have to pay deductible, and you might get hits
(27:41):
with what's called loss of.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Use, so that if the car's busted, they they can't
make money.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
They say, well, we can't even if they don't repair it.
They say, well, it would have been in the shot
four days, and we're going to charge you two hundred
something dollars a day because that's like the most we
could ever rent the car for. That's not what they
ever rent it for, but that's what they try to
ard you for. There's a risk there, but you're still
paying a lot to ensure against the minimal risk. And
you know what I always remind people of is Okay,
(28:08):
yeah you're gonna be in a different area. Yeah you're
gonna be an unfamiliar car. But most of us when
we leave our driveways don't run into a bunch of
stuff and cause damage. You know, you want to be careful.
You definitely want to take pictures from all angles before
you leave that rental car place, because if there's damage,
you want to make sure that you've documented it before
you take it out. They make sure you know that way,
they have a time stamp photo. It's hard to do
(28:31):
that because a lot of times you're written cars and
you know, really dark airport garages. But just go ahead
and do what you can. And if you spot a
problem once you've driven out of the garage, like oh,
there's a crack in the windsheld I didn't notice, man,
turn around and take it back and point it out
to them. Because some of these places are ruthless about
enforcing these damage claims, and some of these companies, you know,
(28:54):
they're increasingly turning to AI as opposed to their own
workers to spot dam images and report them. And so
you've heard the workers don't care, well they met AI
icy goal. Yeah, they don't care. They're friendly, right and
they don't want to get well, they don't care or
you know, you know, you're they're trying. They're just human beings, right,
(29:15):
whereas AI doesn't care. So I heard I've heard that
that there are some rental car companies that are piloting
these programs where like you know, they do a scan
of the whole car and when the cars return, AI
determines whether there's damages and how they'll be built for it.
There's going to be backlash when they do this because
you know, like if there's a little scuff on the
tire or something, you know, who cares about that. It's
(29:36):
called wear and tear. But but yeah, take pictures?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
What about a video? Do you recommend a video? Don't care?
Speaker 3 (29:42):
I mean, I just think you want to make sure
that if there's any problem that you spot it and
either pointing out to them and make sure it's noted
or better yet, take a picture. The other thing I'll
say is I hear a lot of people say, oh,
I get protection through my credit cards, so I don't
need to worry about insurance. That's not true except in
case you do so. So, yeah, so your credit card.
A lot of credit cards, especially travel credit cards, the
(30:03):
ones issued by airlines and one with their travel points,
they do have baked in CDW coverage, which which would
cover the car damages to the car.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Right.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
But the problem is that coverage is it's secondary coverage,
and that means it's secondary to any other insurance you
have that might cover that insurance, like you're on it.
So if you don't have auto insurance. If you don't
have a car and therefore you don't have a personal
auto insurance policy, and the car is damaged, then yeah,
you can follow claim through your credit card company because
there's no other insurance policy to go to. But because
(30:34):
it's secondary, if you have your own car and you
damage the rental car, then your credit card company will say, well,
sure we'll we'll help you out, but first you have
to show us you file acclaim with your auto insurance company,
and therefore the credit card company is only going to
be They're only going to kick in to pay for
your deductibles. What I'm trying to say, You're still going
to have to follow claim with your auto insurance company.
So you know, it's nice to have that benefit, but
(30:55):
it's not going to save you that much.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Probably, Okay, real quick, you rent a lot of cars.
Any has on getting deals.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Yeah, I think if if you really want to buy
these policies, because either you don't have insurance or you
really don't want to take the risk of having a
file acclaim with your auto insurance company, go out and
buy your own standalone policy. Nowadays, when you rent through
a lot of major websites like price line owned websites,
airline websites where they rent cars. When they ask you
(31:22):
do you want to buy coverage? You'll notice it's a
lot cheaper than what the rental car companies offers because
they're offering to ensure you through some third party like
Alliance Travel or something. And I found it's like twelve
or thirteen dollars a day as opposed to fifty nine
dollars a day. It's a lot cheaper.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
So clarify that. How do you get to ali On?
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Well, you can look forward and one thing you can
do is just go buy your own standalone policy. You
don't have to deal with right the travelers.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
That ahead of time. You can go to those call
them up and say I rented a car.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
You go to the website. Yeah, just say this is
this is the dates of my rental and where I'm
going to be. There is an extra hoop you're going
to jump through, which is when you get your rental car,
you're going to have to tell it what the lights
plate number is and what the making model of the
car is. Not well, you're gonna know once you pick
it up. You have to activate that policy. So there's
an extra hoop there's we have time for one more
tip on this. Yeah, okay. So there's another benefit that
(32:12):
I think people should look out for. If you're an
American Express card holder, they have this program. You have
to opt into it, but once you've opted into the
rental car coverage program, anytime you rent a car using
your IMAX card, their coverage automatically kicks in and it's
primary coverage, so you don't have to file a claim
with your eerro and auto insurance company and they only
(32:34):
charge It's like for the full boat protection package. It's
twenty five dollars per rental. So if you're rent a
car for two weeks, you're paying twenty five dollars flat
to cover the car with primary insurance coverage for the
entire rental, which is a screaming deal. It maybe not
so for you if you're just renting the car for
one or two days, but if you're gonna have it
for a few weeks, it's definitely worth checking out. I
(32:55):
just think it's one of those great member benefits that
it offers. It's pretty unique. I don't know anything else
like it.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
After this will switch to travel out of uh, you
know where you need an airline ticket and we have
solid advice and not too much time. So you may
have noticed we're speaking more quickly now. Two things we've
had diet soda, and also we have a lot of
information to disseminate in a short amount of time. We'll
do that right after this on BZ.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on wb Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Trying to save you money, I'm trying to protect you.
