Shoppers say: Don't ask for phone # and e-mail at checkout!

Facebook and its ilk may have changed attitudes toward broadcasting personal facts and feelings, but there's one venue where a majority of Americans do not want to share: The checkout counter. 

Fifty-eight percent of consumers bristle when checkout clerks ask for e-mail addresses and phone numbers, according to a recent, nationally representative poll conducted by Consumer Reports, and assisted by our sister Web site, The Consumerist. That's in addition to our annoyance with checkout-counter solicitations to open store credit-card accounts, disdain for stores' obsession with extended warranties, and frustration with too few open registers.

Retailers, hear us, please. It's challenge enough during the holiday season to get a parking spot, navigate through malls and store aisles, spend within our budgets, and get to the front of checkout line in one piece. We don't want to have to share our personal information, which retailers use to hone their marketing programs or, if you will, pester us more.

There's nothing wrong with politely refusing to tell the checkout person that information. The store doesn't need it to complete the sale, and isn't going to turn you away if you say no. And there's good reason to resist: The more information floating around about you, the more likely your name will land on mailing, phone and e-mail lists used you more stuff you may not want or need. Consumer Reports Money Adviser recently reported on many of the ways retailers and service–providers use your personal information, as well as tactics to reduce your vulnerability. Do yourself and your family a favor and just say no.

Holiday shoppers say some retailers are out of line

Bell ringers, perfume sprayers and the steady drumbeat of holiday music may be annoying to some shoppers. But what really brings out their grinchier instincts are stores that fail to open all the checkout lanes and then use pushy retail tactics when shoppers finally make it to the cash register. Customers don't like being pressured to open store credit cards or being asked for personal information. And they really object to being hounded to buy extended warranties, according to a nationally representative survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.

The survey was conducted as part of Consumer Reports' annual "Dear Shopper" campaign that highlights holiday gotchas and shopping traps. This year Consumer Reports had an assist from its sister Web site, Consumerist, which collected a list of annoyances from its readers. When the list was taken to the public at large, those surveyed were in agreement. Here are the top gripes about retail practices:

• 72% Stores that don't open all the checkout lanes;
• 68% Fake "sales". If something is always 20% off, it's not on sale;
• 67% Coupons that exclude almost everything in the store;
• 62% Being hounded with the extended warranty sales pitch;
• 58% Cashiers that ask for your phone number or other personal information;
• 56% In-store prices that do not match the same company's on-line prices;
• 53% Employees required to up-sell you at the register;
• 52% Pushing store credit cards at the register;
• 50% Mail in rebates;
• 48% Stores that require loyalty cards to get discounts;
• 43% Stores that have a minimum purchase requirement for credit cards;
• 26% Receipt checkers.

 “Consumers have told us that they just want a hassle-free and convenient shopping experience," said Jim Guest, president and CEO of Consumers Union. "We really hope this list of holiday annoyances is a wake-up call for the retail industry.”

Tomorrow's USA Today will feature the latest "Dear Shopper" ad about "pushy holiday-season practices." In previous years we've tried to educate consumers about gifts cards (too many go unused), consumer debt (13.5 million consumers are still carrying debt from last year's holiday) and extended warranties (usually not needed—or recommended).

When we asked shoppers about the number one non-retail practice that made them grumpy almost a third said the crowds (29%) followed by difficulty parking (28%), sales people spraying perfume (16%) and bell ringers outside stores (13%). Surprisingly, few folks are annoyed by that holiday music—only three percent said that was their top pet peeve. Fa-la-la-la-la indeed.

What you can do

• Don't get snagged by those gift card gotchas
• Resist sales counter store-card pitches
• Just say no to giving personal information at the checkout
• Why you don't need an extended warranty

At the sales counter, resist the store-card pitch

After waiting in an interminable line to buy holiday gifts, one thing you might not want to hear when you reach the checkout counter is a pitch for a retailer's credit card. In our nationally representative survey of the top holiday-shopping annoyances, 52 percent of respondents said they don't care for cashiers pushing store credit cards.
 
Of course, the 10 percent to 20 percent discounts that come with the store card on the goods you're buying can be tempting, especially this year when many people are trying to stretch their holiday shopping dollars. But if you don't typically pay your credit cards in full each month, you should decline the cashier's offer. And of course, before you sign up for any credit offer, you should read and understand all the terms and conditions of the account—something you might not be inclined to do with a long line of shoppers waiting impatiently behind you.
 
