Idea of the Day - A new idea each day. Some Don't Suck!

It's unfair to issue a summons to drivers who don't have exact change.

The other day I rented a car because mine was in the shop and I went onto the Garden State Parkway in NJ and I was faced with an interesting dilemma. As I approached the toll booths I was faced with 4 lanes. Two were "Exact Change", and the other two were "E-ZPass" only lanes. I stopped the car about 50 feet before the booths because I didn't know what to do. While I sat there, I took the photo you see above.

Since my rental car didn't have an E-ZPass, I needed to find 50 cents to pay the toll or I would be forced to break the law, because there weren't any lanes with an attendant, and I didn't have any change.

I've had my E-ZPass so long, I took it for granted that I needed to stop to pay tolls... [More]

Continue...It's a TRAP! Why Toll Plazas Should Have at Least One Attendant...

What good is a digital purchase if you can't find it?

If you've been using iTunes for a while, there's a good chance that some of your earlier purchases are no longer available in the iTunes store. Whenever those items are removed from the store, they also vanish from your online library, which means that unless you make copies of the original files, there's no way to download them again. How dumb is that?

So, many of your old music, movies, books, apps, and audiobooks may be missing right now, and you won't even notice until you look for them.

I first discovered this after I purchased a bunch of Audible audiobooks from iTunes.

Since audiobooks tend to be pretty big files, I would periodically delete them from my local computer, under the assumption that I could re

... [More]

Continue...iTunes Purchases Should Be Downloadable Forever....

Here's how banks can offer an alternative to minimum balance maintenance fees.

One of the worst things about "Free Checking", is that banks find all sorts of ways of charging fees. For example, many banks charge a monthly fee whenever your balance drops below a pre-set amount, even if it only drops to that point one day in the month.

This has always bugged me, because that basically means that there's a portion of your money that you can never quite have access to. So even when you have $1100 in the account, you really only have $1000 you can touch. The bank wins whether they charge the fee or not, because if a million people never touch that remaining $100, they have $100 million more liquid funds to lend out on any given day.

The trouble is, as long as the account has... [More]

Continue...Security Deposits As An Alternative to Minimum Daily Balance....

How did we get to the point where we pay for commercial TV?

This one boggles my mind. Back in the old days, TV was free. It was pretty simple. The networks made millions off the commercials, so there was no reason to charge people to watch. The only exception was a small percentage of people in remote areas who paid a small fee for cable TV, because they were too far to get regular over the air reception.

It also made sense when HBO introduced the first premium subscription commercial free channel. Without commercials, it was perfectly clear why they charged for the service. Very simple to understand.

Somehow we've reached a point where the typical cable TV bill is over $100, and nearly every channel has commercials.

Every few years, at least one of the major... [More]

Continue...Commercial TV Should Be FREE...

Toll tags are being used like poker chips in a casino, so you never think of the actual cost each time you use them.

Here's a simple social experiment.

Studies have shown that people in casinos bet more when they use poker chips than they would if they had to take cash out of their pockets for each bet. That's the magic of tokenizing money. We don't think of it the same as we would with cash. Credit cards have the same effect on people, which is why stores love them.

How does this relate to toll tags like E-ZPass?

Ever since cities started implementing quick toll collection systems, customers have become less aware of the actual prices they are paying. This has made it easier for them to raise tolls, with minimal resistance from customers. Because many drivers o... [More]

Continue...Toll Tags Should Show the Amount PAID, Just Like Cash Customers....

I had a Pet Rock in the 70s. It came with a list of tricks it can do, especially STAY! At least I knew it was a novelty.

It's that time of the year again. What a perfect time to advertise the gift for the person who has everything... why not name a star after them?

According to the commercials, for about $50, they will ship a certificate and all sorts of gift worthy stuff to the person you are honoring. How cool is that? It's a gift they will be proud of.

There's nothing wrong with that. Other than the fact that star names aren't "officially" for sale. Just to be clear, there are a number of companies who have created unofficial lists of stars that they put into their own books. For a few bucks more, they will sell you a copy of their latest book. Just keep in mind... [More]

Continue...Want to Name a Star? The 21st Century Pet Rock. It's the Thought That Counts....

Not long ago, people complained when ATMs started charging 50 cents to withdraw funds. Now that ATMs cost as much as $6 or more, why aren't people complaining? Perhaps they don't know the whole story.

I would often use a Citibank ATM instead of my own bank, because it was 2 minutes closer to me and it had better parking.

Every time I used that ATM, it warned me that they charge $3 to use their ATM. That's only half true. Each ATM withdrawal was actually costing $6, because my own bank charges a $3 fee too, but the ATM doesn't tell you that. You only find out if you look at your bank statement.

The funny thing is I discovered this accidentally. I generally ignored the warning about the $3 ATM fee, because as far as I knew, my bank claimed that they waived a ce... [More]

Continue...ATMs Need to Disclose ALL Fees. Let's put a stop to $6+ ATM Fees....

Overdraft fees are a big source of revenue for banks.

Long before today's automation, a "Bounced Check" was actually a labor intensive activity. You wrote a check from your local checking account and sent it to somebody at a completely different bank, and that check travelled back and forth between the banks, until it "cleared". If your account didn't have the funds to cover it, the check was like a needle in a haystack... but they managed to send it back to the person who deposited it, only to be sent back to the original bank. It's no wonder they charged a fee for bouncing checks.

Times have changed. Labor has been eliminated, but the fees have grown larger.

Bank charges are understandable if somebody hand writes a bad check, because they are responsible for check

... [More]

Continue...6 Ways Banks Can Prevent Overdraft Fees....

What's worse than getting a $35 overdraft fee for a $5 debit card purchase?

Realizing they intentionally rigged their system to make it happen.

Banks are wonderful institutions. They are also a business trying to increase profits. I'm an Entrepreneur, so I'm not against that. What bothers me is that they don't play fair, because they intentionally process your transactions by sorting the highest charges first, to increase the number of overdraft fees..

What's the difference between sorting charges Lowest First vs Highest First?

Two words. BIG DIFFERENCE.

Consider the following premise.

1. Your checking account has $85 when you start your day.
2. You purchase 3 low priced items totalling $42, then charge a $100 item.

Based on th... [More]

Continue...Banks Should Stop Inflating Overdraft Charges by Sorting Charges By Amounts By LOWEST First...

Idea Of The Day. A new Idea Each Day. Some Don't Suck.

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