We're here with Kevin Bressler from checkbook dot org and
they help you do just that. Now we're going to
talk airline ticket purchases and there's a lot to cover,
and we both talk about this all the time. Where
do we start first? Well, all right, let me ask you,
what is your procedure for getting good deals on airline flights?
(33:49):
How do you go to say, Google flights first and
then go to the you find a deal, and then
you go to the airline to get it.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
I guess the number one rule book always.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Booked direct, never booked from a third party, and that
that goes for hotels too. I got burned. I have
this quick story.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
I'd agree with that. I think for hotels the risk
is not as well. Yeah, okay, Well, with hotels, if
there's a problem, who do you go to for a refund?
Who do you go? You know, if it's a third party,
then they.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Have Here's a nice tale which will be short. Went
to Paris, booked hotel, a hotel, not Airbnb ahead of time,
got there, total total dump. You couldn't tell on the website,
but it was a dump. It was unstable, and we
said we want our money back. They said, sorry, you
(34:40):
booked it through X Y Z and so talk to them.
We talked to them, they said, sorry, Charlie, it's.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Just yeah, I agree, it's better to book direct.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Yeah. And then with the airlines of course even more
so because there are more things that can go wrong.
And you you if you booked it with their adviny,
you can't call the airline.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Well in the in the the bigger problem I've had
with booking these third party fares, and there's a bunch
of companies out there. When you're researching fares, they'll yeah,
so it's uh, you know, you'll see if you look
for fares on on Kayak and Google flights. A lot
of the lowest fares that are returned are from these consolidators,
these discount brokers where uh you know, airlines are letting
(35:24):
them kind of sell excess capacity. I've done this before,
and the trouble I ran into with it is that
I live in the Washington DC area. There's three airports,
and two of them are in Virginia at one's dullest ones,
one's National, and they're pretty convenient to me, and then
the other one is Baltimore, which is a long way
away from where I live and not as convenient. I
booked through one of these third parties and they switched
(35:45):
my origination airport to Baltimore. Uh, they switched our travel dates,
so I mean they kind of changed everything in our
ticket and there was nothing we could do about it.
Because basically the fair rules for those you know, low
discount fares is the airline can make a bunch of changes,
story tenerary, and there's nothing you can do about it.
So that's why I avoid them more than anything. And
(36:07):
then the second reason is, as you've said, if something
goes wrong, who you complain to? Who's got your money?
Speaker 2 (36:11):
I tend to go to Google flights and just see
what tends to be cheap and yeah, then go to
the actual airline and the price will not be the same,
but it is in the general.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
Here's my best tip. I am very much a huge
fan of Kayak over Google, and here's why. Kayak has
more filters that you can use. First of all, you
can tell Kayak only show me fares from the airline,
So I don't even want to see fares from these
third parties at all. I want to book directly with
an airline. That's one thing you can tell it, and
(36:44):
you can tell it that very easily, just say show
me only farris from airlines. The other thing you can
do is you can tell Kayak I don't want any
basic economy fairs and you won't see those either in
your search results. You kind of have to like redo
these filters each time you do it. You can also
tell Kayak, you know, I want to make sure my
layover for an international trip is at least an hour
and a half but not longer than four hours or whatever. Right,
there's lots of little tools you can use a hike.
(37:05):
Google Flights does have a lot of these filters, but
but not all, not as many as comcasts two minutes.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
One of those like forty five seconds Mark and Austin.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yeah, Hi, Bradley. Yes, it's.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Like after I guessed the quick.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Question before the news.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Is it true as I've heard that you can pay
for a hotel room with travelers checks.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
I don't know. Let's find out. I don't. I would think.
I don't know. It depends on the hotel.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
It depends on the hotel where you are. It used
to be that was the common way to pay for
stuff in Europe. I have I haven't. It was a
big check, such a pay I haven't seen the travelers
You have to.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Pay for them. They cost money, don't they.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
My dad used to use them because he was worried
about losing cash or whatever. I don't know, but I mean,
I assume they still exist.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
I don't know. I don't. I don't know how you
could check into a hotel these days, for sure in
the US without some without you know, giving them credit card.
That's the first thing they asked. Yeah, I would physical
for me.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
I'd go another way. So now we have one minute.
By airline insurance or not by trip insurance? Are not
not the true two three ago?
Speaker 3 (38:11):
The stuff the airlines are offering, you got to say no,
I don't want to protect my trip that stuff that
coverage is nearly worthless. We did talk for the show
about this that if you are on Medicare and you
are traveling abroad, you need to know that anything that
goes wrong with you medically is not going to be
covered by Medicare. It might be covered by a private
(38:32):
insurance policy or a Medicare advantage plan. But if you're
in Europe, if you're outside the US, Medicare on its
own parts A and B, they don't cover your form
medical expenses, and they don't cover the cost of evacuating
you back.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Home if you need to get right, which could be
one thousand dollars. So they are a third party insurance
companies that will sell you insurance. Look, come up, time's up.
Twenty seconds to thank Kevin Bressler and once again checkbook
dot org really cool unbiased ratings of local services. Thank
(39:07):
you so much for coming in. Fun two hours fun.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
It's great to see you again. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Now, next we're gonna take a look at the origins
of old sayings. Do you know any I do
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on WBS Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
We're talking consumer protection. We're talking getting the most fear
of money when it comes to being a consumer. And
our guest is Kevin Bressler from executive from checkbook dot Org.
He's the executive editor nonprofit consumer advocacy group and they
help you avoid trouble, save money, and they are unbiased,
(00:28):
they don't take money, unbiased rating of local services, it's
not just national. They do secret shopping and each market
like Boston, so you know you're getting a good local advice.
