interviews

Identity Theft Hysteria Overblown, Watch Your Debit Card Instead

Identity Theft Hysteria Overblown, Watch Your Debit Card Instead

If you need the straight story on issues of credit card, debit, and banking fraud and security, something more than “we’re taking it seriously,” Avivah Litan, VP and distinguished analyst at Gartner research is your go-to-gal. I recently interviewed her over the phone about consumers can protect themselves in an era where just keeping your mother’s maiden name a secret doesn’t cut the mustard. I learned that you can buy a credit card number for a few cents, losing your Social Security Number is NOT the most dangerous fraud that is likely to happen to you, and how Obama’s helicopter plans got stolen thanks to P2P music-sharing software…

Verizon C.E.O. Ivan Seidenberg Reveals The Telecom's Future

Verizon C.E.O. Ivan Seidenberg Reveals The Telecom's Future

The future of Verizon lies in bundled apps and global domination, according to C.E.O. Ivan Seidenberg. Verizon’s head honcho appeared last week on Charlie Rose to chat about a range of things, including FiOs, the decision to build a CDMA network, and the future of your cellphone service. If nothing else, it’s nice to put a calm, seemingly rational face to the grotesque anti-consumer corporate monster that we all loathe. Hit the jump for the full interview.

Looking To Interview Truth-In-Advertising Lawyer

Are you a lawyer with experience and knowledge of truth-in-advertising litigation? Or know someone who is? I’m looking to interview such a person for an article with a deceptive marketing hook. Email me at ben@consumerist.com, subject line, “lawyer.”

Credit Card Processors Launch A New Strategy To Defeat Theft

Credit Card Processors Launch A New Strategy To Defeat Theft

This fall, credit card processors will being rolling out a new approach to preventing data theft, based on the assumption that it’s impossible to thwart every attack. Instead of keeping 100% of criminals out, they’ll segment and encrypt the data into such small chunks that it will no longer be a cost-effective crime.

Recap: Ben & Meg Interview Obama Administration On Credit Card Reform

Recap: Ben & Meg Interview Obama Administration On Credit Card Reform

Here, catch all of our interview with Austan Goolsbee breaking down why the credit card reform act was needed. If you missed any of the clips, here’s is the four-part series in its entirety…

Consumerist Interviews Goolsbee On Credit Card Reform: Part 4 of 4

Consumerist Interviews Goolsbee On Credit Card Reform: Part 4 of 4

The final installment of our 4-part interview on credit card reform with Austan Goolsbee, President Obama’s senior economic adviser. In this one we say, hey, what about mandatory binding arbitration?

Consumerist Interviews Goolsbee On Credit Card Reform: Part 3 of 4

Consumerist Interviews Goolsbee On Credit Card Reform: Part 3 of 4

Are credit cards set up like a horrible game of Chutes & Ladders that plays for keeps? In the 3nd of our 4-part interview series with President Obama’s Senior Economic Adviser, Austan Goolsbee, on credit card reform, we ask why credit card companies can raise the APR on stuff you already charged, and go into some of the credit card companies’ anti-consumer tricks like liquid and fickle terms and conditions, penalty fees that aren’t trying to discourage behavior anymore, they’re just pure profit, and teeny-tiny contracts written in “Bank-o-nese.”

Consumerist Interviews Goolsbee On Credit Card Reform: Part 2 of 4

Consumerist Interviews Goolsbee On Credit Card Reform: Part 2 of 4

In the 2nd of our 4-part interview series with President Obama’s Senior Economic Adviser, Austan Goolsbee, on credit card reform, we ask, what about the kids? Specifically, what is this bill going to do about those guys giving away shirts on campus in exchange for signing up for credit cards? Because these seems a really great service for college students, who, as we know, frequently go shirtless. Also, how one side of the debate on credit cards is essentially arguing that if you didn’t want to get carjacked you should have taken the bus… because an honest business model and a profitable one needn’t be mutually exclusive.

