00:00:00:00 - 00:00:28:10
Unknown
Dollars and cents with HAPO Community Credit Union helps empower our listeners to achieve financial success while living for today and planning for tomorrow. This podcast focuses on financial education, community support, fraud prevention, real life stories of financial transformation, and much more. HAPO Community Credit Union serves Washington and Oregon with over 18 locations. Bank on more when you bank with us.

00:00:28:12 - 00:00:54:11
Unknown
Hi everybody, and welcome back to another episode of Dollars and Cents. How about community credit unions financial literacy podcast? Today in the studio we are going to be talking about, something a little bit different. We're going to be talking about sales and marketing trends that have been happening online, in different apps, different websites and sales gimmicks, and whether or not those are creating good or bad consumer habits.

00:00:54:13 - 00:01:21:22
Unknown
Today in the podcast studio, we've got a couple of HAPO employees with us. We have Stephen from Card Services, Lean Financial Education, and Stephanie with our community engagement. Welcome, everybody, to the podcast. Thank you. Thank you. So, kind of an interesting topic today. Talking about just the general landscape of sales and marketing out there and how it may or may not impact.

00:01:22:00 - 00:01:52:06
Unknown
Just a quick rundown of some of the things we're going to, cover. Some of the interest free payment options that are out there, companies like Klarna and Affirm offering, either like don't pay, purchase it now, but pay for it later or, installment plans on payments. Amazon. Everybody loves Amazon. I'm sure everybody is getting ready for Amazon Christmas coming up here soon where, packages just arrive and you probably forgot what you purchased last night.

00:01:52:08 - 00:02:14:03
Unknown
So free gifts for yourself there. One click and buy now options. Basically removing a lot of barriers from, your need to, think about your decision before purchasing. Subscribe and save a fantastic way to save some money, possibly. Or a way to just end up with a whole lot of product you don't need.

00:02:14:04 - 00:02:41:05
Unknown
Talks about some subscription solutions. What out there? How many people are paying for 17 different, Netflix accounts? Or more? More likely. How many different streaming services you've got currently queued up? Now that, you know cable TV is gone, gone away or what other subscriptions might be out there? We'll probably start talking about social media and some of the other, mass market applications and whatnot.

00:02:41:07 - 00:03:03:17
Unknown
So go ahead, everybody. What do you think is going to be the most interesting topic that we've got today? Good question. I think for me, as someone that has used Amazon for a while, that'll be pretty interesting to me. I've definitely into the trap of how easy it is to remove the barriers to purchasing, make more money.

00:03:03:18 - 00:03:28:06
Unknown
Yeah. How about you Myleene. I think some of those social apps like TikTok shop Temu. And because I'm very familiar but I have not used TikTok to shop. So are you are you one of those people that that staying off of social media, or are you just avoiding the shops on social media? I'm trying to be really mindful.

00:03:28:08 - 00:03:56:15
Unknown
Okay. What I'm clicking out. And how about you, Steve? And how much of a of an online social media presence do you have? Are you do you consider yourself an influencer? Absolutely not. Not not much at all. I think what most interests me, it is the team who, those things. Just because I'm not familiar with those, I haven't got the rush of finding, an item I've been looking for for 70% of its normal price.

00:03:56:17 - 00:04:16:17
Unknown
So, Or at least how much they're claiming it's normal. Price is interested to kind of learn about that and get a better feel for for what exactly that is. All right. Well, let's go ahead and jump right into those that and talking about kind of these, these apps that are out there that provide you with these 80%, 90%.

00:04:16:17 - 00:04:47:12
Unknown
Oh, it's free. Just pay for shipping. Type of deals. We're talking about those. We're talking about like you mentioned TMO wish she and AliExpress a lot of these if I'm not mistaken. I don't want to jump to conclusions too much, but I believe are, Chinese based applications for products manufactured in China, mass marketed, mass produced, and more often than not, looking through those, we find a lot of the same product listed by a couple of different names.

00:04:47:12 - 00:05:09:15
Unknown
And honestly, for me, half of the time it looks like they they grab like eight random letters and numbers to be their company name, but they're offering an 80% discount on on a thing. And so why wouldn't you give that a shot? Like when you guys are out looking and shopping for things? Are these a type of platform that you're going to go look at first?

00:05:09:16 - 00:05:30:07
Unknown
Obviously, Stephen, we just mentioned you haven't really been out on those. So my guess is not so much for you, but you've been out on Amazon and and whatnot. So Stephanie, what about you? Are you in in on these. So for me, things like Team Michigan. No, I think I've just seen so many reviews stating that the quality is just not there.

00:05:30:07 - 00:05:50:17
Unknown
And for me and just the fast fashion aspect of it just doesn't sit right with me. Okay. So for me, that hasn't been something I have really gotten into. I will say though, I am an Amazon user and sometimes I will purchase an article of clothing that has like a Sheehan tag on it so that that's kind of interesting, but, never directly from those from those apps.

00:05:50:18 - 00:06:11:20
Unknown
Okay. And so what about the Amazon purchases? Makes you more confident in them than the other ones. Is that return policies? Is it the same? And options. They just make it so easy. I mean it's I mean I guess they're all easy to use. But with Amazon, it like you said, it's one click and your address is already in your payments already.

00:06:11:20 - 00:06:38:09
Unknown
And I think you are you're able to kind of see all the rates and reviews right there. So you can kind of read through them, see what's good, see what's not good. Okay. Now here's the fun thing from my experience with Tamu, where she and you have all of those same thing, I'm realizing that now that I'm speaking, it's it's an interesting balance, but I would agree that I feel like the information that I'm getting on Amazon feels more legitimate to me.

00:06:38:10 - 00:06:57:10
Unknown
Me too. Yeah. I don't know if that comes with the price tag that is on the item. Like, I feel like I'm going to get a better quality of item because I paid more for it, even if it's literally the same item that I'd be buying on one of the other apps. How do you guys feel about about that as a concept?

00:06:57:10 - 00:07:16:00
Unknown
Is the price tag part of what matters? Are you going to get the cheapest thing you can find, or are you going to look at that one and be like, they might have, might have, skimped on the fabric quality on this one, or the stitching looks like it's probably going to be bad if I don't pay the extra 5 or $10, I might be on the same page, kind of.

00:07:16:02 - 00:07:51:07
Unknown
If I'm I if I'm shopping and I look at the price, there is that tendency that I'll be more comfortable paying a little bit more than, going towards to the cheaper price of it. And, I'm very familiar with the HTML and stuff like, okay. And chain, but like I said, and I heard like, exactly what what what Stephanie said, I saw reviews and firsthand, I heard that the quality is just there, and there's something about the Amazon.

00:07:51:07 - 00:08:26:17
Unknown
It's such a big company. And there's always that, like you said, the policy might be similar, which I. I, I never look into their policy when it comes to return, but so in my experiences with TMO and where their return policy is, is very similar. And the number one difference that I've experienced is, timeline. So because a lot of these are shipping, directly from China, there is a much longer shipping time in it arriving as well as returning a product.

00:08:26:19 - 00:08:53:05
Unknown
So I've had, free returns on, on products there when they showed up and I was like, oh, you claim that this was a quadruple extra large and should fit my, not so tiny self. And yet somehow I need to know the scaling on that didn't seem to to pan out. Now I realize that, the, the Asian sizing very different, than American sizing.