And you do things like even doctors and.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
You cover in you know lots of doctors, dentists, home
and improvement company, h insurance companies, H facts a big one.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
I mean you know more than you know two different topics, plumbers,
different types of store. If you need a new hearing aid,
we have ratings and hearing centers. You did mention that
we don't take money, and I think it's important to
say we don't have advertising on our website. We don't
take ads. We don't have ads, and we don't take
referral fees from businesses. We are here for consumers. We
(01:17):
are we were funded only by consumers. And by that
I mean all our advice is free. You can go
on a website read all you want, but if you
want to access to the local ratings, there is a paywall.
Because Light Consumer Reports. The only way we support ourselves
is through subscriptions to our information and donations.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
So once you subscribe, though you know.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
It's you get access to everything. But if you just
want to, you know, read up our advice on stuff,
that's all free. Everything I write is free hard copy
here online. There is a magazine, so you can actually
you can subscribe and we'll send you magazines and newsletters.
You won't be surprised to know that most people these
days opt out of that. But yeah, for now, we
still are printing magazines and newsletters.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
So we can open things up to other things that
should I get that car insurance for the rental? Should
I get that light insurance? And Kevin and I have
done this a lot, and we're going to get pretty nuanced.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
About your contractor. Thing that I did want to mention
that the other thing you did right. You got multiple bids,
But the other thing you did right is you made
sure that the contractor you are going to hire I
think you're sort of going to hire them that you're
not paying too much upfront. This is a big problem
consumers have is that, you know, the they pay for
the entire project upfront or before it's finished, and then
(02:30):
there are problems, and what's the incentive of the contractor
now has done, gotten all their money and they move on.
So so by withholding as much payment as you can
to the end of the work, you get to say, now, oh,
the job's done. And you say that by paying them
so for roofing work usually like if they wanted to
posit at all, ten percent, about as much as I
(02:50):
would pay.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
So because a regular contractor is half now half, then well.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
It just depends if they are if well, you know,
I think even half is a lot. Really, you know,
it's one thing to say no. It's one thing to
say they want a commitment for you to so that
they can you know, book you on their schedule. Right,
That's that's reasonable. It's another it's it's another thing to say, oh,
we're gonna supply you with custom cabinet. Try if you
decide to back out of this, they can't return that
(03:15):
somehow because it's custom or even custom blended paint. They
may say, look, you got to pay in advance for
the paint, because if you back out of this deal,
then I what I'm going to do all these gallons
of paint, right, But for a normal job like roofing work,
things like that. You know, roofers, they should a good
roofer will have good credit, just like you and I do.
They should be able to go out, and they do
go out and get shingles, and they get invoice at
the end of the month from the shable company. So
(03:37):
you definitely just don't want to pay too much.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I would.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
I would never pay a company more than half upfront
for work. And if you can avoid even paying that upfront,
it's for the best because again now you have well,
it depends on the job, right, I mean, I would
think that you know, if they're supplying custom stuff, I
think it's reasonable for them to say when that custom
stuff comes in and they can't cancel the order anymore,
(04:02):
if you decide against it, then you should pay for it.
And usually with big contracting jobs, you pay as you go.
You pay a little bit upfront to secure their place,
your placing their schedule. You pay another you know when
they've done a certain amount of work, but your pain
as the job progresses and you're happy. That's the important thing.
You don't pay until you're happy.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Our old job is less than your paining way less
than your painting job.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Yeah, well yeah, yours. Someone is a small job. So
it's not so bad. You're not risking that much by
paying half up front.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
But half is a lot, okay, Gene and Everett, thanks
for joining us on w b Z.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Hi Hi Bradley, Hi, Kevin yees. So I'm calling about
my sister had a problem she had in reveal. She
had a brand new sidewalk put in by the city.
The city had a brand new sidewalk put in for
her and a couple of other neighbors, but her sidewalk
(04:57):
cracked within one season. Is all cracked in one area,
And she contacted the city, the mayor's office, and they said,
we can't help you. And this was a big contractor
who did this, who does all sidewalks in the whole
area most of the time. And then she contacted the
(05:19):
city engineer and they said, well, if we patch it,
it won't look ecstatically nice. And she's like, well, it
doesn't look ecstatically nice at all now and it's all
cracked and it shouldn't be and the tax days all
paid for it. Right, what do you do? How do
you get this resolved? They're not doing anything at all,
and the sidewalks all cracked near her wall and it's
(05:42):
affecting the you know the strength of her brick wall.
And the AsSalt man comes by in the winter and
salt they put salt on the sidewalks and it's going
to deteriorate her bricks.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, she should probably talk to a consumer attorney to
see what if they can do anything for it. They're
probably maybe I don't know right, I'm not there, But
if the city owns the sidewalker, if there's some easement there,
they may not have to do much to fix this, except,
you know, to do the right thing that it looks bad.
It may be worth also, you know, her contacting the
contractor and saying, hey, you know, can you fix this? Right,
(06:16):
I mean it doesn't look good.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Well, it's up to the city to do it. They hired.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
There'reparently not going to though, was it Is it dangerous?
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Well, yeah, it's dangerous to her property because it's going
to deteriorate her wall that's right beside the sidewalk. Water's
getting in there.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
I don't know that's going to be a stretch. I mean,
if it was something where there was a risk of
people falling down and breaking their leg, that'd be well.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
The kids come out of school and they pick up
the cement that's breaking and fling it a cauz and
swing it all over the place. That's kind of a risk.
Great there. Yeah, I think it's a toy.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
That's not the city's fault. I think is a home
cost to do some mitigation on her own? Like can
she is there something and she can patch so something
won't leak.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
I'm gonna say, see, if a big contract made a
lot of money by doing ten houses, why should anyone
go and try to patch up something that they did.
