Tran Harry – The Economy Needs A Fix

I was pondering such a question because it seems that lately more companies have been raising their prices on services, including monthly services with small incremental increases.

A month back, I recall my credit card company raising my interest rate by about 2 percentage points, that got me irate because I was a solid customer, and notice the term was because I am no longer using their services. Today I got a letter in the mail saying that T-Mobile my phone company of choice is going to raise some fees that fund their regulatory obligation services by $0.50 cents per line on my account. While this isn’t going to be more than $2.00 since I have 4 accounts on my line, I don’t appreciate fee increases without proper explanation, and don’t feel the one page letter gave a reasonable explanation at all.

Could this mean the company is trying to get more money from their customers in a different way as a consequence of the slowing economy? Because they can no longer report strong sale numbers on their balance sheets they decide they can hike fees across the board with their customers and they’ll get the same break even increase in profits even if they were losing a few customers to delinquency on the other end because those customers could no longer afford to keep up with their bills.

Have you gotten any experiences where a company you have remained quite loyal to went ahead and hiked your fees up without due reason?

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Ever walk up to your aisle on the flight getting ready to seat yourself down and see this?

Not to poke fun at anyone, but there have been numerous complaints from passengers that they have had to squish themselves into their seat because the passenger next to them is consuming too much seating. This has lead to the airlines potentially thinking of charging over sized passengers for more seating space.

Should larger sized passengers be required to pay more for their seating on an airplane?

I guess the question boils down to whether or not someone needs to use two full seats to safely fit into the seat of an airplane. Another issue is if they can fit into one seat but by forcing themselves into one seat this causes unjust discomfort for the passengers next to them.

I think all passengers should be able to travel in the skies in as comfortable a means as necessary. It doesn’t seem fair when you get misplaced in a seating row next to two over sized passengers and are forced to be sardined between them for a 5 hour flight. If this were the case, these passengers definitely need to pay a bit extra to secure a second seating next to them so no other passenger has to feel extra discomfort.

I don’t believe the over sized passengers should have to pay the full price of an extra ticket though but rather like a class upgrade, just pay an extra premium for more seating room. Some people may feel this is unfair and targets a specific group of individuals but conversely by not offering an extra seat there are currently individuals who are helplessly victims of cramped seating.

I believe this ultimately boils down to the condition of the economy and how it pertains to the airline industry though more so than anything else. Airlines are looking for any and every cost cutting measure and profit monetizing means to try and stay operational. Using the economy as a crutch for instituting a fee hike for over sized people will seem justifiable due to the shrinking profit margins airlines have been witnessing. I mean if this was truly a problem it could have been addressed years ago.

In an attempt to add better value to the site I have decided to do away with the daily news feeds and start a weekly news feed instead which will include some 10-15 links at the end of each week which I have found are enriching pieces of articles to read.

With that said I will try my best to continue my efforts in providing my opinions during the course of each week in regards to the economy and our wallets.

I would like to take this moment to thank all my readers for their continued support and readership, without you the readers, this site will not be as it is.

Thank you,
Tran, Harry

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I noticed that this weekend I did a bit more driving than usual, and had to get a fill up earlier than my usual 10-14 day interval. But none the less here it is, my driving and mileage stats for the fill up that I entered into GasDandy my handy mileage tracker:

Well looking at the results the good news is that due to my freeway miles I did manage a lovely 38 miles per gallon during this fill up, although gas was more expensive due to the Summer season driving and gas ended up costing $0.08 cents a mile one penny higher than my previous fills I must say I am satisfied with my results.

As you can see, I love to keep track of the gas mileage on my vehicle. I find that by keeping a steady tally of my mileage it will help me save money by keeping me more conscience about my gas usage. If my gas mileage were to ever decrease drastically it is also a sign that there may be an underlying issue with my car, and I may need to have the vehicle inspected, or possibly tuned up. But I couldn’t do any of this without keeping accurate information regarding my mileage and GasDandy helps me take care of it all in an easy to use simple to install application.