00:08:53:07 - 00:09:15:20
Unknown
I just didn't know how many axes I needed to throw in front of that shirt that I wanted. And so a quick return to get a different size ended up being almost four weeks of of turnaround time to send it back, get it accepted, and then turn around and get the get the reply Amazon 3 or 4 days I feel like we experience here.

00:09:15:21 - 00:09:38:00
Unknown
So while the policies seem to be pretty much the same, obviously the distance that that product is traveling changes a little bit of like Amazon's overnight shipping and Prime delivery one day delivery options. I feel like Amazon is winning in that category, but it seems like maybe the policies are all pretty well on par with each other. If you're willing to wait.

00:09:38:00 - 00:10:01:15
Unknown
If you plan ahead enough for a Halloween costume, I don't know, ordering in May so you can make sure it fits and then send it back and then get another one and then realize that one's not the right fit either. And but whereas ordering from Amazon, I feel like you can get those more often than not. For me, I feel like I get everything like a day or two earlier than they're even projecting on those.

00:10:01:16 - 00:10:27:10
Unknown
How about you, Stephen? What about, those things, jumps out to you? Are you going to be looking to pay more for a quality product, or are you looking for the best deal on what looks like the same product, or both? I think the the main thing that that has kept me away from, you know, the team or sites and the AliExpress is I share the same sentiment as them as I do my research, usually before I buy.

00:10:27:12 - 00:10:47:23
Unknown
I know quality is an issue and I think as a consumer, I take into consideration we could use a Nike as an example. Okay, I can get a pair of Nike shoes for $120 team who's got them for $60? They may be knockoffs. I'm going to pay 60. They might last me six months, but I could pay the full on 20.

00:10:47:23 - 00:11:17:20
Unknown
They might last me two years. Me as a consumer, I'd rather pay the extra and have it last longer and have a better product. I'd agree. And so that's what's kept me away from those sites. And for me personally, I would, I prefer, I would prefer to get everything cheap would be great. But unfortunately the world we live in and I would, I would rather pay a few extra dollars or even 20 extra dollars for something that's going to last me a quality product, and I'm going to get my money's worth out of it.

00:11:17:22 - 00:11:35:02
Unknown
Then, you know, get that discounts and, you know, have it fall apart or have it not show up, not as described. And then I have to wait six more weeks when I got a hole in my other pair of shoes and yeah, toes hanging out. So that's, that's kind of the, the way I look at it and just kind of what's kept me away from those sites.

00:11:35:02 - 00:11:59:12
Unknown
I think for some people, I think that makes a lot of sense. That's a sentiment that I think a lot of people get. All three of you shared that the reviews, the quality of that product doesn't seem to be there with those those mass discount sites. One of the things that I did notice about those that I wanted to talk about as far as the marketing schemes, and I'm going to go with schemes as far as, as this is concerned.

00:11:59:14 - 00:12:16:07
Unknown
It doesn't sound like any of you really use HTML. Except for maybe you might have you use their application, their app for your phone, or just, how did you go about working with them if you did? Yeah, I did not use it. Okay. So I'm just going to have to narrative this one for you guys.

00:12:16:09 - 00:12:41:18
Unknown
They have been doing a very interesting thing that a lot of people refer to as Gamifying. So gamifying their discounts when you open up the app. And honestly, you can't open up the app without like having to click through 800 different screens to actually get to a product search. They are marketing out of the gate. All the things, and what they've been doing is, like, you open the app and it's like, oh, click to spin here to see what sort of discount you can get.

00:12:41:20 - 00:13:00:21
Unknown
And there's a little disclaimer at the bottom that says everybody gets the same thing. And of course it always spins by far the best option. And if it didn't, that's because it spins. Try again. And so you click it and it does it again. But you spend the entire time waiting for it to happen. But now you feel like you have gotten this great deal.

00:13:00:23 - 00:13:29:11
Unknown
And a lot of times some are like, oh, 300% off in coupons for return value based on the price of what you purchased. And it ends up being almost deceptive. If you're not reading all of it, you're like, okay, cool. If you spend $50, we're going to give you $150 in coupons, okay, cool. But then you see those coupons and it's like, $15 off your purchase of $50 or more.

00:13:29:13 - 00:13:51:22
Unknown
And it's a bunch of those. So you've got to use them regularly, and they all expire like three days after each other. So it's again, they're just trying to get you back into the application to do it again and do it again. And once you've started using it. So fair warning, for those of you who haven't, you're going to get 3 or 4 emails a day from their marketing department talking about, hey, here's this discount that we've got for you.

00:13:51:23 - 00:14:14:06
Unknown
And every now and again, I've gotten, one that provided me with a free product. Just pay shipping. And funny enough, I've actually gotten 1 or 2 things that were really actually useful and high quality. I've also gotten a couple of things on there that were 100% in that stereotype, bad quality product, and I was like, wow, I made a poor choice here.

00:14:14:08 - 00:14:31:07
Unknown
But those those are the type of things that I've dealt with on those applications, which is kind of what I wanted to talk about them today. But yeah, that, that Gamifying have you dealt with that in any other situations advertising wise, where they're trying to get you excited, make it look like you were the one that got the best discount?

00:14:31:09 - 00:14:48:06
Unknown
I've definitely seen, spin the wheel before. I think that's a popular one, but I think I think it's because it's really easy to do. Like, more often than not. I think I see it when I'm leaving a site without having bought anything. They're like, oh, hey, you sure you want to leave now? Spin this wheel, we'll give you a discount.

00:14:48:06 - 00:15:05:20
Unknown
And it's almost always the exact same thing. I think it's kind of this kind of along the same lines is when you go on a site, and as soon as you get on the site, it pops up. Enter your email address if you want to 15%. You say no and it says, you know, or your options are yes or no.

00:15:05:20 - 00:15:19:23
Unknown
I don't like to say yeah, exactly. And and I think that plays, with people's emotions like, well, yeah, you know what? I do want to save money. And so they might rethink they might rethink their decision on okay, I can put my email in to save a little bit of money and putting it right out of the gate.

00:15:19:23 - 00:15:49:17
Unknown
You don't know if you if you don't like everything on their site. Yeah. So why wouldn't you get a code for 15% off and then you're going to get the emails. Exactly. They're never going to end. Unsubscribe only gets you so far. Yes. That is an interesting point though. Getting that 15% off, lowering the barrier to buying something and then getting your contact information to send out more deals, more marketing, try and get you to come back regularly.

00:15:49:19 - 00:16:11:04
Unknown
One of the things that we'll we'll shift gears here a little bit, because it, it came to mind when we talk about that, as soon as you can get in somebody's inbox, the likelihood of them coming back to your website to purchase again, return business, is actually one of the main marketing points for Klarna and Affirm and other other companies.

00:16:11:06 - 00:16:33:07
Unknown
And products like that. How much do you guys know about those? I have not used them personally, but they're always whenever you shop, you see, for ECP or for easy payment, if you can afford it. I've used a program like that. It was, I think it I believe it was synchrony. Okay. I use it to purchase guitars.

00:16:33:12 - 00:16:50:14
Unknown
Okay. It was, it was no interest, I believe, for, full year. Oh, dang. Okay. I don't have the $1,500 for this guitar I want. I know I can make it work over the year. And so I did. It wasn't Klarna or Affirm itself, but it was same type of program. Okay. I think for me it was it was beneficial.