Here's the good and bad of store cards:
 
The Bad:
Interest rates can be wickedly high. For example, Macy's store card (which gives you 20 percent off your purchases for two days when you sign up) comes with an interest rate of 24.5 percent compared with a national average for credit cards of 12.81 percent as of Nov. 12, according to LowCards.com. If you miss a payment, any savings you get for opening a store card could quickly evaporate at such high interest rates.

• Opening a card will temporarily ding your credit score by only a few points, but opening a bunch of cards at once could have a real effect on your credit score.
 
• If you start using the card quite a bit it can lower the amount of rewards or cash you earn on your primary credit card.
 
• You might spend more than you'd planned, just to take advantage of the discount. And having a retailer credit card with rewards may entice you to spend more at that particular retailer, instead of shopping around for the best price.
 
• Store cards may not have the same consumer protections as credit cards. However many retailers offer both a store card and a Visa- or Mastercard-branded card that may give you some of those protections.
 
The Good:
• You can get a discounts of 10 percent to 20 percent on your initial purchases.
 
• If you frequently shop in the store—and you always pay your bills on time—you may be able to build points towards future purchases, get advanced notice of sales, or gain access to insider sales. But some retailers offer rewards or loyalty programs that don't require you to sign up for credit cards. 

• Store cards are easier to qualify for than general-purpose credit cards. So if you have limited credit, opening an account with a retailer is a decent way to build a credit history. But don't cancel the card immediately. You want to establish a long credit history, so if you're worried about overusing the card, cut it up, hide it at the back of your wallet, or leave it at home.—Chris Fichera  

Medicare Part D participants: For 2010, you better shop around

Medicare has announced its Part D drug plan costs for 2010. More seniors than ever will be combing through that data to try and find a better deal. Sixteen percent say they are likely to, or are considering, switching plans in 2010, according to a recent survey of seniors by Allsup, a provider of Social Security disability, Medicare and workers' compensation services. That’s a big jump; only five percent have switched since they’ve been eligible for the program.

However, figuring out which program is best for you can be a pain. You may have dozens of private plans to choose from, with different levels of coverage.

But staying put can cost you plenty, in terms of both access to the medicines you take and the amount of money you will spend. Consumers Union has been monitoring the total cost of buying five common drugs in five states since the Part D program began in 2006. Next year Illinois residents, for example, may be able to save more than $2,200 year if they switch to a better plan. Stay stuck in the wrong one, however, and your costs may rise by more than $1,500.

Open enrollment starts November 15 and runs through the end of the year. You can find out how to switch plans (or enroll) by going to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Web site.–Mandy Walker

CR Index: 25% to spend more on personal electronics

A quarter of Americans–24.9 percent–expect to spend more this month on personal electronics, according to the Consumer Reports Index, a composite of five indices measuring consumer behavior, attitudes, and consumption patterns. And short-term plans to purchase major home electronics rose slightly, to 10.7 percent from 10 percent in October, the highest level since June.

In addition, perceived financial problems, including difficulties making credit-card payments and covering medical bills, may be stabilizing, according to the Consumer Reports Trouble Tracker and Stress indices, two components  of the Consumer Reports Index. In the West and South, survey respondents reported fewer troubles in early November than in the prior month. In the Midwest, perceived troubles appeared to be slightly (up 2.4) worse. Northeasterners’ opinions stayed about the same.

Those optimistic results are the bright spots in a report that generally shows consumer plans and attitudes at a slow simmer. Two weeks before the official start of the holiday shopping season, planned purchases were flat or lower in most categories, including appliances, yard and garden goods, cars and homes, according to the Consumer Reports Next-30-Day Retail Index. (The survey underlying the Index was completed before Congress extended and expanded a one-time $8,000 tax credit for new-home buyers.)

Ed Farrell, a director of the Consumer Reports National Researcher Center, which created the Index, posed a cautionary note. “The economy remains in a precarious position where further decline is possible but is slightly less likely,” Farrell said. “Unless consumers can see concrete improvements in their lives and retail activity picks up, any near term recovery is improbable.” 

For more details and information on how the Consumer Reports Index is conducted, click here.

Give up my rights to save $10? No thank you!

Here's a new twist on how credit-card companies are attempting to get around the consumer-friendly Credit CARD Act, due to go into effect in February. 

