Speaker 1: Consumers just have to be you know, they have to
hold themselves accountable. Yes, the FTC is constantly going after
some of these bigger companies, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,
but at the end of the day, we have to
protect ourselves. Go through your credit card statements, go through
your bank accounts, and if there's something that you don't recognize,
you and I spoke before you can call your bank.
Speaker 2: You are listening to Carrie Letz's Financial Survival Network where
you get valuable information you just can't find anywhere else
to thrive in today's trying times. You need the Financial
Survival Network now more than ever. Go to Financial Survivalnetwork
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Speaker 1: And welcome.
Speaker 3: You are listening to the Financial Survival Network. I'm your host,
Kerry Letz and hey, are you over subscribed? How many
subscriptions do you pay per month? How much is it
costing you? Do you have any idea? If you don't,
or you're thinking about it or concerned to the least,
then you're going to want to hear from my next guest,
Paul Oster better Qualified dot com. Paul, great to have
you back on the show. So how many subscriptions do
you have?
Speaker 1: I'm not sure the exact number, but I have done,
you know, some scouring myself, and I'll talk about a
couple of the tips later on. But when I did it,
I did find two or three subscriptions that I had
no idea. I was still paying four ninety nine a month,
eight ninety nine a month, and those types of things
add up. So I am I am guilty as charged.
Also guilty is charged, punt and ten right, yeah, exactly exactly,
all right, So what do you do? How do you
sure you know?
Speaker 3: Do you go hire a go get another subscription to
figure out all your other subscriptions?
Speaker 1: Well? You I, you would. I I've spoken about that also,
and look, we've covered subscriptions, you know, on the whole.
The marketing geniuses figured out that the most profitable way
to do business is via subscriptions. If you can get
people to sign up for a monthly subscription, Amazon, all
the major e commerce retailers offer subscriptions. They offer you savings. Right,
there's a discount if you use a subscription based model,
but that's only because in the long run they know
you're going to spend more and you're going to wind
up using the product or service longer than you would
have if you did it month to month. So one
of the easiest ways for your listeners to check to
see how many subscriptions they really have. Look, it's easier
said than done. It's certainly not complicated. It might not
be easy, but let's start with our bank accounts. When
was the last time, you know, we used to balance
our checkbooks. We knew to the penny by the way,
We used to know every penny that went out at
every penny that came in to those accounts. Those days
are long gone. With all of the other cashs, cash
app being one of them, venmo Zell, all these other
different financial institutions along with our bank accounts. Again, I'm
not saying it's easy, but it's not complicated. You have
to go into those accounts and see what you're being
charged for, really go through it with a fine toothcomb. Unfortunately,
most people skim through their statements and they're looking for
anything over twenty bucks fifty bucks. You know, if it
doesn't have three digits, maybe they don't pay attention. But
when you look at the average consumer is at about
two hundred dollars a month in subscriptions, and in recent
surveys that's about one hundred dollars a month more than
they were aware of. So they're paying at one hundred
bucks a month for subscriptions that they had no idea
they were paying. That's a lot of money. So if
you're an if you're an Apple person, right, if you
have an iPhone or you use Apple, you just go
to your iPhone device, you go to settings, you tap
Profile and then you tap subscriptions and it will go
through all of your subscriptions, right, and Apple the people
that's paying for right, exactly anything that you've set up
through Apple pay. Then on if you're an Android or Google,
you go to your Android device and you go to
the play store, tap on the menu icon and look
for subscriptions and all of the ones that are based
at least you know within those you know, uh environments,
you're going to see what you're actually paying for.
Speaker 3: M that's crazy, Matt, it's really critm easy.
Speaker 1: It's it is, it is And there's also I know
for Apple, I'm not sure about Google and Android, but
you can check a box for the renewer receipts that
you will get aworded when those subscriptions get renewed, because
part of the problem here is exactly that usually when
they offer you the subscription, it's at a discount, quote unquote,
the next time you pay for it, it's going to
be very different. So people have to be aware of
when those subscriptions are going to renew because that's when
the prices usually go up. For sure, the recurring charges,
free trials, auto renewals, monthly subscriptions, that's just a lot
of dead weight and money for consumers. And look, we
also have to hold ourselves accountable a little bit here
and culpable. We get you know, we're clickbait animals. We
get involved in stuff. You know, we want to know.