00:16:50:16 - 00:17:11:19
Unknown
Yeah. So, Stephanie, how about you? Yeah. I've never used either of those. Have you seen them though? 100%. Oh, every time I've online shop, they're always an option hundred dollar item or for interest free payments of $25 apiece. I've been offered on $30 items. I've seen it. It says, you know, for a trip, oh, six bucks or.

00:17:11:19 - 00:17:44:07
Unknown
Oh, yeah. So as far as those go, those companies, first, Klarna is a, if I remember correctly, a Swedish, fintech financial technology company. They're actually a, a different financial institution that is offering these, and, so it's a firm, but I believe a firm is, based in the USA, and that is just kind of their entry thing that they get you, into, and they offer it on multiple different websites.

00:17:44:07 - 00:18:13:14
Unknown
But the way that they get themselves on those sites isn't necessarily because Amazon doesn't think you can pay for this product. It's because Klarna and a firm are guaranteeing increases in number of sales, revenue and return customers based on the ability to utilize, that spreading that cost out. Now, for me, I probably fall into the same range as you, Stephen.

00:18:13:14 - 00:18:33:23
Unknown
I'd be looking at it when we're starting to get up into, like, say, a $1,500 purchase up in that range, $30 purchase if I can't, if I can't pay that one right out of the gate and I'm budgeting $6 a month or something like that, I probably shouldn't be looking at using this product. But 0% interest at the same time, is that ever a bad thing?

00:18:34:01 - 00:18:59:06
Unknown
Zero interest is not it's not a bad thing if you really need the product. Yeah. And also like you said, maybe it depends on that amount. But we need to be careful when you start using those because you're going to have that cycle of trying to have, to purchase something like the instant gratification and having that product instead of just, saving for it or paying it off.

00:18:59:08 - 00:19:21:00
Unknown
Yeah, that retail therapy idea. Also, how many people out there do you believe are actually adding that into their budget? If they're if they're really budgeting, they're like, okay, now I need to know that for the next four months, I've got this $25 payment that needs to be handled. Let's add that on my known budget versus now it's just cheaper today.

00:19:21:00 - 00:19:59:08
Unknown
So I'm just going to do it and I'm gonna do it 80 different times. And now I've got all these payments that are spread out over different months. And how well are you keeping up with those? I think that's probably the real pitfall of those is over using them. Yeah. And you're having that false sense of, security with your finances, because if you're having all those different ones and you cannot really afford $100, especially 400, $100 for easy payments of $25, I, I rather save for $100 and pay it one time and having those four easy payments of $25.

00:19:59:13 - 00:20:21:23
Unknown
Yeah. And I know that, at least with a firm, I did a little bit of looking into the two companies, early on, a firm is actually, again, another fintech, but I believe in, in the United States. And, they offer payments through their app. So now they're getting on your phone, and kind of like giving them your email address.

00:20:21:23 - 00:20:51:19
Unknown
Now, they're now they're in your inbox. They want you to get their credit card. You can you can do the affirm payments now with your credit card, with our personal one. And from what I was seeing, it isn't so much the customer that they're making their money off of because you'd think that they would need to charge some level of interest if they're going to, basically, because it sounds like to me, they pay for the product that you get, and then they just charge you for it over time.

00:20:51:21 - 00:21:17:08
Unknown
So they're putting all $100 down and then they're just getting 25 back. Effectively. That's a loan. And so you would think any loan is, is the person holding the loan takes that risk. And therefore that's why you pay interest. But at 0%, they can't be making any money on just those. They're making their money on the processing fees for those sales.

00:21:17:08 - 00:21:42:23
Unknown
And companies like Amazon are more than happy to let them do it, because they're the ones taking on the risk and increasing sales. So Amazon's getting paid for that product one way or the other. And affirm is taking on the risk. And then of course a firm is using that from what I can tell, to get more members to come in to use their services and get their card.

00:21:43:01 - 00:22:09:05
Unknown
So I, I guess it kind of feels like it's a win win across the board, but I also notice that they do more than just 0% loans, and their loan rates look like they were anywhere from like 0 to 30%, which 30% to me feels like a really big number. But I know that when we get into, certain credit card fees and interest rates, especially if you've missed a payment or two, those can quickly jump up into those numbers as well.

00:22:09:07 - 00:22:29:02
Unknown
So yeah, I would I would say that I agree that the 0% loans are harmless. I think they're, they're good for some, for some people, you know, like I said, I've used them before. Oh, yeah. Same saved me. But I do kind of take caution when you see the ones that are 0% save for a year or maybe two years.

00:22:29:04 - 00:22:50:14
Unknown
But in the fine print, it says that if this loan isn't paid in full, in that year or two year time frame, that we're going to add up all the interest from those first two years. And we're going to we're going to put it on top of the loan. There. Yeah. They're sitting there keeping tabs on the interest the entire time because your payments probably not structured to pay everything off in 12 months.

00:22:50:14 - 00:23:11:00
Unknown
Right. Yeah. Usually you would be just paying. But you know, most people if they're going to take that kind of loan, most likely they may only be able to afford the minimum payment if they haven't planned it out. So the minimum payment isn't going to cover that full four year loan in two years. And, so that interest for those first two years builds up and then, depending on how it structure that could make your minimum payment go up.

00:23:11:00 - 00:23:27:12
Unknown
So now you have a bigger payment than what you had maybe planned for. And obviously you, you end up paying more in the long run. And, so I think I think in the end, those could be good if you, if you get a, you know, a four year loan, it's two years, interest free and, you know, you can pay it off in those two years.

00:23:27:12 - 00:23:43:04
Unknown
You just don't have the money to to do it upfront. So that's why you're getting that loan. I think that can be good, but I just think it's I think it's something people should be cautious about. When you see 0% read the fine, fine print. Yeah. Make sure you understand what you're getting yourself into. And and always plan ahead.

00:23:43:10 - 00:24:03:22
Unknown
Yeah. The budgeting concept. Planning ahead on that, knowing that, hey, here's this, this expense that like, a personal example. A couple of years ago, my air conditioning unit decided to die. It was 119 degrees outside, so I don't blame it. I didn't want to be outside working either. But it decided to just quit working forever.

00:24:04:00 - 00:24:26:21
Unknown
And that was a very large, price tag to get fixed, and we wanted it fixed right out of the gate because it was 119 degrees outside, and it was very quickly like 90 degrees inside at that point in time. And so we ended up doing a, a financing plan through the air conditioning company. That was a 12 month, 0% interest.

00:24:26:23 - 00:24:42:06
Unknown
But it was 100% that it was at the end of that 12 months. If it's not paid off, all of that interest is going to get added to the loan after the fact. And like we then looked at everything and were like, okay, cool, let's do what we can. We're going to plan for like ten months out.

00:24:42:08 - 00:25:05:23
Unknown
We're going to get this thing paid off at that point in time. So we started setting money aside into, a different account, because if I'm paying at 0%, but they don't really care. It was like, okay, let's make that minimum payment every month, and we're going to stack the rest of it away and earn whatever percentage our savings account is going to add to this, or checking account or money market account is going to add on to this money.

00:25:06:01 - 00:25:25:02
Unknown
We're just going to keep setting that aside, let it earn a little bit and then take it all out and pay off that with at least a month buffer to go, because that was the last thing I wanted was, oh yeah, no, no, you made the payment by this date, but you need to do it the day before in order to avoid all that interest.

