Cheerios, Betty Crocker and Pillsbury might sound like the most American of American brands, but it sure sounds like Betty and friends hate America. Perhaps you spotted a New York Times story today about consumers giving away their right to sue Big Brand companies if they do something as simple [Keep reading]
Smart phone theft is exploding nationally, but carriers this week promised to deploy a simple new technology that could soon render stolen phones useless. Consumer Reports said Thursday 3.1 million consumers had their smartphones lifted during 2013, double the number of victims in 2012, according to its annual State of [Keep reading]
If you are paying more than 20 percent of your income in federal taxes, you are doing it wrong. That’s roughly what the Obamas pay every year — hey, at least it’s more than Mitt Romney. As you should know by now, Obama pays a lower real tax rate than [Keep reading]
Americans would gain free access to their credit scores and new rights to challenge errors that keep scores low under a bill introduced in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday. The “Stop Errors in Credit Use and Reporting (SECURE) Act” is sponsored by Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). The legislation [Keep reading]
Surprise! Spirit Airlines is the undisputed champion of airline passenger complaints. In fact, it’s quite literally in a different league than other airlines — so much so that graphic artists making a chart of complaints had to omit Spirit (see above). Surprise No. 2, he said sarcastically: Among all other [Keep reading]
Ever call a company for help and get faced with an aggressive and unwanted sale pitch instead? At least one company has finally been slapped on the wrist for that. Bank of America will have to refund $700 million to consumers to settled charges that it deceived customers through ad-on [Keep reading]
All those first dates you have at Starbucks can turn into second dates now. The coffee chain and site of many, many awkward Match.com encounters has begun an offering called “Starbucks Evenings,” with liquor and small plate on the menu. So meet me for coffee can turn into meet me [Keep reading]
I’m very proud to announce that a team of NBC journalists I was on has won a Peabody award for an extended project called, “In Plain Sight,” about the struggles of ordinary Americans trying to survive under difficult economic circumstances. I wrote two pieces for the project: One on the [Keep reading]
“You don’t understand” said everyone who ever tried to take advantage of someone and take their money. Wall Street is a game designed to make traders rich by skimming money off the top of America worker’s tiny savings, inventing more and more complicated ways to do that. When someone finally [Keep reading]
If and when consumers begin receiving credit cards with embedded chips en masse from their banks, it’ll mark a significant change in the way Americans pay for things. Visa’s Chief Risk Officer, Ellen Richey, told me in an exclusive interview recently that for many consumers, the only change will be [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan