Personal Finance Advice

You get a phone call from someone who claims to be from your utility company.  He wants you to sign up for a new payment plan that is supposed to potentially save you money in the long run, but you don’t quite understand the details.  He explains it to you a few different ways but you still aren’t quite sure how the program works.  He keeps assuring you that you will save money by enrolling in the program and he’s urging you to make a decision because he has other phone calls to make before his shift is over. 

It’s not like he’s trying to swindle you; he’s a real employee with a place you do business with, so it’s not that you have to be apprehensive about giving him the okay to make changes to your account.  The problem is that he’s trying to get you to sign up for something that you don’t entirely understand and he’s not explaining it sufficiently for you to decide if it’s a good decision for your money or not.  What do you do?

Don’t let anyone pressure you into signing up for something you don’t fully understand.  Maybe your credit card company wants you to sign up for a credit protection program that sounds like a good idea but you don’t know if it really is worth your money.  If you can’t seem to figure out the full details of the program, don’t sign up for it.

In fact, unless you are absolutely sure that the person calling you is a true representative of the company you do business with, you shouldn’t sign up for anything over the phone.

Here is what you should do if you aren’t entirely sure what you’re signing up for:

1.  Tell the representative that you have a policy of not signing up for new programs over the phone.  If you sound as if you don’t make exceptions to this rule, the representative will probably stop with the hard sell.

2.  Ask the representative to send you information through the mail.  This way you can read through the program details at your leisure and make an informed decision.

3.  If the representative won’t take no for an answer then hang up.

This not only is a solid plan when dealing with representatives from companies you do business with, but also works for unsolicited phone calls, such as charities you have never heard of.   

Don’t make hasty decisions regarding your money just because you want to get off the phone.