They're responsible. You'll take the responsibility away from them once
you start doing something to it. Now it's not the
problem anymore.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
At some point you have to get real is it
going to happen? And do you want to have your
home get damaged or you want to pay a few
bucks and stave the big repair ability your home?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
And I just don't know that, you know, I'm into
consumer uh business relationship is not and I don't know
how it works with them. I mean, I'm sure there's
a performance you know, the contract that contractor signed with
the city has a performance gearing, you know, a standard
in there and a warranty and they're responsible.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
How would you feel if that was in front of
your house and they made a big mess.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I would both.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
I would be annoyed too, and I just don't I
don't have I guess what I'm saying is I don't
know the answer here because it's not my you know,
that's okay.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
No, it's okay that you don't. But I'll leave it
at that. I don't want you in it pick it
because you really don't know alone. But I just wanted
to ask. But I think we can drop it because
I think we'll drop it because I don't think you
really know. It's okay. I don't want to go on
with it because I don't want you to say anything
(08:21):
that's gonna hurt her trying to get what she needs
to done.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Thank you, thank you very much. If it was if
it were me and the city hired somebody that did
it well the contract job, then you try to get
the city to take the guy and come.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Back and contract the contractor signed with the city or
whatever that's going to be public records at least look
through there and is there some kind of performance guarantee
that the concrete that they laid is going to last
more than a year or something. I don't know, I
know if it's a consumer, if you're a homeowner. It's
another thing to look for in contracts you sign, is
you know what's the warranty and who who's carrying the warranty? Right,
(08:56):
if you're getting a new furnace installed, well it should
say what the manufacturer's warranty is for that furnace and
also separately what the installer's warranty is for labor because
the furnace, if something goes wrong with the furnace usually
within six to ten years depending on what you're buying
the parts, in terms of replacing those parts is covered
by the manufacturer's warranty, but the labor to put them
(09:17):
in is covered by the installer's warranty. And usually to
install furnace usually only get a year or two warranty there.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
So here's a quick one, very very important and this
has to do with payment method and like Venmo PayPal,
credit card, How do you know what you're not to use.
There's one payment method that you should always use when
you can.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
If you can. When I said before, the other's no
one that's going to come in and swoop in and
save you. But I would really think that like the
strongest consumer tool we have in terms of dealing with
trouble is paying with a credit card. For consumer advocate
to say that because credit card companies over you know,
(09:58):
our history have been predatory and continue to be predatory
in terms of getting people to sign up, getting them
to overspend. But the unique thing about using a credit
card to pay for something is is that you automatically
get protection from something called the Federal Fair Credit Billing Act.
And what that law says essentially is if you're paying
(10:19):
for something via credit card, that if fraud occurs on
your credit card, if somebody charges a bunch of stuff
to your credit card, that it's not you. You're not responsible
for those charges. If you order something or buy something
and it doesn't arrive, you're not responsible for pain for
that purchase. If and this is probably most important when
(10:42):
it comes to local services, if you pay somebody to
do something and you're unhappy and you tried to work
it out with that person, but they wouldn't budge. And
you can pretty easily prove I'm not happy that they
didn't do what was agreed. You can dispute that charge
with your credit card company, and nine times out of
ten they're going to side on behalf of you, the
card holder, and they do what's called a charge back.
(11:05):
So essentially, you say, look, you know I had this
work done, I'm not happy with it my car, I
took it in to get repaired. The thing, whatever was wrong,
it's still wrong with it. They're like, too bad, we're
not going to fix it again. You call your credit
card company and protest the charge, and nine times out
of ten they'll side on your behalf, not the business.
You'll least get your money back. The headache won't go away,
(11:26):
but at least you can get your money back.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
And I've heard this, tell me if it's true. If
you tell them I am going to dispute this, they
don't want that goes on their record. The more disputes
they get, the worse it is for them, and they
don't want that dispute, so they may be they may go,
oh okay, they'll fix it. If you say I'm going
to dispute this with my credit.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Card, yeah, they're more likely, you know, not everyone, but
sometimes they're more likely to go ahead and make it right.
Because when you ask for a charge back, that business
doesn't just lose the money. It basically gets pulled out
of their accounting back into yours, essentially the way it
works on these chargebacks, So they not only lose that sale,
but also they get hit with a chargeback fee, and
(12:07):
chargeback fees range from like seventy five dollars to one
hundred and fifty dollars, So in addition to losing that
money the sale, they have to pay the fee. And
if they get too many chargebacks, their credit card company
could drop them and then now they have to shop
around for another one.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yeah, and I never use a debit card for anything
because when the money's gone, it's gone. Am I correct?
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Well, that's the problem. So if you use a debit
card to pay for something and the transaction goes through
Visa and MasterCard system, you still can dispute charges. The
problem is the credit card banks. The debit card banks
basically are less likely to side on your behalf and
the bigger problem is the risks are different. See with
(12:45):
a credit card purchase, you go to your credit card
company and say, you know what, this happened. I don't
want to be responsible for this charge, and they freeze
that amount on your credit card. You don't have to
pay that back while they.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Have had the money has not It hasn't gone.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Even if it had, even if you've paid the bill,
they have to freeze a certain amount on your credit
card right for the future. Whereas with a debit card,
the risk is different because the money's gone and now
it's up to the goodwill of the bank to help
you out. And some banks are not very goodwilly whatever
the word is. But credit card banks in general are
pretty they again I said, nine times out of ten
(13:19):
they side and we have to consumers. Some are better
than others. Uh, you know, I know we're not supposed
tonic a brands here, but American Express has a great
reputation for helping its card holders out when they have
these sorts of troubles. Some credit card companies, if it's
a small charge, they'll say, you know what, as a
you know, they won't even investigate it as a matter
of goodwill. We're just going to go ahead and give
(13:40):
you that much money because I want to deal with it.
