UCAN

The cable companies have been raising rates while trying to coax over-the-air TV consumers into trading in their rabbit ears, but a greater force has emerged.

Rough economic times have caused millions to request $40 coupons from www.dtv2009.gov for Digital TV converter boxes to allow them to continue receiving over-the-air TV after the switch to digital takes effect February 18, 2009.

Now demand is so high, that a completed on-line application receives the message:

We have determined that your household is eligible to participate in this program. However, at this time funding is not available to fulfill your request. Your application has been placed on a waiting list.

The Wall Street Journal has more details in The Switch to Digital TV Hits a Snag

Shoppers this holiday season may feel like minnows in shark-infested waters. While there may be some good bargains out there, watch where you step because there are some pitfalls especially if you're buying gift cards.

Yes, these cards make the perfect gifts for a lot of reasons -- no gift wrapping, the person you are giving it to can purchase what they really want you can give them a card for their favorite store, restaurant or hobby. But buyer beware. You need to read and understand the fine print -- sometimes VERY fine -- on the cards before purchasing them. According to Consumer Reports, last year shoppers were out $8 billion because of unused, lost or expired gift cards.

Here are some gift card shopping hints:

1. Watch out for fees added to the purchase of the cards -- especially those offered by major credit card companies.

2. Beware of expiration dates on the cards that may render them worthless if Aunt Nellie leaves hers in her desk drawer for too long. It would be nice to inform the person you are giving it to about that date.

3. Will the cards be honored? In this roller coaster economy we are in, it is possible that some stores may go out of business and the cards will be worthless. You need to choose gift cards from companies that have staying power and will stand behind their cards.

4. Make sure the gift card has a toll-free number with it that you, or the person you give the card to, can call if there is a problem.

For more tips about gift cards, go to this Consumer Reports article:

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/money/shopping/shopping-tips/gift-card-pitfalls-12-07/overview/gift-card-pitfalls-ov.htm?resultPageIndex=1&resultIndex=2&searchTerm=gift%20card%20buying%20tips

The Federal Trade Commission also offers some good information:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt010.shtm

The warning bells are ringing for individuals who have purchased long-term care insurance coverage.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Conseco Inc., a major insurer, has transferred its long-term care policies to a state-supervised trust. "The policies were a drag on the company's earnings because they were underpriced and required continuing capital infusions to meet the long-term needs of policyholders," the Journal article stated.
This affects more than 140,000 owners of Conseco Senior Health Insurance Co. policies, who may face higher rates and reduced benefits.
In a written statement, Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario defended the transfer stating that without the transfer "The likely result would have been either substantial rate increases or insolvency."
One Conseco policyholder, a 73-year-old Florida woman, is worried that the Conseco long-term care policies that she and her husband paid more than $45,000 in premiums for over 20 years won't pay now when her husband may need nursing care.
Long-term care policies are expensive but their selling point is that care costs in old age may be far more financially draining on individuals and their families. In the early days of long-term care policy sales, some insurance agents used the fear of skyrocketing nursing home costs to make sales when, in fact, many seniors never need nursing home care.
If you can afford the premiums, the policies could be a good investment but -- in the wake of Conseco's recent moves -- proceed with caution. If you currently own a policy - keep an eye on your insurance company's financial health.
According to the Journal article, persons shopping for long-term care coverage "should take particular care in picking out a financially stable insurer by examining its financial statements and ratings, and checking into its record of premium increases." Consult a trusted financial adviser. Don't rely on someone whose sole purpose is to to sell you a policy.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners offers some tips for consumers interested in purchasing long-term care insurance.

Go to: http://www.naic.org/index_ltc_section.htm

Playing video games may be the answer for older drivers who want to brush up on their driving skills.

ABC News recently reported that Allstate Insurance has launched an experiment involving 100,000 customers in Pennsylvania. After playing the prescribed video games, their accident rates will be compared with drivers who are not playing the games to see if their reflexes and peripheral vision are improved.