Some of the clubs that I've seen recently, the Pickle
of the Month club, the Cannabox for all of our
cannabis loving friends. You can get all sorts of ganja
accessories during Cannabi.
Speaker 3: I don't do that, at least I don't do that,
so I'm not worry about my cannabis or the month club.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the adult coloring Adults Coloring monthly, where they'll send
you blank things that you're going to color in. I
mean it gets crazy, crazy crazy. Part of the problem here, also, Jerry,
is it they make it so simple or they disguise
it right. So at the end of the terms and conditions,
there's usually a box it says check here if you agree. Well,
the box right under that usually says something like check
this box if you'd like to subscribe to our emails
and information and promotions. And most people are just going
through checking the boxes because they think they have to
check all the boxes in order to complete that initial transaction.
Then when you go to cancel, it's not as easy
as just checking a box. You have to go through,
you know, numerous hurdles to get to the endpoint. Look
the FTC as we speak, by the way, they're still
sending Vontage customers. It's over one hundred million dollars in
refunds because Vonage made it almost impossible to cancel their subscription.
So one hundred million dollars in refunds from a company
that knew exactly what they were doing. Yeah, and it's
it's it's deceitful, it's it's fraudulent, you know, it's false advertising.
It's just leading the consumer. By the way, at the
worst time ever right now, when the consumer can't afford
to do anything on top of what they're already paying for.
Consumers just have to be you know, they have to
hold themselves accountable. Yes, the FTC is constantly going after
some of these bigger cumpanies, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,
but at the end of the day, we have to
protect ourselves. Go through your credit card statements, go through
your bank accounts, and if there's something that you don't recognize,
you and I spoke before, you can call your bank
and say I want to stop on these charges. As
a matter of fact, I want a dispute. Then you
go back and you look and you've been getting charged,
you know, nineteen ninety five for eight months from cannabox
and you're like, they don't think I ever signed up
any So your banks can usually help you out. Credit
card companies can usually help you out. But somehow you'll
be able to figure out where the website is and
how you ultimately have to cancel this subscription. All of
these companies that now have subscriptions, they are on by alert.
If a customer calls in and says, you're making it
really difficult for me to cancel this service. They will
help you because they know they're going to get called
on the carpet and like v right, yeah, exactly exactly.
Speaker 3: His vantage still around.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, vantage is still around. Week. I actually use
vontage for my for my business phone systems.
Speaker 3: Oh really, okay, yep, I didn't know that. I didn't
know they were still here, all right, So, uh, you know,
this is like insane here. I had no idea it
was this bad.
Speaker 1: But I'm looking through my own stuff and it's easy
enough to do. If you use Quicken.
Speaker 3: You just go into it, into the account, you click spending,
and then you sort it by payee and see, like
you know, I've got like there's so many ridiculous you know,
some of them most of them I need, but some
of them are just stupid. Like I I'm paying for
a Skype number nine dollars and ninety nine cents a month.
I mean, what do I need that for? Here? Yeah?
Speaker 1: His Skype still a ramp.
Speaker 3: Yeah Skype, hard to believe Microsoft owns them now, believe
it or not. And yes, uh you know it's there's
still a refound.
Speaker 1: There. So listen. On top of all of this, you know,
I think it's really important that we also touch base
on the current state of affairs for the average consumer.
You and I spoke about where can we save money,
because unless you're going to get a second job, which
you may have to to make ends meet, unless you
win the lottery, you get an inheritance, you have to
figure out where the money is going to come from
to try and help you get out of debt. Right.
Credit card debt, unfortunately now is at an all time high,
and the interest rates are at an all time high.
Those two things, you know, coupled together are the perfect
storm for the consumer. Because if you're paying thirty percent
interest daily, compounding interest, which means your your balance increases
every day based upon the previous day's battance. So unless
you're paying it down, you don't have to spend another time.
At the end of the billage cycle, you're going to
owe more than you did at the beginning of the month.
So where's the money going to come from? Do an
insurance protection audit. Most people are either over insured or
under insured. Most people are over insured or they're paying
too much. Their situations have changed, their credit has changed.