That happens a lot too, but usually when they do investigate,
they saw them and if it's fraud, they have to
deal with it by law. It's not even a decision
tree process. If a bunch of charges occur on your
credit card, you didn't make them, please contact a credit
card company because what they have to do is remove
those charges and probably will issue a different credit card
hard a number because that frauds occurred. Somebody has stolen
(14:02):
your number.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Okay, after the break, there are a couple other payment
methods which are problematic and will at least well, yeah,
they're problematic, and we'll share those with you in a
moment on WBZ.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's news radio
Consumer Questions.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
You want to get all the amo you can to
protect yourself. Well, that's what we're doing here with Kevin
Bresler of checkbook dot org and oh, we were talking
about payment methods and which is the safest, Which are
the safest. We talked about credit card being the safest,
debit card less. So, but if you make a mistake
with a couple of others. It's even worse like and
(14:44):
this is Venmo. This is a payment method, So I
it's a fair game to talk about because it has
inherent problems and to not address this would be we'd
be remiss. I guess if you send if you had
to send Venmo money via Venmo that is the wrong person,
you can't get it unless they want to give it back.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
They call them peer to peer payment systems. It's not
just Venmo, there's a dozen other companies where you know
you're you're essentially whatever paying through your phone. You're you're
sending it to a payment to a phone number directly.
One problem is if you send money to the wrong person,
if you punch them the wrong phone number and send
to the wrong person, it's up to the person who
got the money, it's up to their goodwill to send
(15:25):
it back to you. But the bigger problem with these
these payment systems is that criminals absolutely love them because
once they've gotten your money, it's impossible to get it back. Basically,
they can just grab it and then send it somewhere else,
and even the even the payment apps at that point
can't get it for you.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
And so if someone is kind of scamming to begin with,
and they add that layer of payment method on, then
there's no way you're gonna be able to un.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Here's the thing about these payment systems. They were set
up to do things like Bradley, you and I go
for dinner, to split the check, right for me to
send you what I owe you for dinner.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Right.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
They were set up to, you know, gift money to someone.
They were set up maybe to you know, deal with
a small gambling transaction, a little bet you made with
the friends, stuff like that. They were not set up
to buy products and services. And you have no protections
under these things. If you send it to someone, just
assume it's gone. Some of these companies, they do have
(16:27):
dispute resolution, now you know a few finally kind of
one is one big company out there, Zell's kind of
like finally caved and has dispute resolution. But you can
assume they're going to make things right when things go wrong.
There are with some of them, Like I think PayPal
is a good example where when you buy stuff on PayPal,
(16:47):
it might it will tell you the site will tell
you whether or not you qualify, whether that purchase qualifies
for their purchase protection elements to where if you have
a problem you can go back to PayPal and maybe
get your money back. Just you have to be very
careful using these things. It's why scammers it's their preferred method, right,
denmo me, cash at me, all these different apps that
are for Is.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
It safe to say that if they're asking for payment
by a venmo that I don't ast a little doubt on.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
That, don't do it. I really would say that if
you don't know that seller, that service, whoever it is
selling you that thing, just don't do it. Unless you
have that product in your hand and you've had a
chance to check out its quality and make sure it's
not some counterfeit or whatever, then yeah, I wouldn't use
those at all to pay for goods or services.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
All right. In a related thing, I have really adopted
the use of Apple Pay. And the reason I like
it is because I'm not going to lose the card.
I could walk. It's a lot more likely i'd lose
my card than my phone, and my phone locks up
after a short period of time, and there's another layer
of numbers on the receipt. It doesn't actually have even
(17:53):
the less for the credit card number, it has some
other weird numbers that are completely unrelated. And am I
correct assume that it's the same way to pay.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
I think it's a it's likely a safer technology than
credit card numbers. It's on your phone. It's unlikely that
somebody steals your phone. They're gonna be able to crack
into it right to access that payment method. It's got
you know, ending encryption. These are all important things. Just know,
if your Apple pay is connected to a debit card,
(18:23):
then those rules for disputing a transaction are going to apply.
If it's connected to a credit card number, then different goals.
I have stronger credit, stronger yeah, so you know, just
know that that whatever payment method it's connected to, those
are going to be your rights when things go wrong.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
So I don't like taking out my credit card with
me when I go out. If I lose my wallet, Yeah,
I don't lose my credit card and I don't have
to get a new number.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Correct, Well, it depends. If there's been fraudulent charges on
your physical credit card, right then then they're probably gonna
issue a different card number. The nice thing is this
is just if I lose the card, not with froudel
lose the card, you definitely want to report it to
the company so that they can cancel that number.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
The nice thing need to cancel the number.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
If the nice thing with apple Pay is the last
time I lost my card or there were fraudulent charges
on it, I've had both happened to me recently, uh
Apple Pay somehow since my new card number, like that,
that information for the new car was communicated Apple Pay
and I didn't have to change anything up on my phone.
That was kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I'm not sure you want to listener my question. If
I lose my UH card, I'm I need to get
a new card. But if I if I don't take
the card out with me and lose my wallet.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Oh, then you haven't lost her.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I haven't lost my card, which is why I like
Apple Pay because it just seems easier. But lost like
inserting the card or tapping the cards, you lost your wallet, you.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Still lost your driver's license, which is the next thing
that I'm actually looking forward to is that that states
are finally going to start issuing virtual driver's license. Oh wow,
to have this physical thing anymore. And I'll tell you
why I'm really excited because in July I went out
to Oregon, UH for a little trip, and somewhere between
security at the airport and UH my gate, I lost
(20:09):
my driver's license. And I can't tell you what a
pain it was to run a car without a driver's license.
And none of them will let me do it, except
one company will let me do it.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Have you ever lost your passport?
