Vacation Rental Scam--I don't think so!

One of the many Key West Roosters

My family loves Key West, FL. We happened upon it during a cruise where the only thing going well was that we were with a bunch of great friends (who would have imagined eight foot waves in the Bahamas?). Our day trip in Key West, on my birthday to boot, was the salvation of that vacation. We have been back several times, always staying at the Sheraton Suites, which is a nice hotel, but not close to Duval Street.  In October, we decided to go to Key West for New Years Eve and to rent an apartment within walking distance of downtown. We are not novices to renting apartments for vacation, having done this our recent two-week vacation in three different European countries. And, my 19 years as a Consumer Protection Investigator taught me to triple check any contract.

We were surprised how incredibly popular Key West is for New Years. Most of the places we contacted politely controlled their laughter while letting us know that they are booked for New Years by July. Undaunted, we continued to look and found a perfect place-3 bedrooms, close to downtown, modern beautiful decor and a reasonable price. What's not to like? We had done it--found a "perfect" place in spite of the competitive demand (Sign #1). The emails had some misspelling (Sign #2) but were very courteous and professional. They had a website with two other properties so seemed to be a business. Racing off to work, I implored my husband to make the Paypal deposit as directed by the "business" and use a credit card of course. When he went to make the deposit, he noticed that the email address was a personal gmail address, not a business email address (Sign #3). Luckily, that sent up a alert for him and he called Key West City government to see if they required a license for rentals and if this "business" had one. The answer was yes followed by a no (Sign #4). Since we had been provided with an actual property address, I then found the owner of the property and called her. I was surprised that she actually picked up the phone and then not surprised when she immediately told me not to make any payment, and this was the second call she had had in a week on the scam.

Disgusted but determined, we continued our search. I was impressed by the helpful nature of all the condo owners we called--truly in the Key West spirit--they were tremendously helpful by giving me referrals which resulted in finding rooms in a wonderful hotel, The Palms Hotel, and having an amazing New Years trip.

Thinking of renting an apartment for a vacation? Do it! It's a great way to integrate into an area and have more space/amenities than some hotels. But be cautious and do your research:

• It it sounds too good to be true, it is. Look somewhere else.
• Check the rental licensing laws and make sure your company has one.
• Check the property records to locate the owner of the property. These records are generally public information and can be found by searching property tax records.
• If the name of the owner is not the same as the company, try to locate the owner and ask if the rental is legitimate.
• Check complaint records on larger rental companies to ensure they don't have a negative history. 
• Check out the rentals on the larger, well known sites such as TripAdvisor, VRBO and Airbnb and be aware that CraigsList, while a good site overall, contains a lot of vacation rental scams. 
• Use a credit card, not your debit card and by no means pay by cash, money order or check until you get to the rental and inspect it. 
• We saw 4 classic signs of a scam before confirming that it was indeed a scam. If you see 3, cut your lost time and look for another place. 

Frugal Football Fan

I love watching the Baltimore Ravens play football. It's so cool being in Baltimore on a Friday before a game and seeing the majority of people on the street wearing purple. Even in business meetings, people in Baltimore have figured out how to incorporate purple on those Fridays. Team Spirit is everywhere. But being loyal to a NFL team can be expensive. Tickets to games, official jerseys, parties at your house and all the stuff to decorate your car, home and office with your team logo can derail your Spending Plan. Fear not. There are ways to show your team spirit without blowing the budget. Look for apparel like long sleeve t-shirts, polos or sweatshirts at discount places like Kohls or Walmart. Royal Farms often has NFL car magnets, lanyards or hats at a decent price. Try eBay or even yard sales, some people ditch their team when they move from the area ( disappointing, I know). If you really want to go to a game, try Stubhub or SeatGeek for tickets or try to find someone who has season tickets but doesn't want to go to every games. While these are not always low cost options, they may be less expensive than full price tickets. If you bring in food or even one bottle of water to the game, do it! Park farther away from the stadium if safe and possible, a little extra walking can save lots on parking fees. Toward the end of the season, try negotiating with those vendors outside the stadium, they don't want to have that merchandise sit around for another 6 months and may be willing to give you a good deal.  If you're having the gang over to watch the game, do a pot luck so you don't bear the cost of everything. Stock up on football decorating things at the end of football season, when most Party City stores will discount those items 50%.

So. do what you need to do to support your team-in a financially responsible way. GO RAVENS!!!

Frightful Halloween Costs

Saying that sometimes Americans go overboard on consumption is an understatement. Our grocery stores are three times the size of most grocery stores in Europe. Our closet and the clothes they contain would outfit most families in other countries for years. Not to mention the number of households (mine included) that have more TV's than family members (if I could only count our dogs in that number). Halloween is definitely one of the American overboard examples. Between costumes for yourself; the kids; dogs (yep, I've done that as well); decorations; food for a party; or the actual candy given out to the trick or treaters, this holiday can cost a fortune. Take this 10 second Survey Monkey poll on how much you have spend on Halloween. I'll post the findings in November.