Let's not forget insurance policies and premiums are directly tied
to our credit scores. They don't call them credit scores,
but it's an insurance score that uses the same information
as our credit scores. So do an insurance protection audit,
get some quotes on your homeowners and auto insurance and
try and figure that out. Health insurance costs or through
the roof. It's a little harder to shop around for
health insurance, but there are options out there. Maybe you
do a higher deductible, maybe you get into a health
you know, savings account for your higher deductible premiums. If
you don't go to the doctor or a lot, you
don't take a lot of medications, then maybe a higher
deductible is right for you. But you have to look
at all of this stuff, and you know what. It
takes a little time, but you and I spoke before.
Stop scrolling through TikTok and Facebook and watching TV. Take
an hour a half an hour of a couple of
days this week and sit down and figure out your
household budget. The typical household now is like a small business.
You could easily have one hundred transactions a week. So
figure out where the money is going and figure out
where I can save some money, take a look at
all of the things you're spending money on and ask
for a discount. When was the last time you went
back to your your internet provider, your cable company, you know,
maybe change your plans. Do you really need seven hundred
and nineteen channels when you only watch six of them?
Maybe you don't need cable at all. Use an internet
provider and some streaming services. Yeah, cut the court, cut
the court. So yeah, interesting. Interesting.
Speaker 3: And the people that come to you, what percentage of
them are using like quick in or it's some personal
finance manager to track all their expenses?
Speaker 1: Is it? Most people now use it? No, Unfortunately it's not.
And I'm a big advocate of mint dot com. It's
a great place for people to start that basic household
budget expense tool. Mint dot com, I'm a big fan.
But there are others out there, you know. Fortunately, there's
lots of different free softwares out there. I think quick
And you pay a couple of bucks for, but you
get what you pay for. It's a much better it's
a more robust service, and it pays for itself by
identifying these types of things like we just spoke about,
let's identify all of the payees that I'm paying every
single month my art earned money because at the end
of day, people do not pay attention, unfortunately to their
expenses unless it's a major ticket item. But all of
those onesies and twosies, you could do it. You could
do an analysis and find out, holy cow, I'm spending
two hundred and thirty dollars a month at wah wah
quick check these convenience stores. And my number one thing
message to everybody for this has been going on for
a decade. Stay out of convenience stores. Stay out of them.
There's a reason, there's a reason why they're there. You're
paying thirty percent premiums on every single piece of merchandise.
And if you go in for coffee, because the coffee's cheaper,
but that's the that's the front, that's the loss leader.
They want to bring in by offering a dollar cup
of coffee. But then while you're there, oh, let me
get a pack of dumb Oh let me get this
now it's it's somewhat painless, but you're paying a thirty
percent premium on every single item. Stay out of convenience
stores and you will thank me later. But do that
spend analysis too. Like you just if you don't want
to use the software, break out the pad and pen. Okay,
go through your bills, go through your statements, write it
all down if you want to write it, write it
and then figure out what can I what can I
get rid of? And it literally adds up. Like you said,
you know, one hundred dollars a month is a tho.
It's over one thousand dollars a year. WHU to at
the you know on December thirty first, if I started
handing out checks for one thousand dollars, people will get excited.
Well you can literally, you can hear it yourself a chat. Yeah,
it's so easy to do.
Speaker 3: Hey, I've been using quick and literally for twenty five years,
but I haven't really used the budgeting thing, and not
a big budgeting person. But you know, I'm aware of
every dollar I spend because I update my transactions daily,
so I know where my money's going. But still it
could still get away from me.
Speaker 1: Right absolutely, you know it could happen to the best
of us. So, especially if you're struggling, especially if you're
trying to make ends meet, especially if you have one
dollar in credit card debt. You have to. It's just
it's imperative that you figure out how you're going to
start to pay down that debt. Now, the good news
is just like it accelerates when you're you know, increasing
your balance, is the debt elimination process accelerates itself. So
as you start to pay down the debt, you're paying
down more and more of that principal ballance every dollar,
every single week, every single day, every single month. So
just start the process. But that also means that you're
not putting any additional charges on credit cards. You have
to be able to live off the income that you're making.
We do not want to put another dollar on a
credit card right now. It is the worst thing you
can do.
Speaker 3: It sounds so simple and principle, doesn't that, But in reality,
you know, it's hard. But it requires some discipline, right,
It requires time and discipline.
Speaker 1: It requires time and discipline. But again, people spend more
time planning vacations, People spend more time on social media,
people spend more time, you know, wasting time. Then sit
down and this is how you do. So we can
go on and on and on for days, but if
I were you, I would block time in a certain day.