Speaker 3 (20:20):
I have not yet, and I'm really paranoid about it.
And you should be so paranoid. What happens if you
lose it while you're you're in Europe or whatever, how
very bad? You got to go to the consulate or
the I always.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Taking a copy, like you do?
Speaker 3 (20:31):
You do that well? I used to have like a
backup driver's license, Like I'm.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Talking about a passport copy?
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Oh? Like take a oh like I have a picture
of it on my phone.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I think either way, you still got to go the embassy.
They're not gonna let you get on a plane.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
It's a little story. Of these two little stories. One's
very short. I found somebody's passport on the ground in
the airport and took it to an official. But check
this out. I'm I'm out set to go on some
big trip. I'm sitting in my seat at the airport.
I feel good, I'm all organized. A woman across the
(21:05):
aisle says, and something under your chair is that important?
And it was my passport. If that woman didn't have
said anything, I would. And another thing, Remember, folks, if
you go on a trip, chances are you need to
have six months remaining on your passport from the date
(21:25):
of your return. If you don't, they won't let you go.
I saw that happening to a guy that came from
Mexico and was going some fire away place and they said, sorry, dude,
you can't get on the plane. Then go back to Mexico.
Too bad.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
So what they look at is if your passport has
to be good to an equal or more amount of
time than the tourist visa is for you're visiting. So
if you're going to I don't know, the EU, your
tourist visa from the US is like, I don't know,
I'm making this up three or four months, your passport
has to be good for that long, even though your
(21:59):
return maybe five days later. Basically they're saying, as well,
you could decide to extend your stay, and so your
passport has to be good for that long. And in
some cases, it's just a blanket like six months. So
you think, ah, I'm good, my passport's good for a
long time, and then you they won't let you on
the plane here, right, And so I've had having to
a few of my friends where they showed up and
they're like, hey, your passport's not good for long enough.
(22:20):
And they're like, what do we do? And they're like, well,
we're going to rebook you tomorrow. And then first thing
in the morning, you're gonna go to the embassy and
you're gonna do this. Are the state Department, You're gonna
do this, and you're gonna do that, and this is
the emergency thing. And it costs them hundreds or even
thousands of dollars to make this change you easy.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Okay, it's time. Yeah, let's do this. We're gonna we're
gonna start doving into airline ticket purchasing and insurance and
rental car renting and insurance and myths about that. After
this on WBZ, you're.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
On the Night Side on WBZ Boston's news radio Consumer Issues.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
You've come to the right place, WBZ. This is Nightside
with Dan Ray Bradley j for Dan with Kevin Bresler
checkbook dot org. He has answers when it comes to
the consumer angles. And now we're going to get into
you call them the mini insurances. Yeah, the mini insurances.
And so there's not only a car insurance, airline trip insurance,
(23:27):
but there are automobile extended warranties and stuff like that
that they try to put.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
The warranties. Home warrantys is a big one.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Home warranties. Yeah, Oh my god. So I'm going to
go to the rental car first. I'm always I go
to the rental car online. Oh, look at this and
that c UV for thirty seven dollars a night, and
then you go, okay, I'll take it for four nights
(23:58):
total seven hundreds seventy dollars.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
I don't know after they add in taxes and their
usual jumble of fees.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
So how can we cut back on that? One is
to not yet the collision damage Waiver or CDW.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Right, So I guess to back up one step. If
you have a car, and you already have a personal
auto insurance policy, and if you're renting a car in
the US, then what the rental car companies are offering
you in terms of their protection plans or full coverage
or whatever. It's duplicating coverage you're already paying for with
(24:37):
your personal auto insurance company. And so the risks that
are associated with driving a car, that you may damage
the car, that you may hurt or kill someone, that
somebody in the car may get hurt, those risks you're
already ensuring against if you own a car, so long
as you're renting within the United States. If you leave
the United States, the whole different rules apply, but it's
kind of a different system most countries. It's just kind
(24:58):
of baked into the plan. But when you're running in
the US, the real risk you're assuming by saying no
to what the rental car companies are offering you is
that if something goes wrong, you're going to have to
file acclaim with your auto insurance company. You're going to
have to pay a deductible. It's possible your rates will
go up. And i'd say the other risk is that
if there's a little dent in the car, you know,
(25:22):
if it's on your own car, you may not care
so much about it, and therefore the cost to you
is zero. Right if it's the rental car company, Oh no,
they're definitely if they spot it, they're going to charge
you for it. Then they're going to charge you, maybe excessively.
But again you can still file acclaim with your insurance company.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Okay, but you're still on a hook a little more,
a little more, it was just your own is that
just for the deductible.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Maybe deductible the chances that your rates may go up.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
So is it true or not that if you have
the CDW, your insurance company never finds out about it.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Okay, In theory, if you are if you're in an
accident and you are cited as if you broke the
for example, aggressive driving, excessive speeding, distracted driving, that's still
going to go on your driving record is that you
were the one who caused the accident. So your rates
may go up because of that, especially if you're in
a state that has reciprocity. The problem is, insurance companies
(26:15):
these days get a lot of information about us, and
so yeah, they're probably going to find out it could
affect your rates. But you didn't file a claim, and
then nobody filed a claiming against you, And that's really
the important thing. I would say. The other thing about
when you buy we're not even considering what the rental
car companies are offering. Is that the CDW coverage basically
(26:36):
the collision damage waiver where if something goes wrong with
the car, the rental car company is going to deal
with it, they're not going to charge you. That's usually
thirty to thirty two dollars a day for most rental cars.
All the other stuff they add on, the liability coverage,
protection for your own belonging, stuff like that. Basically it
(26:56):
balloons the price per day to like fifty five to
sixty dollars a day for most rental cars. So that's
the equivalent if you just want to cover the car
of paying more than eleven thousand dollars a year for coverage,
if you multiply it out like you would with throw
an insurance policy, and if you want there what they
always call full coverage, it's more than twenty thousand dollars
(27:18):
to cover this car if you were you know you're
not going to rent it all year. But that's the
way you would compare the math that you wouldn't pay
that much to rent to ensure your own personal car.
There's no way nobody would sign up for that policy.
But that's essentially what they're offering you, And so do
you take some risks by declining their coverage. You do,
you might have to file acclaim with your insurance company,
might have to pay deductible, and you might get hits
(27:41):
with what's called loss of.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Use, so that if the car's busted, they they can't
make money.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
They say, well, we can't even if they don't repair it.
They say, well, it would have been in the shot
four days, and we're going to charge you two hundred
something dollars a day because that's like the most we
could ever rent the car for. That's not what they
ever rent it for, but that's what they try to
ard you for. There's a risk there, but you're still
paying a lot to ensure against the minimal risk. And
you know what I always remind people of is Okay,
(28:08):
yeah you're gonna be in a different area. Yeah you're
gonna be an unfamiliar car. But most of us when
we leave our driveways don't run into a bunch of
stuff and cause damage. You know, you want to be careful.
You definitely want to take pictures from all angles before
you leave that rental car place, because if there's damage,
you want to make sure that you've documented it before
you take it out. They make sure you know that way,
they have a time stamp photo. It's hard to do
(28:31):
that because a lot of times you're written cars and
you know, really dark airport garages. But just go ahead
and do what you can. And if you spot a
problem once you've driven out of the garage, like oh,
there's a crack in the windsheld I didn't notice, man,
turn around and take it back and point it out
to them. Because some of these places are ruthless about
enforcing these damage claims, and some of these companies, you know,
(28:54):
they're increasingly turning to AI as opposed to their own
workers to spot dam images and report them. And so
you've heard the workers don't care, well they met AI
icy goal. Yeah, they don't care. They're friendly, right and
they don't want to get well, they don't care or
you know, you know, you're they're trying. They're just human beings, right,
(29:15):
whereas AI doesn't care. So I heard I've heard that
that there are some rental car companies that are piloting
these programs where like you know, they do a scan
of the whole car and when the cars return, AI
determines whether there's damages and how they'll be built for it.
There's going to be backlash when they do this because
you know, like if there's a little scuff on the
tire or something, you know, who cares about that. It's
(29:36):
called wear and tear. But but yeah, take pictures?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
What about a video? Do you recommend a video? Don't care?
Speaker 3 (29:42):
I mean, I just think you want to make sure
that if there's any problem that you spot it and
either pointing out to them and make sure it's noted
or better yet, take a picture. The other thing I'll
say is I hear a lot of people say, oh,
I get protection through my credit cards, so I don't
need to worry about insurance. That's not true except in
case you do so. So, yeah, so your credit card.
A lot of credit cards, especially travel credit cards, the
(30:03):
ones issued by airlines and one with their travel points,
they do have baked in CDW coverage, which which would
cover the car damages to the car.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Right.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
But the problem is that coverage is it's secondary coverage,
and that means it's secondary to any other insurance you
have that might cover that insurance, like you're on it.
So if you don't have auto insurance. If you don't
have a car and therefore you don't have a personal
auto insurance policy, and the car is damaged, then yeah,
you can follow claim through your credit card company because
there's no other insurance policy to go to. But because
(30:34):
it's secondary, if you have your own car and you
damage the rental car, then your credit card company will say, well,
sure we'll we'll help you out, but first you have
to show us you file acclaim with your auto insurance company,
and therefore the credit card company is only going to
be They're only going to kick in to pay for
your deductibles. What I'm trying to say, You're still going
to have to follow claim with your auto insurance company.
So you know, it's nice to have that benefit, but
(30:55):
it's not going to save you that much.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Probably, Okay, real quick, you rent a lot of cars.
Any has on getting deals.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
Yeah, I think if if you really want to buy
these policies, because either you don't have insurance or you
really don't want to take the risk of having a
file acclaim with your auto insurance company, go out and
buy your own standalone policy. Nowadays, when you rent through
a lot of major websites like price line owned websites,
airline websites where they rent cars. When they ask you
(31:22):
do you want to buy coverage? You'll notice it's a
lot cheaper than what the rental car companies offers because
they're offering to ensure you through some third party like
Alliance Travel or something. And I found it's like twelve
or thirteen dollars a day as opposed to fifty nine
dollars a day. It's a lot cheaper.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
So clarify that. How do you get to ali On?
Speaker 3 (31:40):
Well, you can look forward and one thing you can
do is just go buy your own standalone policy. You
don't have to deal with right the travelers.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
That ahead of time. You can go to those call
them up and say I rented a car.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
You go to the website. Yeah, just say this is
this is the dates of my rental and where I'm
going to be. There is an extra hoop you're going
to jump through, which is when you get your rental car,
you're going to have to tell it what the lights
plate number is and what the making model of the
car is. Not well, you're gonna know once you pick
it up. You have to activate that policy. So there's
an extra hoop there's we have time for one more
tip on this. Yeah, okay. So there's another benefit that
(32:12):
I think people should look out for. If you're an
American Express card holder, they have this program. You have
to opt into it, but once you've opted into the
rental car coverage program, anytime you rent a car using
your IMAX card, their coverage automatically kicks in and it's
primary coverage, so you don't have to file a claim
with your eerro and auto insurance company and they only
(32:34):
charge It's like for the full boat protection package. It's
twenty five dollars per rental. So if you're rent a
car for two weeks, you're paying twenty five dollars flat
to cover the car with primary insurance coverage for the
entire rental, which is a screaming deal. It maybe not
so for you if you're just renting the car for
one or two days, but if you're gonna have it
for a few weeks, it's definitely worth checking out. I
(32:55):
just think it's one of those great member benefits that
it offers. It's pretty unique. I don't know anything else
like it.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
After this will switch to travel out of uh, you
know where you need an airline ticket and we have
solid advice and not too much time. So you may
have noticed we're speaking more quickly now. Two things we've
had diet soda, and also we have a lot of
information to disseminate in a short amount of time. We'll
do that right after this on BZ.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray on wb Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Trying to save you money, I'm trying to protect you.