Our sister Web site, The Consumerist, this week featured a reader's account of a telephone conversation with Capital One, in which the credit-card company offered to lower the fellow's overlimit fee to $29 per transaction from $39, if he chose not to be covered by one of the Credit CARD Act's consumer protections. (Click here for The Consumerist's update.)

The new law disallows overlimit fees, unless folks opt in for overdraft protection. But that $10 savings for opting in doesn't sound like much of an incentive, in our view.

If you have a story to report about a similar offer, or a unilateral decision, by your credit-card company, tell us about it at Consumers Union's Credit Card Reform.org. We'll be collecting consumers' anecdotes and commenting to the Federal Reserve to encourage more restrictions on credit-card company abuses.

And click here for Consumer Reports tips on taking control of your credit-card debt and avoiding credit-card company atrocities.–Tobie Stanger

Shafted by your credit-card company? Tell us your story by Nov. 20.

If you're mad as hell at your credit-card company, here's your chance to let federal regulators know--and maybe even get something done about it! 

Credit Card Reform.org, a project of Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, is collecting stories from consumers who feel they've been shafted by their credit-card company, particularly in the last few months. As we've reported, credit-card companies have been busy as bees jacking up interest rates, changing fixed rates to variable rates, increasing penalties, and doing other maneuvers to gain the most before the consumer-friendly Credit CARD Act of 2009 goes into effect next February. 

Consumers Union supports current efforts to push forward the effective date of the law to December 1 of this year. We're also providing information on the credit-card companies' obnoxious behavior to the Federal Reserve, which in theory regulates such practices. Lauren Bowne, a CU staff attorney coordinating the effort, hopes to highlight a range of abuses by having consumers "share their story with the Fed as a way to highlight the attempts by the card companies to circumvent the law," Bowne says. 

If your credit-card company has done any of the following (or something new we've not mentioned here), we want to hear about it:

•Added a new fee or raised an old fee.

•Increased your interest rate.

•Closed your account.

•Lowered your credit limit.

•Took away rewards.

•Raised the minimum payment.

•Made the fixed interest rate a variable rate.

Support Dec. 1 trigger for consumer-friendly Credit CARD Act!

If you'd like to stop the credit-card industry in its tracks, head to Consumers Union's advocacy Web site, CreditCardReform.org. There, you'll find a suggested e-mail text to send to your Representative, encouraging passage of H.R. 3639, an accelerated trigger date for the Credit CARD Act of 2009, as well a support for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, with wide-ranging benefits for financial-product consumers. 

The Maloney-Frank bill expedites the trigger date for the Credit CARD Act to December 1 of this year, ahead of the original date of Feb. 22, 2010. The bill, sponsored by Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, and Barney Frank, D-Ma., is a response to consumers' gripes that credit card companies are hiking interest rates, adding fees, and raising minimum payments to avoid the Credit CARD Act's more consumer-friendly rules.

In a similar move, Senator Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., yesterday proposed freezing interest rates on existing card-balances. 

What do you think of these proposals? Have you told your Representative how you feel? 

The Great Recession: Where's the consumer's voice?

A report recently published by the not-for-profit Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism reveals some interesting biases in the media when covering the Great Recession. For one, the report says that TV, print, radio, Internet and other news media focused an awful lot on players at the top–President Obama and his staffers, federal agencies, and business leaders–as opposed to folks at the bottom of the ladder, often suffering the most. The stimulus package, the banking bailout, and efforts to help the struggling auto industry were the dominant topics. Most coverage took place in New York and Washington, the capitals of finance and government, respectively. And when the stock market started to rise, coverage started to peter out. 

For that reason, I'd like to brag a bit about the monthly Consumer Reports Index, which asks consumers for their sentiment on the state of their own financial well-being. That includes not only what they spent and did over the prior month, but their spending plans for the next month. The index results are based on answers by a nationally representative sample. Stay tuned for the next index, about halfway through the month, for a unique gauge of what's going on close to the ground, not up in the vaulted realms of power.–Tobie Stanger

The case for extending the CFPA to auto financing

Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, has joined 37 other not-for-profits in a letter to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Ma), recommending that oversight of consumer auto financing be included in the proposed Consumer Finance Protection Agency. The agency is one of many aspects of financial reform now before the House panel. Click here for a report on the not-for-profits' efforts and on their opposition.

The not-for-profits are in good company in supporting the agency. Recently, more than 70 professors of law and banking law signed a similar statement of support for the agency. 

For more on this important proposal, read our series of interviews with Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor and fervent advocate for consumer finance reform.