00:25:25:04 - 00:25:53:06
Unknown
How many how many of the others of, have utilized any of those long term 0% interest situations? I actually did, those one year, 12 months, zero interest, doing home improvement. Okay, Lowe's and Home Depot as well. So with that, I'm very careful, using those type of zero interest, knowing what will happen if you don't pay it off.

00:25:53:08 - 00:26:20:15
Unknown
So, I always trying to make sure to divide the payments into either ten months or 11 months, so I'm not paying just a minimum. But yeah, that that buffer to make sure that if for whatever reason, something else comes up that you can still make it because more often than not, that additional interest that's going to get tacked on there is a little bit more of a headache than I think anybody's wanting to, to get at the end of something like that.

00:26:20:17 - 00:26:38:20
Unknown
Like, I know for my situation, I would have been like, okay, if I, if I messed that up, at least I had air conditioning for those 12 months. But I still definitely was not going to be looking forward to the interest on on that because I think it it was going to be like an 18% interest that was tacked on at the end of that particular one.

00:26:38:22 - 00:27:01:07
Unknown
And that is, that is, no small interest rate for, for that. But yeah, we we managed to to get ours paid off in that 11 month time frame before we had to had the stare, stare down the barrel of the, of the big interest and, and for us, we actually decided to do that because I think it was two months before we reroof the house.

00:27:01:09 - 00:27:18:07
Unknown
So I was like, okay, cool. We had budgeted for one of those things, but definitely not the other. And it really did help as far as like the long term budgeting was, was concerned to make sure that we were good to go. We weren't going to have any issues there. And with the home improvement project, that's probably a lot of budgeting going into that as well.

00:27:18:07 - 00:27:40:12
Unknown
And spreading those costs out is definitely going to be a lot nicer for planning purposes. Yeah, especially like you said, it's not something that we, anticipated that's going to happen. So, that it's just one of those things that we don't really have the savings and sometimes those are the one other is makes sense then going to for easy payment for little things.

00:27:40:12 - 00:27:43:19
Unknown
So.

00:27:43:21 - 00:28:06:02
Unknown
Yeah. I think to my lens point that, you know, when something does come up that's unexpected, you know, you rather than put it on your credit card and pay that 18% or, you know, if you have good credit, 15%, you know, you get that 0%, you know, and so I think that in those situations, it's advantageous for a lot of people to use it.

00:28:06:02 - 00:28:23:07
Unknown
And, I think it really comes in handy in those situations. Yeah, definitely. I think that's one of those things that we all know that if you can get a lower interest rate on something, that's that's a good thing. And 0%, unless they're paying you for having a loan with them, is as good as you're going to get.

00:28:23:09 - 00:28:46:08
Unknown
But again, don't don't get caught not reading that fine print. Pay attention to what's going to happen if you don't follow through on your side of things. And just to add to those, one, your interest, if it's, there is a lot of furniture, places that does that if, you know, you're just doing it just to update your furniture, maybe you have to rethink that.

00:28:46:10 - 00:29:15:14
Unknown
And I know my mom could probably, use that advice. It feels like every other time I go over to her house, there's there's a new set of of couches. That that's probably an exaggeration. Probably. Some of the, other ones that I have seen. Not too, not too long ago were, we can talk about, subscriptions and introductory rates on those subscriptions.

00:29:15:16 - 00:29:39:00
Unknown
When was the last time you saw a new TV show coming out and you really wanted to watch it, and then you realized, oh, no, it's on a different streaming service that I don't currently pay for. Or it's part of this new package of 3 or 4 streaming services that you can get. And it's like, oh, yeah, no, no, it's just 25, 99 for three months.

00:29:39:02 - 00:30:01:09
Unknown
And then you read the fine print. It turns out that after those three months, it jumps up to like $90 a month or something along those lines. How many streaming services or other subscription services would you guess that each of you have? I can't guess mine. It's probably in the dozens, if I'm being honest. It's probably up in the dozens we have.

00:30:01:09 - 00:30:29:23
Unknown
We have a couple. Not in the dozens, but, you know, we I pay for my my PlayStation. You know, we have Netflix. But we that's one thing we've taken into consideration is, you know, we got rid of, direct TV, just some money. Yep. And, you know, we looked at. Okay, we can get some streaming, you know, but is it worth it to have five, six, seven, eight?

00:30:30:00 - 00:30:51:06
Unknown
You don't want a streaming service, Disney Plus and ESPN plus and Hulu and Netflix and Peacock and Paramount Plus. Also, I think they are all pluses at this point in time. Yes, seriously. In the end, you you are you're almost back to where you were. And do you, do you is that something you really need? Yeah.

00:30:51:06 - 00:31:16:01
Unknown
No. Do you need to watch that new a show the day comes out, or can you wait a week till it comes out on Blu ray? You can spend 1499 for it, or you sign up for the starting subscription price. You forget to cancel it. It ends up costing us that right? There is a hook that I was going to get into here shortly, and I see all the time, people down in Cod services, they, they forget you signed up for things or it's a once a year recurring subscription.

00:31:16:01 - 00:31:38:10
Unknown
So they definitely forget that $100 charge comes up. Oh yeah. And oh, that, you know, probably because the yearlong subscription was like two months for free. Yeah. So obviously you take the one payment for the year if it's only going to be ten months worth of, of of fee, percentage savings is a big deal. I do that with a number of things.

00:31:38:10 - 00:31:58:11
Unknown
I have a couple of them that, I know when they when they recur. And I just keep them because I like them. But I have actually had one that came around that that renewed that I was like, oh, no, I was supposed to cancel that last week. Mylene, how about you? Okay, how very personal when it comes to this subscription.

00:31:58:11 - 00:32:26:14
Unknown
Okay, guys, I used to work for a cable company. I used to work for a Time Warner Cable and now I feel like with all these subscription, it feels like the company trying to empower consumer, where you can have the ala carte pick and choose which one that actually fit your lifestyle. However, seeing all this thing, like you said, you see something and you want to watch it now all of a sudden it's not.

00:32:26:16 - 00:32:51:16
Unknown
You have to subscribe if you actually watch and you know, show. So that's the issue. I, we are in a losing situation as a consumer. Yes. There's I was going to say that the whole thing started from the I know that cable gives me 392 channels. I care about 12 of them. But I'm paying for all of them.

00:32:51:21 - 00:33:15:22
Unknown
So let me get a service that allows me to pick and choose the ones that I want. And now it turns out that the ones that I want are like $15 apiece. And now all of a sudden, we're back up to the same price or more than we were paying for the cable subscription. And of course, if you're on a streaming service, you now have to have the internet subscription to get that going as well.

00:33:16:00 - 00:33:38:11
Unknown
And if it's not a good enough internet subscription, then you're probably going to get some loading issues. How many subscriptions would you guess that you have for for? That's not a guess. That that is very solid answer right there. I, I'm not going to ask you, but my guess is that Mylene could tell us exactly what each one of those is right off the top of her head right now.

00:33:38:16 - 00:33:54:10
Unknown
Stephanie, what about you? It's kind of funny. I, I actually don't myself have any. I'm kind of the type to be like, mom, do we have Netflix or. I talk to a friend. Do you have who looks like them? Watch this or talk to a sibling. Do you a peacock? So I can watch that. And now they're hitting us with that.