Consumerist Interviews Goolsbee On Credit Card Reform: Part 1 of 4

Consumerist Interviews Goolsbee On Credit Card Reform: Part 1 of 4

We took your credit card reform questions to DC yesterday and interviewed Austan Goolsbee, senior economic adviser to President Obama. In part 1 of our 4-part series, we ask how are banks getting billions in bailouts and can turn around and cut off millions of credit cards and raise rates? How does it make sense that credit card companies can raise the interest rate on an existing balance? And, most importantly, why don’t we treat credit cards more like Canadians do cigarettes?

Consumerist Interviews Goolsbee About Credit Card Reform: Part 1 of 4

Consumerist Interviews Goolsbee About Credit Card Reform: Part 1 of 4

We took your credit card reform questions to DC yesterday and interviewed Austan Goolsbee, senior economic adviser to President Obama. In part 1 of our 4-part series, we ask how are banks getting billions in bailouts and can turn around and cut off millions of credit cards and raise rates? How does it make sense that credit card companies can raise the interest rate on an existing balance? And, most importantly, why don’t we treat credit cards more like Canadians do cigarettes?

The CEO Of Delta Reveals His Secrets

The CEO Of Delta Reveals His Secrets

Richard Anderson, the CEO of Delta Air Lines, was interviewed by the New York Times and shared his tips on hiring (ask about their family life), running meetings (no Blackberries!), and dealing with customers: “I find myself, more and more, writing hand-written notes to people,” he says. “I must write a half a dozen a day.” These are apology notes, we’re guessing.

10 Ways To Ruin A Job Interview

10 Ways To Ruin A Job Interview

The Savvy Networker has 10 ways to ruin a job interview. Most of these are kind of obvious but maybe by reading it you can catch yourself if you start to do any of them without thinking about it. Also, it’s kind of fun to imagine someone doing them, like #10: Doing anything disgusting: “One candidate asked me for a cup of water, took a sip, swished it around in his mouth, and spat into a potted plant.”

Papa John's Founder Says Don't Eat Too Much Of His Pizza

Papa John's Founder Says Don't Eat Too Much Of His Pizza

Marketing and PR folks probably dread stories like this one: John Schnatter, the founder of Papa John’s, said on a BBC radio interview yesterday that you shouldn’t eat too much of their pizza.

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Save money by polishing your shoes with a banana. Monkeys have been doing it for millennia. [Huffington Post] (Thanks to daveburdick !)

Simplicity Is Best: Why Materialism Is Only Going To Screw Up Your Life

Simplicity Is Best: Why Materialism Is Only Going To Screw Up Your Life

Over at the US News & World Report Alpha Consumer blog there’s an interview with Tim Kasser, author of The High Price of Materialism, about why and how materialism will not make you happy. In fact, it very well might make you sad.

7 Steps To Developing A Strong Network In Case You Get Fired

7 Steps To Developing A Strong Network In Case You Get Fired

Financial blogger Brandt Smith at Get Rich Slowly suggests that your first step should be to contact your network, and he backs up his assertion with a real-life success story. He also shares seven keys to developing a strong network:

CEOs Who Lost Their Jobs Talk About What Went Wrong

CEOs Who Lost Their Jobs Talk About What Went Wrong

Fortune’s new article “Lessons of the fall” is interesting and entertaining for two reasons. First, it humanizes brings a human face to the usually remote CEO, in this case the exes at Motorola, Starbucks, and Jet Blue. But more important if you’re a wage slave who can admit to a little schadenfreude, it describes how each man was fired from his job. Former Starbucks CEO Jim Donald, who’s in his fifties, says the hardest thing was letting his mother know:

Craigslist CEO: Be Successful In Business By Pleasing Customers

Craigslist CEO: Be Successful In Business By Pleasing Customers

Craiglist’s CEO, Jim Buckmaster, gave a fantastic interview to Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal yesterday in which he explained that Craigslist runs its business by simply doing what its users want. Why doesn’t Craigslist have ads? The users never asked for them. How do they decide what cities to introduce? They wait for the users to tell them. Is he crazy?