If it's Sunday afternoon. If it's Sunday morning, maybe you
get up an hour earlier. One day, you spend you know,
seven instead of watching sports or something seven o'clock on
a Wednesday night. However you want to do it, you
block the time, and then you hold yourself accountable. This
is the time. I'm going to go through all my bills.
I'm going to create a budget. I'm going to do
a spend analysis, and I'm going to figure out how
to get out of debt. Because if you don't do
it that way, before you know it, people live in
a crisis mode every thirty days. Yeah, and they live
in a crisis mode every thirty days. You know. Oh,
it's the end of the month and I have to
kids are going back to school. I have to get
Johnny or Mary. I got to get the kids book bags.
I got to do that. So what happened They put
it on a credit card because they didn't plan So
at the end of the month, if you need groceries,
they put it on a credit card because they didn't
plan it. At the end of the month, they need
a tank of gas. So you have to sit down
and do this because it only gets worse. It just
continues to pile up. It's a very very slippery slope.
Debt is, you know, and it's painful at the end
of the day. Unfortunately, in this country, people commit suicide
because they're in debt. And I don't want to say
they don't they you know, they didn't have to be
in debt. They There's a great book out there called
You're Broke Because You Want to Be and I love
it because it really puts the onus back on the
consumer of the individual, and it says, hey, you're broke
because you want to be, and these are the reasons
why you're broke. One of the top reasons in that
book convenience stores and overpaying for things because your credit
score is not as high as it should be or
could be. You know your credit score is going to
cost or save you money every single day, so do
whatever you can. So start to focus on your credit.
Figure out why your scores are so low. A lot
of times the scores are low because the credit card
balances are so high, but you can work on that.
A lot of times the scores are so low because
you don't have enough open active accounts, so there are
there are credit builder accounts. Just like you spoke about
quicking and mint and all of these things, there are
credit builder accounts out there. Like there's a company called
self and they will give you a credit builder loan.
Then I am telling you that the end of twelve
twenty four months, it has a tremendous impact on your
overall credit score. So if you need to open up
secured cards, open up secured cards, and look, you can
raise your hand and say I need help, right, I'm
going to swallow my pride here, and I need help.
So that's where a company like my company, better Qualified
comes in. If you choose to hire us, it's like
hiring a personal trainer. Right. We do it all day,
every day. We've trained thousands of people, right, So we've
helped thousands of people, and we've been doing it for
twenty years. So no one's going to judge you because
this is your first rodeo and you're trying to figure
this out, and you might raise your hand and say,
you know what, I need help and at least allow us.
Here's the best thing about the company and the program
that we've built. The credit consultation and analysis is free
at the end of that phone call. You're going to
know exactly what to do and what not to do.
It's like going to the personal train of the first time.
They're going to give you the roadmap. Now, if you
need help staying on that, staying on the path and
staying on the road, then hire somebody to help you
do it. Yeah. Our program there's yeah, and here's the
beauty again part of I love what I do right
twenty years later. Our program pays for itself. It's not
a question of if it's going to pay for itself.
It's a question of when and if you If you
apply for a mortgage and we get your scores up
from a six hundred to over a seven hundred, it'll
pay for itself within a couple of months. If you're
buying a car again, Insurance premials, security deposits. If you
go to get your gas turned on, you go to
get this and you don't have excellent credit, they're going
to ask you for a security deposit or now you're
going to get it back. But I'd rather have that
money in my account than sitting in somebody else's account
burning them interest. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I couldn't agree with you more. Hey, all of this
is common sense. But as they say, common sense is
the least common commodity in the universe. So you better
get started now, don't hesitate to better qualified dot com.
The link is in the show notes this interview on
Financial Survival Network dot com. And there's no easier path
to financial survival than controlling your spending and raising your
credit score. And I've got any questions comments for myself
or Paul The email addresses kl at Carrie LUTs dot com.
When you're over at Financial Survival Network dot com, sign
up for your free newsletter, Paul, Oh is a pleasure.
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you again real soon.
Speaker 2: Thanks Jerry, thanks for listening to carry Lets's Financial Survival
Network your solution to today's trying time. For the latest,
go to Financial Survivalnetwork dot com. Financial Survival Network now
more than ever,