00:33:54:10 - 00:34:10:23
Unknown
Well, this device isn't on your family network. Yeah. So I'm also in a losing battle in that sense. And I'm gonna have to start getting my own, so. All right, so when it comes time to get them, how many of them do you think going to be looking at right out of the gate at least like 6 or 7 right out of the gate.

00:34:10:23 - 00:34:34:11
Unknown
See. So like for me, I know I have one for for audio, I pay for, a subscription with Pandora to go ad free. I've got, number of different television ones, and I lied to myself out of the gate, and I was like, I'm going to get Hulu, and then I'm gonna cancel Netflix. And then once I watched all the things I want to watch on Hulu, I'll cancel that and get Netflix and watch that.

00:34:34:16 - 00:34:54:08
Unknown
Now, I was way too much effort, so I just pay for both of them all the time, which is terrible. I don't suggest people do that. If you're not using a service, regularly, cancel it. But again, that that other one, the other way that we get there is that forgetting to cancel. I've done this, and I guarantee a couple other people in here have.

00:34:54:08 - 00:35:16:18
Unknown
I can see Jeff giggling in the corner. Our camera guy, about, signing on to, I believe the one that I did this with was, Fubo, I believe is the name of it, because I wanted to get access to a live streaming, I believe was a football game, at the time. And it was a seven day free trial.

00:35:16:20 - 00:35:40:06
Unknown
Just. Here's your here's your, your email address to get signed up. And, if you don't actively cancel, your first month is going to be I want to say it was like 89, 99 or something like that. And, I was like, oh, I definitely need to remember. And as soon as the game was over, I went and canceled, because I was like, I, I can't forget this one.

00:35:40:07 - 00:36:00:19
Unknown
This one, this one would be really annoying. I definitely don't want to spend $90 to watch one football game. That that seems like too much to me. I feel like this kind of falls into gym memberships. Like, they want you to pay the monthly fee and then forget to get rid of it, and then not look at the card that you assigned it to.

00:36:01:01 - 00:36:33:04
Unknown
And, like, if it's your debit card, you're probably losing that transaction amongst all the other things that you're doing with that card. Are there any suggestions that you guys have for online subscriptions, or keeping track of those? I heard one recently that was that was very interesting to me about using a, different feature for the email address that you use to sign up for a subscription service.

00:36:33:06 - 00:36:58:18
Unknown
Gmail, for those of you that that don't know out there, if you were to take your, your email address at gmail and, so I'm going to lie, this is not mine. If it was just Scott at gmail.com, I could do Scott plus Hulu at gmail.com. The plus sign the word Hulu and use that as my email address when I create my account for Hulu.

00:36:58:18 - 00:37:25:06
Unknown
I learned all of this after I created all of my so I can't take advantage of it, unfortunately. But hopefully some of you out there can. Stephanie, you can definitely do this. Yeah, any email that you get with that, plus Hulu is going to come back into your regular Gmail account. Gmail knows that the plus Hulu is just a thing, and it will tag those emails for you as associated to Hulu, and you can add whatever tag you want on those.

00:37:25:06 - 00:37:59:08
Unknown
So it could be one for at Hulu, one for at Netflix. Or plus Hulu plus Netflix. And they will all come in tagged as information from those specific locations. And if for whatever reason, this came through as a, cybersecurity, training tidbit. So if a, if you got a notification to your email address that you use for everything that it was, that somebody was trying to log in to your account, you would know which account it was that they were attempting to get into.

00:37:59:10 - 00:38:15:06
Unknown
That way you would know where to go to change your passwords and whatnot. But this is kind of one of those things that you're like, oh, cool. Now I can see when these things come in. If I'm receiving an email that has the plus Hulu, that, oh, no, I should have canceled that. And kind of keep track of it.

00:38:15:08 - 00:38:41:07
Unknown
Are there any other, tips or anything out there that, that you would have for, for somebody trying to keep track of, of all of their subscriptions? Check your statement. Oh, I use certain like one credit card for all my subscriptions. Okay. So I can easily, look at my statement and then I trying to reassess it.

00:38:41:07 - 00:39:07:00
Unknown
Where do I, or even ask my family members? Hey, do you guys still need, Peacock or, anything after the motorcycle or whatever? That motorcycle thing, like with my husband. Watch. Then I asked him if he still. We still need. Yep, yep. Because it's it's like they have a a set up and a and a shut down fee on those.

00:39:07:00 - 00:39:22:22
Unknown
You can just go start and stop those pretty much whenever. I know some of them are like we're going to keep your money and you can have your, your access to the subscription until the end of the month. And others are like all right we'll pay you back whatever you didn't use and your service is canceled and cut off.

00:39:23:00 - 00:39:47:08
Unknown
I believe that, sling TV is one of those that that's a prorated one. And I believe that, like, Hulu is one that it's like, if you cancel, you get it for that month. I think Amazon does it both ways. I don't think either you can have your money back or through the app. Yep. That's exactly what they do.

00:39:47:10 - 00:40:07:04
Unknown
So when it comes to those, subscription is really, it doesn't work as the financial advisor we do, we tell everyone when it comes to your savings for, set it and forget it. So that doesn't work with your subscription. So make sure you don't do that. I mean, it does for that. Yeah. Forget it, set it, forget it.

00:40:07:08 - 00:40:37:00
Unknown
It only works for savings. So. So for you, it's it's minimized the number of transactions that are coming in. So you can see which ones are still charging regularly and of course, paying attention to your statement. Yep. I think obviously most of these streaming services, they want you to forget that you. Absolutely. And I think, you know, the the best overall ways to is to, you know, be responsible your finances and monitor them like, you know, check your statements and things.

00:40:37:00 - 00:40:58:11
Unknown
But there's tools, you know, whether you bank here or elsewhere, you know, most online banking or debit card apps, you can set up alerts to where, hey, if this type of merchant, our debit card app, this type of merchant, charges my card, alert me. That way. Oh, Netflix just charged my card. I was going to cancel that.

00:40:58:12 - 00:41:18:11
Unknown
Yep. At least then you only missed the one. Assuming that you remember to go cancel it right when you get that alert. If you set up, you know, if you do the, the subscription or the even just the trial for one show or one football game in your case, set an alert on your phone for two days later, a day later that says go cancel.

00:41:18:11 - 00:41:36:10
Unknown
Yep. Fubo. Oh. You know, it's it's unfortunate that the amount of work you have to put in. But if you want to stay on top of it and keep your finances clean, you you got to set up alerts and, you know. Oh, yeah, I think those are just some tools that the people can, can use to, to stay on top of that, to make sure that it's not getting out of hand.

00:41:36:10 - 00:42:00:02
Unknown
And I feel like I've been seeing a lot of commercials lately about applications that will check to see how many subscriptions you're getting, just being able to look and be like, why do I have two Netflix accounts? Which is typically what the what the commercial is, is talking about. And I, off the top of my head, I don't remember the name of the applications that are out there, but I know they they're out there, to be able to track down.

00:42:00:02 - 00:42:28:09
Unknown
Hey, these are the active subscriptions you got, and I feel like there's a lot of people out there, probably myself included. That would be a little bit shocked at how many of them are still floating out there. You're like, oh, goodness, I've been paying $5 a month for this. For how long? I haven't used that. And in three years, those type of things where it's, it's a small enough dollar amount that you might not notice it in the, in the bottom line of your, of your budget, $60 a year or something like that.

