Comments on: Who Actually Reads the Terms & Conditions?

By: Posts I Enjoyed Last Week

Posts I Enjoyed Last Week — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:30:52 +0000

[...] at Money Smart Life asks “Who actually reads the terms & conditions?” I almost never go through lengthy T&C line-by-line. Now I wonder if I have ever missed [...]

By: MakeType

MakeType — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 21:36:58 +0000

Yeah, its nuts how much it can cost you and one of the most worrisome aspects is how much at risk young people are. I just read an article titled “Plastic replaces pocket change,” and it says that people under 25 are using cards so much that the credit card companies are starting to call them Gen P – for generation plastic. Its really worth a read if you’re interested in seeing how much people depend on these things and don’t even think twice about the hidden fees and charges they could be paying like interchange. I remember when I was in college and I know I wasn’t that savvy when it came to these things, but thankfully I wasn’t a big credit card user – I just had one for overdraft protection that was associate with my checking account which still makes sense in my book for a college kid to have. If you’re interested in the article you can find it here:
http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070618/BUSINESS/706180317/1011/BUSINESS

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 04:48:14 +0000

Q, good luck with the C-section!

MakeType, I agree credit card fees can end up costing you a lot of money and if people don’t read the terms, they may not know what they’re on the hook for.

By: MakeType

MakeType — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 21:25:15 +0000

I think you raise a good point about the terms and conditions that credit cards companies throw at us. I think the biggest problem with these lengthy contracts and such is that even if a normal person were to read them all they probably wouldn’t be able to understand it either. Additionally, I think the credit card companies are not upfront with they ways they can change their rates and fees without consumers knowing what is going on. Hopefully http://www.unfaircreditcardfees.com who I work with and other similar groups will help to shed some light on hidden costs like interchange fees that most consumers don’t even know exist. While just being able read through all of the terms and conditions would be a positive first step with this issue, I think there is a lot more too it and that nothing will be done if the credit card companies are left to their own devices.

By: Tim

Tim — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 19:18:46 +0000

Q, surfing porn is perfectly fine at the hospital…it’s surfing for malpractice information which is prohibited.

By: Q at $1 Million to My Name

Q at $1 Million to My Name — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 12:36:26 +0000

Here at the hospital, 30 minutes before they performed a C-section on my wife (major surgery), they were shoving consent forms under her to sign.

Heck, to even type this comment, I had to log on to the hospital’s wireless network. To do so requires you hit “OK” below a long list of Terms and Conditions. Yeah sure I’ll read that! I think it mostly says don’t surf porn in the hospital.

By: MoneyNing

MoneyNing — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 02:13:49 +0000

The obvious safe answer is of course “Yes, you should read the full terms and conditions”. I’m one of those that don’t read the terms and conditions, but I would guess that you can call the company up, and in most cases ask someone to explain the terms and conditions to you line by line where you can hear someone say something and compare it to the words shown on the sentence.

This probably works particularly well on mortgages etc since there is usually someone with you when you sign a document. This would not work so well in something like signing up for the adsense account.