For full disclosure, I was one of those Americans spending way too much on Halloween. I absolutely loved this holiday when our children were young, carefully picking costumes months in advance, joyously decorating the house and yard with decorations, making cookies for the school Halloween parade and relishing in the fun of trick/treating. Looking back, I realize that some of that hard earned money was not well spent.  Here are some ideas on spending less money while still enjoying all the fun of dressing up and relentless pursuit of candy:

• Look for costumes at thrift stores, consignment shops or yard sales. The store bought ones for children, especially young girls, often cause you to have that awkward conversation in the store aisle about what's appropriate anyway. 
• Consider not putting your child into a costume until they can walk to the door to ask for candy on their own. Put the money you would have spent into a college fund.   
• Try making a costume that shows some creativity like these in a Huffington Post article.
• Decorations are another thing to get at thrift stores and yard sales.
• Don't get your dog a costume. I've done it. Thought it was cute at the time until they ripped it to shreds. It wasn't so cute that $20 disappeared so fast. Maybe a cheap bandana.  
• Put money into the type of candy you give out. You're less likely to have your house egged once those kids become teenagers if you give good candy (no apples or dental floss).
• If you're going to host a party, suggest a Halloween appetizer cook off with a prize to the winner. You can work on supplying some basic food, drinks and paper goods while your friends have fun creating delicious dishes.

Of course, please remember to consider your child's safety during Halloween.  Here are tips from Safe Kids Worldwide.  

Love to Shop? Read This First.

Who doesn't love to shop? While there are many people, even in my own family, who would rather have dental work than go shopping, I have to admit to to be one of the many people who truly love shopping. But, the thrill of buying is tainted if I didn't get a great deal on the price. So for those of us who hunt for the perfect item at the perfect price--here are a few ideas:

• Look online for price comparisons before hitting the physical stores, or better yet, get the item online at the price you want and stay out of the stores. You'll resist the temptation to buy other items by not seeing them.
• Check out Consumer Reports' "Shop Smart" magazine. It combines the reliability testing of products done by Consumer Reports with tons of helpful ideas to get good deals on products.
• Get to know the thrift/secondhand stores in your area. Find out what days they put new merchandise out and when they offer deeper discounts on certain color tags. i.e, 50% off on all blue tags on Sundays.
• Don't disregard certain stores because you think they're too high end. Some of those stores have amazing sales--I just got a long sleeve really nice casual men's shirt for $15 at Lord & Taylor.
• If you're willing to, sign up to get text messages of sales codes for stores. You don't have to carry any paper coupons with you (or, like most of us, forget to bring them in the store).
• Make sure you check the return policy of the store in case you might not want that item. Many stores are changing their policies and you don't want to lose the money spent. 
• For kids toys, garden tools, flower pots and outside furniture, try yard sales. They usually always have items for tons less than new.
• Plan some purchases around the "tax free" week your state may sponsor in August before back to school. Taxes add up.
• Lastly, be sure that any purchase is in your Spending Plan. The thrill of finding the perfect item for the perfect price sours quickly if you go into debt for it.

Authorized User/Co-Signer--Who Cares?

I come across a lot of people who have no idea what their legal and financial status is when they have a credit card or a loan with someone else. One mom let me know that she's working two jobs so she can pay her son's student loan which he can't pay. She co-signed the loan and doesn't want a negative account on her credit report and risk a lawsuit by not paying. Other women have told me that they are authorized users on their partner's credit card and wonder how that affects their credit.
Let's define the terms first:

Authorized User--someone who has permission to make charges on another person's credit card, but is not legally responsible for the debt.  Mint.com calls it "having a Credit card with training wheels". Pretty attractive for the authorized user. The primary account holder needs to exercise caution with this--if the authorized user makes a ton of purchases, the lender is looking to the Account holder to pay.

Co-Signer--Two people sign for a loan or credit card--both can make purchases/get the loan and both are legally responsible for the debt. If the primary person doesn't pay the debt, the co-signer will be the next person the lender comes to for payment (hence the mom working 2 jobs example above).

Information on the account is reported to the Credit Reporting Bureaus for all the parties involved--there is a myth out there that nothing is reported for the authorized user but that is incorrect. If fact, according to Experian, being an authorized user can help to build credit, if the account is in good standing (if the account is not and could harm an authorized users credit, they can have that account taken off).

It's important before you get into a legal and financial transaction with someone, that you are completely aware of what your risk is--what you will be responsible for--and how it could impact your credit rating. If you allow someone to be an authozied user on your credit card, be specific on the amount that person can spend, check your account often to ensure there aren't additional charges and be ready to take that person off the account if needed. If you co-sign with someone, make sure the payments on being made on time and be aware that you are at risk for the entire loan if that person bials on you.
For more information, see Bankrate.com article.