30 Days of Gotchas Archives — bobsullivan.net

Gift cards cards are safer, but not safe, and rebate cards are tricky — 30 Days of Gotchas

February 21, 2018 Bob Sullivan 0

(NOTE: This is a free excerpt from my new book: Gotcha Capitalism, 10 years later. A lot has happened in the world of credit cards since 2008. It’s fun to look back….) Gift cards could be pretty diabolical when they burst onto the scene in the late 1990s. Junk fees [Keep reading]

Credit cards: 10 years later, the Gotchas aren’t gone, but they’re on the run: 30 Days of Gotchas

February 12, 2018 Bob Sullivan 0

(NOTE: This is a free excerpt from my new book: Gotcha Capitalism, 10 years later. A lot has happened in the world of credit cards since 2008. It’s fun to look back….) When I began writing Gotcha Capitalism sometime in 2006, there was only one choice for Chapter One: credit [Keep reading]

Quick: What was your cell phone bill in 2008? A lot less, but you got less — 30 Days of Gotchas

February 1, 2018 Bob Sullivan 2

(NOTE: This is a free excerpt from my new book: Gotcha Capitalism, 10 years later. A lot has happened in the world of cell phones since 2008. It’s fun to look back….) Remember when you tried really hard not to use your mobile phone until nights and weekends? [Keep reading]

Consumers average 150 passwords; when your credit card expires, you need to remember ALL of them — 30 Days of Gotchas

January 30, 2018 Bob Sullivan 0

I recently had to undertake one of the most arduous, perilous tasks consumers face — updating all my credit card automatic payments. My card had expired of natural causes — rare in the age of account hacking — so off I went, chasing after every card-paying account I have. These [Keep reading]

Ten years later, the Gotchas are back — and so is my book, with all-new advice for 2018

January 25, 2018 Bob Sullivan 7

ORDER THE NEW EDITION OF GOTCHA CAPITALISM NOW! It’s the 10th Anniversary of Gotcha Capitalism, and what a wild ride it’s been. In honor of the occasion, I have re-written the book and it’s now available for sale. A lot has happened in 10 years — well, a lot has [Keep reading]

Why are you still overpaying for pay TV? Ten years later, cord-cutting is still a crawl (30 Days of Gotchas)

January 24, 2018 Bob Sullivan 7

(This excerpt is from the new edition of my book Gotcha Capitalism, out this month. Buy it here at Amazon as a $4.95 e-book or a $14.95 “book’ book. Learn more at GotchaCapitalism.net) Ah, competition. It’s a beautiful thing. But it works in mysterious ways. Cable TV has had an [Keep reading]

‘Take me to the hospital” — How Uber drivers feel when they get an ambulance run, 30 Days of Gotchas

January 22, 2018 Bob Sullivan 1

“Can you take me to the emergency room, I’m experiencing shortness of breath.” The passenger feared he might be having a heart attack. It might have been a false alarm. Either way, he wanted to get to the hospital fast. So, he summoned an Uber. (This story is part of [Keep reading]

How is your Internet access compared to 10 years ago? 30 Days of Gotchas

January 18, 2018 Bob Sullivan 1

“Damned if you do, dial-up if you don’t.” That was the quote at the beginning of the Gotcha Capitalism Internet chapter in 2008. Ha! Below is an excerpt from the Internet fees chapter of the new edition of Gotcha, published this week. How does your Internet access — and your [Keep reading]

When you have insurance, but you can’t find a doctor: 30 days of Gotchas.

January 16, 2018 Bob Sullivan 3

I wasn’t going to start this until next week, but this story is so important I’m jumping the gun. Today I begin 30 days of Gotchas, to show just how widespread and menacing this problem is. The series corresponds to the launch of the new edition of my book Gotcha [Keep reading]