00:42:28:11 - 00:42:49:00
Unknown
You're like, okay, well, I could have had that money and, you know, gone out to a very nice dinner. But I didn't because I forgot to cancel that silly subscription. Now, there are some other different subscription models that are out there, that we kind of touched on a little bit earlier that I think are functional and helpful.

00:42:49:00 - 00:43:12:09
Unknown
Amazon, has subscribe and save where typically they're offering you. And when we touched on it a little bit with the pay for a year and get two months for free type of a thing. But with Amazon, a service like Subscribe and Save is I know that I'm going to use this type of a product every month, and I want regular refills on it.

00:43:12:09 - 00:43:28:19
Unknown
And if I'm going to commit to getting it monthly, then they're willing to give a discount on that. How many of you guys utilize those? I know that, my wife and I, use that. And I've got a great story about that here in a moment, but I want to I want to hear what you guys have been doing with those.

00:43:28:19 - 00:44:03:02
Unknown
If you have been taking advantage of those. I use, Amazon for my water filter and air filter. Okay. It's every six months, so. Yeah. So, you know, it's a thing that you're going to need on a schedule and you can buy basically just committing to having this subscription save a percentage on top of that. Exactly. I'm not planning to use them to subscribe to lots of products that I know it's not going to be used.

00:44:03:04 - 00:44:30:07
Unknown
Yeah. Steve, what about you? Do you get you use any of those? I until today, I was not aware that that was a thing. Oh, okay. Are you planning now to go out and set up some subscriptions? The I think my opinion on it would be, you know, if it's something that I need and, and, you know, maybe it's, you know, toilet paper, Kleenex, you know, stuff like you just discussed that we know we'll use.

00:44:30:07 - 00:44:50:22
Unknown
Yeah, I think it's a good idea. And if it's actually going to save you money in the long run, I think. I think it's I mean, I would consider it for sure. You know, I have several hobbies, and, you know, I don't need recurring charges of guitar strings or hiking boots or things of that nature, but I think for for things that, you know, you're going to use and that it's not going to be waste, I think it's a great thing.

00:44:50:22 - 00:45:13:19
Unknown
And and I'm glad you you guys talked about it. So I'm, I have to look into it. But but yeah. Stephanie, what about you? Yeah. Not personally, but I know not thinking about it. My parents use it for dogfood. Okay. Amazon subscription. Yeah. Like, I'm sure the dog appreciates that. I totally love it. And it keeps, from scraping the bottom of the bucket, being like, oh, I need to remember to go pick up dog food today.

00:45:13:21 - 00:45:36:09
Unknown
Which I believe is on my list to do in the next couple of days. But I don't think we're quite at the bottom of the bucket. Yeah. So I got I got a minute to ignore that one. Still, for me, you mentioned hobbies. That that was where, where where we got bit by it. Or at least I did, we use it for toiletries, paper towels, those type of things.

00:45:36:09 - 00:45:59:19
Unknown
Coffee? Definitely coffee. And I was doing some, some hobby crafting using gorilla Glue epoxy. And, we set that up, and now I've got 30 or 40 tubes of Gorilla Glue epoxy at home that I don't need immediately. Because I forgot that it kept showing up. I mentioned my wife was like, we need to cancel this one.

00:45:59:21 - 00:46:16:00
Unknown
And she was like, oh, yeah, okay, I'll do that. And then didn't, and so a couple more months of that coming in, I was like, I thought we canceled this. And then eventually we actually did cancel it. Now, the nice thing is, I'm fairly certain it doesn't really have an expiration date, so I'm going to be able to use it over time.

00:46:16:02 - 00:46:38:04
Unknown
But it is one of those things where, like if you're ordering something that has an expiration date and you forget to cancel it, it takes 1 in 10 out of 10% savings to suddenly not save you any money anymore. And if you miss to your subscription has now cost you more money than you're saving if you're having to throw away an expensive product.

00:46:38:07 - 00:47:02:20
Unknown
So, like most subscriptions, once again, vigilance, seems to be the answer. Make sure that if you're not using these products as regularly or if you're finding yourself stockpiling coffee, drink more coffee. I had to remind myself to do that not too long ago. But we we never really had too big of a stockpile there.

00:47:02:22 - 00:47:28:09
Unknown
Or I believe with most of those subscriptions, you can pause them or obviously shut them off. And then just needing to go in and redo that again. Has anybody fallen victim to, I shouldn't say victim because this one is really just convenient. One click buying buy now. It's like not even to skip the cart. Just buy and charge the card that's on file.

00:47:28:11 - 00:47:48:16
Unknown
I did, it's been a couple months. It was on Amazon, and I don't I don't remember what I was buying. Well, that might speak to Amazon. Christmas coming. Yeah. So it was probably something I didn't need, but, yeah, I did, I was like, oh, by now. And so when I was like, okay, that was quick and easy.

00:47:48:16 - 00:48:03:17
Unknown
Well, then it just caused a headache because the car that was on file was expired. So and that's the one in charge. And so later I got an email, hey, you know, your order didn't go through. And then I was like, I had to I had to go through it. And it was a longer process in the end to figure out, okay, which car did it use?

00:48:03:17 - 00:48:21:19
Unknown
Why did you know? And then switch the payment methods so quick? A log in, reset the password, update the car, delete this one. Add that. Yeah, that's not a removal of barrier at that point. It's great. For the moment it gives you that nice relaxed feeling of man that was easy. And if your ducks are in a row yeah it's it's great.

00:48:21:19 - 00:48:44:01
Unknown
But yeah. Yeah. One of the one of them ducks out of line and it's picking your headaches. Stephanie, what about you? Is that your go to for purchasing? It's so bad, I always, Yeah, it just takes away the, no time to think about it. Purchase right now. Instant gratification. And I, one of my wife's coworkers, did that with.

00:48:44:01 - 00:49:05:23
Unknown
I want to say it was like a three gallon jar of pickles. Apparently, they were really good, but she didn't need that many of them. And it was just an evening that she was hanging out at home and just decided, I want that click done all the. Yeah, way too many. But again, it's really easy. I wanted in this moment, all it takes is one click.

00:49:06:00 - 00:49:26:13
Unknown
Heck, I missed clicked a couple of times and bet happy that there was a cart in between me and the actual checkout. I was like, no, I definitely didn't need to buy that. I, in fact, recently one that that happened not on Amazon, but, the Tick Tock shop, I've been getting, a lot of advertisements.

00:49:26:13 - 00:49:46:07
Unknown
I'm fairly certain they know that I, that I like to cook. I don't know how they figured that out. I don't post anything on there. I just watch things. So I probably have been watching a lot of cooking videos, but I've been receiving a number of, social media influencer videos for a bacon grease container. It's got a nice cool mesh screen.

00:49:46:07 - 00:50:05:05
Unknown
You can strain out all the stuff, keep that great bacon grease for for use and other things later they added that to the cart and that I was just like, I don't I don't need this. This is basically a tin can. Now I look a very nice looking tin can granite, but, I, I took a moment after I added that to the cart.

00:50:05:05 - 00:50:32:18
Unknown
I was like, nah, I'm fine, and then cleared the cart out. I one click purchasing and I might have three of those by now. How many of you guys are, influenced by the influencers in your purchases? I'm definitely not. I'm influenced. I think that, as I said earlier, I like to research things pretty much unless I'm in a store.