Allstate's John Kane said persons 50 to 75 could "benefit from the brain exercises, to improve their driving skills, improve their attention, and improve their visual skills."

If the results are promising, Allstate might expand the program to other states or even consider lower premiums for frequent players.

The specially designed software tests the vision and skills required for driving. One participant in the pilot project said: "The software pointed out very quickly that my vision in the lower left quadrant isn't as strong as in the upper right quadrant."

Dr. Gary Small, director of the UCLA Center on Aging, has done research that supports the idea that computer usage can keep the mind agile.

In a recent study, Small compared the brain scans of patients reading books with those of patients searching the Web and found that there was a huge increase in the activity in the front part of the brain -- the area of the brain that's involved in complex reasoning and decision making -- during the patients' virtual activities.

Get a demonstration of how the software works by going to ABC News.

As a new president and Congress prepare to take office, representatives of the nation's health insurance industry seem ready to play "Let's Make a Deal."  

It sounds simple --  but the devil will be in the details.

Representatives of the nation's health insurance industry have floated a proposal to drop their despised pre-existing conditions, which exclude so many Americans from health coverage, in exchange for Congress requiring all Americans to have coverage, according to the New York Times.

The insurers believe that if coverage isn't mandatory for all, people will wait until they become ill before spending money on purchasing insurance.

Alissa Fox, a vice president of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association said: "Insurance works best when everyone is in the pool. You need healthy people in the insurance pool to help pay for sicker individuals who are much more motivated to buy coverage."

As we all know, health care is one of the major issues on President-elect Obama's agenda, however, to date he has not favored mandatory coverage for all Americans.  In fact, that was a major bone of contention between Obama and Senator Clinton during the campaign.

Pre-existing conditions in the fine print of health insurance policies have presented a cruel roadblock for those who need health coverage the most -- those with chronic and expensive health conditions.

This proposal from the health insurance industry offers some hope but should be looked at as a very tentative first step in the complicated legislative process needed to reshape our national health care policy.

Americans need to watch carefully as Congress begins to craft health care legislation that may affect our access to healthcare and our national and personal pocketbooks.

Several months ago UCAN Member Alan saw charges on his Verizon landline bill for 13 international phone calls he never made to Indonesia. Verizon billed these calls at $5.50 / minute for a total $320.

The phone number was 626xxxxxxx (last seven digits are x's for privacy).

It turns out that the calls had been made to a local number shown on the bill that was, in fact, Alan's Skype phone in Los Angeles metropolitan area code 626.

62 happens to be the country code for Indonesia, and Verizon mistakenly billed the local calls within the 626 area code as international.

Mistakes happen, so Alan contacted Verizon, explained that it was his Skype number on the bill, and disputed the charges. Verizon would not budge, eventually disconnecting Alan's bundled call phone and sending the account to collections.

Alan contacted the Fraud Squad for help and filed an online complaint with the CPUC. At first, Verizon maintained its hard core stance eventually offering a courtesy credit for the obvious error. Further investigation revealed that the supposed Indonesia number didn't even work.

Finally after UCAN sent a Consumer Legal Remedies Act (CLRA) demand letter (click link for sample letter), Verizon admitted its mistake and properly credited the account.

UCAN has found recently that many companies often take a hard core stance with their customers even when an obvious mistake has been made, often offering a partial credit or no credit at all. Customers that have automatic bill pay set up may not even realize they have been mischarged.

Be vigilant in these tight economic times and contact the Fraud Squad when you need help getting credit where credit is due.

Any other Skype users that have similar issues contact the Fraud Squad 

This water conservation business is getting deadly serious, as a recently-spotted bumper sticker shows: 

Eye catching to say the least, and profoundly relevant in this time of water crisis.

Now that we have your attention... what is this sticker really talking about?  Reincarnation.  That's right, it's about your water hogging lawn coming back as a beautiful, low-maintenance, water saving native plant garden!  There, now 'killing' doesn't seem so bad, does it?

