Certain 2009 models of Electra bicycles are being recalled because they have a front carrier that can detach and cause a fall. Details may be found here.
Archive for March, 2009
Electra recalls some bicycles
Monday, March 16th, 2009State, insurers collide over credit-scored auto rates
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009State officials said today they have begun disapproving insurance rate requests made by automobile insurance companies that use insurance credit scoring as a factor in determining their premiums because the scores are unfairly discriminatory.
In 2005, state’s Office of Finance and Insurance Regulation set rules banning the use of insurance credit scoring. The insurance industry challenged the rules and the issue has been working its way through the legal system for the last four years. The issue is currently before the Michigan Supreme Court.
“Michigan consumers expect insurance companies to follow the law,” said OFIR Commissioner Ken Ross. “Rates filed with the agency are being evaluated carefully, on a case by case basis, to ensure they fully comply with Michigan law.”
OFIR has already disapproved seven rate filings that use credit scoring as a rating factor. Credit information has been found to contain such a high rate of errors that there is an unacceptable likelihood that persons will be misclassified, state officials contend, and insurance scoring discounts are not based on a reasonable classification system and sound actuarial principles.
Insurance credit scoring relies on behavior, including debt and bill payment history that is unrelated to the risk presented when purchasing an auto insurance policy. Instead of basing auto insurance premiums on factors such as a consumer’s driving record and experience, many insurers place huge weight on how high a credit score is, because statistics tell them that those with great credit file fewer claims.
FBI warns of Internet vehicle sales scams
Thursday, March 5th, 2009The FBI is warning that Internet vehicle sales scams are increasingly invoking the names of U.S. armed services branches to swindle unsuspecting consumers.
More and more Internet vehicle sales are a variety on the excess funds/wire transfer ruse that persuades someone to buy or sell products and wire money to a third party.
Sellers of non-existent vehicles are presenting themselves as members of the service who have to sell a vehicle quickly because they are being sent overseas.
Here’s the FBI press release describing how the swindles work.
Michigan in January: 11.6 % unemployment
Thursday, March 5th, 2009Michigan’s unemployment rate in January soared to 11.6 percent from 10.2 percent in December, boosted by a decline in auto sales and rise in auto-related layoffs.
The Detroit-Livonia-Warren area rate rose to 11.9 percent. And average weekly wages plunged statewide.
Learn more here.
Rates for individual labor markets, such as Monroe County, probably will be issued sometime next week. Anybody want to bet the county’s rate will top 12 percent?
State’s top consumer complaints
Thursday, March 5th, 2009Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox has compiled his Top 10 list of consumer problems based on complaints his office received in 2008. As one might guess, leading the list were credit and finance problems, followed by gasoline complaints and complaints about telephone or cable service.
Read about the rest of themhere as well as about two scams — auto warranty extensions and debt reduction programs — that seem to be spreading in the state.
Feds bust insulation marketers
Thursday, March 5th, 2009PolyCell, Insul-Tarp and Thermalcool are three insulation products that federal officials say made false advertising claims about insulating values.
The agency has settled lawsuits against the three companies that represented the products. Read more about it here.
Economic stimulus scams abound
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009President Obama’s various economic moves have spawned a spate of “economic stimulus scams” that are claiming a lot of victims.
The Federal Trade Commission warns consumers against getting sucked into these, which take various forms.
Read more here.
When paying more than minimum makes sense
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009The Federal Trade Commission has posted a credit card calculator that shows you how futile and unwise it is to make only minimum payments on outstanding credit card balances.
As an example, if you have $1,500 on your card and pay $75 a month — and don’t charge anything else — it will take you five years and $303 in interest charges to pay it off.
Computer worm revisits Facebook users
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009Members of Facebook and other social networking systems are seeing a recurrence of a computer worm that started showing up in December. It appears as a message from a friend and has a clickable link.
For advice on how to avoid it, read this.
Bowflex gyms have seat rail defect
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009About 78,000 Bowflex home gyms are being recalled by Nautilus because they have seat rails that can detach and fall on and injure the user.
Details of the recall are here.
Kids flip-flops are lead-laden
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009About 210,000 pair of kids flip flops sold nationwide are being recalled because the paint on them contains excessive levels of lead.
Details are here.
Credit union says some cards compromised
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009Monroe County Community Credit Union is continuing to notify by mail some of its customers who have debit/MasterCards that might have been compromised due to the Heartland Payment Systems security breach.
At risk are cardholders who had debit transactions between May 15 and Nov. 13, 2008.
“Comprised” means that account numbers, names and expiration dates may have been seen by an unauthorized person.
MCCCU advises customers to monitor their balance and bank statements carefully or, if they wish, replace their current card with a new one free of charge. To have the existing account blocked and start the process to get a new card, call (800) 449-7728.
Evidence of fraud should be reported to the credit union at (734) 242-3222.
In late January, Monroe Bank & Trust issued a similar advisory related to the Heartland problem.
Some auto insurers freeze rates
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009Only a dozen Michigan auto insurers have pledged to comply with Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s request to freeze rates for a year while the Legislature works on an insurance-reform package.
Your insurer probably isn’t among them. Dozens of larger, well-known companies such as Allstate and State Farm haven’t agreed yet.
“Auto insurance has simply become unaffordable to many of the state’s citizens and I commend these companies for pledging to freeze their rates while the legislature works on comprehensive auto insurance reform,” said Ken Ross, commissioner of the state Office of Finance and Insurance Regulation. “Insurance companies that have not signed up for the pledge can continue to notify our agency that they will refrain from raising their rates for one year.”
For a list of the companies pledging to freeze rates for a 12-month period and for a list of companies that have yet to sign up for the pledge, click here.
Don’t put much stock in these callers
Monday, March 2nd, 2009The Securities and Exchange Commission now is warning that scammers are using the agency and and even names of their employees in calls to consumers as part of a plan to extract personal financial information so they can access their brokerage or financial accounts.
Details may be found here.
It’s National Consumer Protection Week
Monday, March 2nd, 2009March 1-7 is National Consumer Protection Week and a range of government agencies are publicizing their services, Web sites and pamphlets designed to help consumers keep from getting scammed and make the right financial decisions.
Here’s a link to many of the Web sites.
Also, later this week, the Federal Trade Commission will highlight numerous scam Web sites that attempt to separate consumers from their money by claiming that economic stimulus money is available to them if they just surrender their personal financial information. The scam Web sites use the names and logos of various government agencies as well as many news-gathering agencies. Don’t fall for them.