00:50:32:20 - 00:51:02:05
Unknown
And I can touch it. See it? Yeah. I like to do my research, so, I would prefer to listen to, you know, normal consumers reviews. Then, you know, somebody who's been on TikTok or wherever they're from or whatever, their platform they're on. I'd rather hear from actual consumers of you, you know, several multiple consumers and had one person saying, hey, this stuff's great because the company that's selling it paid me to tell you it's, you know, I'd rather hear it.

00:51:02:05 - 00:51:22:18
Unknown
Hey, I use this, you know, and they're obviously not being paid, but this is great or. No, it wasn't, you know, and I, I prefer to make my decisions that way. Okay. So, my lane, I'm, I'm guessing very much influenced by social media. You said that you're very cautious about what you consume on social media, so might I I'm assuming I'm jumping to conclusions here.

00:51:22:20 - 00:51:52:09
Unknown
Well, to be honest, I fallen victim, once, once or twice, especially if you have a 19 year old daughter. Oh, there you go. So there there's that. My influenza. It's my 19 year old daughter. But I'm still very weary with buying, things just based on what I see with, what's trending or what's the influenza.

00:51:52:15 - 00:52:14:18
Unknown
Because knowing, my, my background growing up, that's what my mom always say. Don't don't be, impressed with those people that you see when Oscar awards was a big thing because a dress that they actually wearing is given by those people that created it and they don't pay yet. It's marketing and and that's kind of sucking. Mom.

00:52:14:20 - 00:52:41:00
Unknown
So. All right, Stephanie, you seem like you're most likely the social media personality here amongst all of us. How many how many, influencers have you followed and made purchasing decisions based on? Oh my gosh, what their show they're there's yeah, a few. But there is one influencer in particular that, my mom actually showed me because she was like, this girl is kind of the same size as you.

00:52:41:00 - 00:53:01:20
Unknown
And, you know, her clothing, her style is like yours. And she is hired by Amazon to purchase clothes. And then she posts about them, and kind of does those reviews for you grab bag try on TikTok. Yeah. And she yeah, she'll post the videos with all the clothes and makes it so easy. They're just writing her buy on and takes me straight to the link on Amazon.

00:53:01:20 - 00:53:16:22
Unknown
And okay, so now the second part of this question is how many of those purchases were you really happy with versus how many were you just like, well, this was a bad idea. Yeah, there's definitely been quite a few of those where I was like, this looks cute. I think it'll be great, she says. It's good, I get it.

00:53:16:22 - 00:53:34:03
Unknown
And I'm like, this actually isn't great, and I should have looked into it. That's where they get. Yeah, but how many of them have actually panned out? As well as you wanted them to? There's I would say it's like half and half. Okay. Yeah. And then with the ones that didn't pan out. Well were you able to to return.

00:53:34:03 - 00:54:01:09
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So effectively it's one of those things on a 5050 chance you're, you're willing to take the take the leap because the as we talked about earlier, the return policies are very, very consumer friendly these days. Definitely. Yeah. So I always I typically take the chance. Well and again it's it's one of those things that we talked a little bit about like celebrity personalities, like the Oscars dresses and whatnot.

00:54:01:09 - 00:54:28:03
Unknown
Obviously they're they're probably most people aren't being targeted to go purchase that Versace dress, or, or whatnot, because the average consumer is not going to be able to afford that one. And social media hits a little bit differently because they're definitely not or more often than not, they're not big name personalities that are out there. They could easily just be some person standing in their kitchen talking about how this one pan works really great.

00:54:28:03 - 00:54:56:23
Unknown
And here's my affiliate link. And anything that you guys buy through there, if you could please use this link because I get a small kickback. Now all of a sudden it almost feels like you're getting a sort of real review from an actual person using it. But again, like you mentioned, Steven, they're getting paid for each thing that they sell, so it might feel a little bit more organic and real, but it also kind of comes across as at the same time still paid advertising.

00:54:57:01 - 00:55:22:22
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah yeah. And then it's a tactics because now I can relate to this person because ordinary person. Oh yeah. Yeah. So emotionally you have maybe more invested to actually listen to their reviews. Yeah. And I've got a couple of other, random social media people that I follow that, they'll get companies to send them a product, not with a sponsorship.

00:55:22:22 - 00:55:45:09
Unknown
They're just like, yeah, they just send it to me so that I could take a look at it. And it's such a cool thing that I have to talk about it. Okay. Now I'm very interested. And I'm also more likely to listen to their paid advertising type of suggestions as well. When it comes to those things. I feel like with the social media, you get a fake kinship with people.

00:55:45:11 - 00:56:12:20
Unknown
You're like, oh no, I watch them all the time. I trust their opinion. Now we're besties. I've never talked to them before, but for whatever reason, I feel like they're relatable because they come across as, a regular person, same as me in the same hobby that I'm looking at. How for you, Steven, would that be if it was a random, musician playing guitar and saying this particular set of strings that they just picked up?

00:56:12:22 - 00:56:51:21
Unknown
Fantastic. Listen to them as they're strumming versus, say, a major musician advertising the same set of strings. That's a tough one, because it would depend on the musician because, well, yeah. You pick your favorite. There's certain musicians that I would trust, whether they're sponsored or not, I would trust their opinion. But I think overall, same thing if if I was looking for a change in that particular thing, I would I would probably want to, listen to maybe somebody who wasn't a sponsor, who maybe wasn't as advanced of a player as maybe, you know, a musician in a band that I like.

00:56:51:23 - 00:57:09:00
Unknown
I would listen to it, you know, and then listen to how they sound and then obviously listen to the person using them, what the pros and cons are. Yeah. So once again, going back to your research idea. Yeah. But at this point in time are you thinking more about this particular set. Now I'm going to go research that set.

00:57:09:02 - 00:57:31:04
Unknown
Because if it if that's the case this marketing is already taken seat. Yes I would I would go and say okay now I want to go look at other people's reviews. And so yeah, I mean, in that sense, I, they, I didn't, I didn't need guitar strings and I wasn't considering this brand, but now I'm doing research on it because somebody said this and it sounded pretty good on their guitar.

00:57:31:06 - 00:58:00:20
Unknown
And so I feel like half the time it's not necessarily that hard sell. It's that top of mind getting in there. And like I it it it works. I've done it, I've done it myself same way. Which is why I asked the question, other other ideas that are out there as far as things that you guys have seen in, in marketing recently that feel like they're kind of a new or newer type of way to reach out to people.

00:58:00:22 - 00:58:22:04
Unknown
And, and what do you guys think about them? What do you got? I'm not sure if this will this is a good example, but something for me, like I've kind of been mentioning, I fall into the influencer style lifestyle clothing kind of. Yeah, things like that. Something that they will do is they'll go and see what is and what's trending and what's really fashionable at the moment.

00:58:22:04 - 00:58:40:21
Unknown
And typically they can be pretty expensive and they'll find the dupes for you. So they kind of take out that work for you and they'll do those reviews and it makes it, you know, that's a cheap, easy option for you. That's something that I've. Yeah, kind of wonder, is this worth it? Like, here's the expensive version. Here's the $10 version.