We're here with Kevin Bressler from checkbook dot org and
they help you do just that. Now we're going to
talk airline ticket purchases and there's a lot to cover,
and we both talk about this all the time. Where
do we start first? Well, all right, let me ask you,
what is your procedure for getting good deals on airline flights?
(33:49):
How do you go to say, Google flights first and
then go to the you find a deal, and then
you go to the airline to get it.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
I guess the number one rule book always.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
Booked direct, never booked from a third party, and that
that goes for hotels too. I got burned. I have
this quick story.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
I'd agree with that. I think for hotels the risk
is not as well. Yeah, okay, Well, with hotels, if
there's a problem, who do you go to for a refund?
Who do you go? You know, if it's a third party,
then they.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Have Here's a nice tale which will be short. Went
to Paris, booked hotel, a hotel, not Airbnb ahead of time,
got there, total total dump. You couldn't tell on the website,
but it was a dump. It was unstable, and we
said we want our money back. They said, sorry, you
(34:40):
booked it through X Y Z and so talk to them.
We talked to them, they said, sorry, Charlie, it's.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Just yeah, I agree, it's better to book direct.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Yeah. And then with the airlines of course even more
so because there are more things that can go wrong.
And you you if you booked it with their adviny,
you can't call the airline.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Well in the in the the bigger problem I've had
with booking these third party fares, and there's a bunch
of companies out there. When you're researching fares, they'll yeah,
so it's uh, you know, you'll see if you look
for fares on on Kayak and Google flights. A lot
of the lowest fares that are returned are from these consolidators,
these discount brokers where uh you know, airlines are letting
(35:24):
them kind of sell excess capacity. I've done this before,
and the trouble I ran into with it is that
I live in the Washington DC area. There's three airports,
and two of them are in Virginia at one's dullest ones,
one's National, and they're pretty convenient to me, and then
the other one is Baltimore, which is a long way
away from where I live and not as convenient. I
booked through one of these third parties and they switched
(35:45):
my origination airport to Baltimore. Uh, they switched our travel dates,
so I mean they kind of changed everything in our
ticket and there was nothing we could do about it.
Because basically the fair rules for those you know, low
discount fares is the airline can make a bunch of changes,
story tenerary, and there's nothing you can do about it.
So that's why I avoid them more than anything. And
(36:07):
then the second reason is, as you've said, if something
goes wrong, who you complain to? Who's got your money?
Speaker 2 (36:11):
I tend to go to Google flights and just see
what tends to be cheap and yeah, then go to
the actual airline and the price will not be the same,
but it is in the general.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
Here's my best tip. I am very much a huge
fan of Kayak over Google, and here's why. Kayak has
more filters that you can use. First of all, you
can tell Kayak only show me fares from the airline,
So I don't even want to see fares from these
third parties at all. I want to book directly with
an airline. That's one thing you can tell it, and
(36:44):
you can tell it that very easily, just say show
me only farris from airlines. The other thing you can
do is you can tell Kayak I don't want any
basic economy fairs and you won't see those either in
your search results. You kind of have to like redo
these filters each time you do it. You can also
tell Kayak, you know, I want to make sure my
layover for an international trip is at least an hour
and a half but not longer than four hours or whatever. Right,
there's lots of little tools you can use a hike.
(37:05):
Google Flights does have a lot of these filters, but
but not all, not as many as comcasts two minutes.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
One of those like forty five seconds Mark and Austin.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yeah, Hi, Bradley. Yes, it's.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Like after I guessed the quick.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Question before the news.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Is it true as I've heard that you can pay
for a hotel room with travelers checks.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
I don't know. Let's find out. I don't. I would think.
I don't know. It depends on the hotel.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
It depends on the hotel where you are. It used
to be that was the common way to pay for
stuff in Europe. I have I haven't. It was a
big check, such a pay I haven't seen the travelers
You have to.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Pay for them. They cost money, don't they.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
My dad used to use them because he was worried
about losing cash or whatever. I don't know, but I mean,
I assume they still exist.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
I don't know. I don't. I don't know how you
could check into a hotel these days, for sure in
the US without some without you know, giving them credit card.
That's the first thing they asked. Yeah, I would physical
for me.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
I'd go another way. So now we have one minute.
By airline insurance or not by trip insurance? Are not
not the true two three ago?
Speaker 3 (38:11):
The stuff the airlines are offering, you got to say no,
I don't want to protect my trip that stuff that
coverage is nearly worthless. We did talk for the show
about this that if you are on Medicare and you
are traveling abroad, you need to know that anything that
goes wrong with you medically is not going to be
covered by Medicare. It might be covered by a private
(38:32):
insurance policy or a Medicare advantage plan. But if you're
in Europe, if you're outside the US, Medicare on its
own parts A and B, they don't cover your form
medical expenses, and they don't cover the cost of evacuating
you back.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Home if you need to get right, which could be
one thousand dollars. So they are a third party insurance
companies that will sell you insurance. Look, come up, time's up.
Twenty seconds to thank Kevin Bressler and once again checkbook
dot org really cool unbiased ratings of local services. Thank
(39:07):
you so much for coming in. Fun two hours fun.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
It's great to see you again. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Now, next we're gonna take a look at the origins
of old sayings. Do you know any I do
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