Or another way of looking at it: Kill your lawn before it kills you.  Would you rather have live-sustaining potable water to drink?  Or would you prefer to feed your lawn?  These are the choices that we must make.

The Tree of Life Nursery, which conceived of the bumper sticker marketing gimmick, can help.  They specialize in California native plants, and would like nothing better than to help you kill your lawn, then give life to a beautiful and sustainable native garden.  Many other commercial nurseries offer the same support, as does your local big-box store garden supply department, if you know what to ask.  The San Diego Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, likewise, can assist with your plans to give new life to your yard.

Next week's topic ... 'Kill Your Television, or, Life After the Boob Tube'

Google released its Voice and Video chat today, and our own unscientific tests here at New Media Rights and UCAN show that the audio and video quality easily rivals competing services such as Skype. The biggest difference is that this is Google making a move into the voice and video area and it has the potential to alter the playing field a fair amount.

For those of you who use Gmail, think of how often you use the Gchat feature which allows you to talk to any other gmail user in realtime from within your email. Now add Voice and Video to that service and you have Gmail Voice and Video Chat. With many people and organizations adopting Gmail as their email client, the potential for day to day casual use of video and voice chat beyond the current user base is tremendous. Right now, you can go and download programs like Skype, but Google building a service like this into its email client makes voice and video more readily accessible than ever. We think that's pretty cool.

As Kermit the Frog once said "It's not easy being green ..."

... especially if you are trying to dsipose of CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs). The bulbs contain mercury, which is a dangerous toxin, but most of the retailers who sell the bulbs won't take them back for recycling. Fortunately, Home Depot will. In June 0f 2008, Home Depot announced that it would begin accepting used fluorescent bulbs for recycling. Find out where with this store locator. 

Or, you can use this EPA locator to find a disposal center near you ... (clicking will take you to the EPA site).

Common ways to spell fluorescent incorrectly are floresent, florescent, flourescent, and resikling, recycling, resikleing, floresunt.

The Big Switch from an analog to a digital signal for your TV is set to be flipped on February 17, 2009 and it will be here before you know it. While this change in signals won’t affect most TV viewers, it will impact those folks who still depend on rabbit ears or antennas on their older analog TVs.  Converting to a digital signal will not be as simple as many say it will be – especially for those senior citizens who may not be technologically advanced.  

Just watch this video — we know it is somewhat ageist, but it clearly illustrates what many seniors may face in the transition to digital TV.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/36608/talkshow-with-spike-feresten-cable-psa - s-p1-st-i1  

How will you need to do if you are not already digitally ready?

1. You’ll either have to purchase a converter box for your analog TV that will allow digital reception.

2. Connect your analog TV to digital by subscribing to a paid cable or satellite service, or 

3. Buy a TV with a built-in digital tuner. 

Take the last bit of advice with a grain of salt because there’s no need to go the expense of buying a new TV unless you just want a new TV. 

Through a program run by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration -- part of the U.S. Department of Commerce -- every household can get two $40 coupons to help defray the cost of purchasing the converter boxes. Most of the boxes cost between $50 and $70.

Of course, this transition opens up a perfect opportunity for con artists and scammers so the FTC offers these warnings to consumers:

Don’t pay for a coupon for a converter box. They are FREE from the federal government.

Don’t provide your Social Security number, bank account number or other sensitive financial information when you order or redeem your coupon.

If you return a converter box you bought with a coupon, you can’t get the value of the coupon.

UCAN’s consumer advocates offer this tip: Use your coupons at a local retailer that carries the converter boxes. Don’t  buy the boxes or use the coupons online.

If you’re not a high-tech whiz, find a relative or neighbor who is and they’ll have your converter box installed in no time. In appreciation, make them your favorite dessert.  For more tips, go to http://www.dtv2009.gov/.