00:58:40:21 - 00:59:01:00
Unknown
Is it worth $10? Exactly. Is this a true dupe? Yeah. Did we actually get a good deal on this one? I bought the thing so you don't have to. Exactly. And you can trust me because nobody's paying me to say this. Mylene, what about you? You seen any other trends, especially through your daughter, that, maybe have come out the year like.

00:59:01:00 - 00:59:29:06
Unknown
No, we need to be a little bit more cautious about that or, that you've noticed, have drug people into maybe doing that research on a particular product. I think for me, I've been seeing a lot with the beauty, products, especially because I, I tend to kind of follow a lot of those K-drama know, like the K-drama and, you know, all this Korean skincare and things like that.

00:59:29:09 - 00:59:53:21
Unknown
So now all of a sudden, there's all these tons of different products that are made in Korea or Japan, okay. And yeah, so that's that's been interesting. I feel like this is, this is, a thing I'll bring up because I feel like this is, the ever elusive algorithm. I get no advertising of those products. Shockingly.

00:59:53:23 - 01:00:14:10
Unknown
I don't use a lot of skincare products. Personally. I've got beard oils, that I'll get advertising for, but I think that that that's kind of one of those things. Do you guys notice that, for, for those of you that that use social media, that the more you maybe look at a thing, the more advertising you're seeing around that thing.

01:00:14:12 - 01:00:42:21
Unknown
So like bacon grease with me watching cooking videos or, fashion trends because of the things that you're looking at or clicking on, if you're paying attention to those, to the, to the skincare dramas and the Korean, products, that all of a sudden that marketing is being pushed you, a lot more. Yeah. I think I think that those the, the technical side of the marketing is getting a lot better for a long time.

01:00:43:03 - 01:01:02:09
Unknown
We've all said that the toaster is listening to us, and that's how Google knows to to send me this product. The real truth behind it is that their their algorithms and whatnot behind the scenes are a lot more complicated than just putting, a microphone in your toaster. But I wouldn't think that they wouldn't start their,

01:01:02:10 - 01:01:33:05
Unknown
I made a joke, I, I laughed, my wife laughed, the toaster laughed. We got rid of the toaster. It's it's not the cable box anymore, you know. So everybody knew the cable box was listening? Yeah, but it is. I think a lot of it comes down to, What did you search recently? Who were you around? Geolocation has been a major factor in a lot of those things with, I just recently went to somebody's house that had a new baby.

01:01:33:07 - 01:02:00:07
Unknown
And because they're posting about that on their social media, and I was within range of them, now I'm getting product, placement. Advertisement. That is, hey, here's crib or baby clothing or something along those lines. Not even so much because I'm going to buy it, but because I know somebody who might, interesting how the technology changes and how the tactics change over time to go with all of that technology.

01:02:00:09 - 01:02:18:20
Unknown
I'm going to probably get us ready to sign off here. Does anybody have any other topics that we want to talk about before we do? No, I had something on the, the marketing thing we were just talking about. Oh, perfect. Absolutely. Jump in, I think on the, the most recent thing I've seen, I guess maybe it's been over the last couple of years.

01:02:18:22 - 01:02:43:15
Unknown
With as far as marketing, I think that, a lot of companies are marketing more towards the younger generation as well. As far as, an example that I see, just because I, I play video games, it's hobbies. There is a lot of marketing to, on kids games. Roblox. Okay. Fortnite in-game advertising.

01:02:43:15 - 01:03:01:15
Unknown
So there's in-game advertising. Okay. You can, you know, you sign up your the cards already on file on your PlayStation or sort of you're playing on, well, you want this skin. It's this new new look and it's only $4. So it's not a physical thing. It's an in-game purchase. But these kids are like cool. The cards are in their buy.

01:03:01:16 - 01:03:26:09
Unknown
They have collaborations, with YouTubers, in these games. And then these kids say, oh, well, I want to watch a YouTuber, or that a YouTuber is being paid by, you know, oh, maybe it's Cheetos. And so then they watch this YouTuber and then they're advertising the kid on you. And it's just it seems that it's just, you know, whether it's the younger generation or, you know, some of those average hands being that hit me at my age because I play a game.

01:03:26:11 - 01:03:42:10
Unknown
But it's just it's like a constant barrage. And I think that, you know, the, their marketing strategies may be getting a little more just intense. I think it's just it's a it's starting to be where they, they know they have they need to do it constantly. And so they just, you know, it's oh, everywhere, everywhere.

01:03:42:10 - 01:04:12:11
Unknown
You start with the game, you go to YouTube, you go to your Netflix, and it's just a constant barrage. And I think it's interesting that we almost went full circle here. Or flip 180. We talked about Gamifying advertising earlier on, and now we're talking about advertising in gaming. And of course, like one of the things you mentioned, the, the, the crossovers that have been in there, Fortnite and Marvel, and like the different skins and whatnot, microtransactions, it's a dollar here, a dollar there.

01:04:12:13 - 01:04:40:07
Unknown
Very easy. And again, one click purchase type situation. The cards are already stored in there. How easy can we make it for somebody to, to pay for this? And how smart are parents to put a, parental control or a Pin number in to prevent their, their kid from purchasing, 800 different outfits for their character in this game without, without mom or dad noticing until the bill comes.

01:04:40:09 - 01:05:03:07
Unknown
All right. Well, honestly, I think we've covered a lot of topics here today, and there's a lot of interesting things out there as far as, like subscriptions and social influencing. I think in the long run. For some final thoughts from everybody as far as do these generate good or bad consumer habits? It's been a lot of yes and nos.

01:05:03:09 - 01:05:26:19
Unknown
A lot of it depends on how you utilize them. So if anybody's got any final thoughts, we'll go around the horn for some final thoughts before we sign off. Steven, we want to start. Yeah. I think in the end, I think like we discussed, I think that some of these can be beneficial. I think that some, you know, you know, keep an eye on them could end up having a negative impact on you.

01:05:26:21 - 01:05:44:14
Unknown
I'm not for or against any of them. I mean, I think ultimately, in the end, it's, it all boils down to, self-responsibility. And that's what makes the difference whether it's going to be a good thing for you to take advantage of or a negative thing for you to take advantage of. Right on my lane.

01:05:44:16 - 01:06:10:22
Unknown
Just do your research. Same here. I don't have anything against with all those, just do your research to make sure it's, you're making the right decision when it comes to your budget. Before you purchase anything, we read the fine print. So that's kind of okay. Right? Stephanie. Yeah, I totally agree. At the end of the day, it is your money, so just make sure it's going where you want it to go and that it's going to be worth it for you.

01:06:10:22 - 01:06:39:13
Unknown
So. So it sounds like a lot of these these marketing schemes out there are designed to get you to pay and to pay quicker and easier, or to take that cost and spread it out, removing those barriers to purchase 0% interest. Always a good thing as long as you pay attention to the fine print and can get those things handled before that big lump sum interest gets dropped on top of their double edged sword, use the tools that you've got at your disposal.

01:06:39:13 - 01:06:59:11
Unknown
Use them correctly and they will absolutely be a benefit to you. Use them incorrectly, and you might be wondering why you've got 30 tubes of Gorilla Glue epoxy sitting in your basement. And maybe have to plan out a whole nother weekend of crafting. In the meantime, thank you, everybody, for joining me in the studio today.

01:06:59:11 - 01:07:14:01
Unknown
It has been a fantastic chat. And for those of you out there listening, this has been dollars and cents. HAPO community credit unions, financial literacy podcast? Till next time.