Equifax owes roughly $650 million in its settlement with the Federal Trade Commission for its 2017 data breach that exposed the information of over 147 million people. If you were one of the nearly half of Americans affected by this breach, the good news is, you may be due compensation in the form of 10 years of free credit monitoring and $125. The bad news is, if you were affected by the hack, you can assume your information is out there forever. The Washington Post recommends you check to see if your data was compromised, and if it was, to file your claim ASAP.

by Manny

I'm sharing this in the hopes that someone else may be able to save money on their monthly bills, OR who knows, it may inspire some of you to quit driving without car insurance😅. 

As I was looking at my expenses, I realized, "I'm paying way too much in car insurance ($190 y'all, smh)." 

Looking into my car insurance bill has been something that I've put off every month, but I was at the end of the road.  I decided that today was the day I call my car insurance company and once I got to a live customer service representative, I began with, "I think I'm paying too much on my car insurance."

The gentleman went on to give me a quote, but, it was only $30 less than what I was paying. 

I responded, "That is helpful, but it still doesn't feel right. If this is the best you can do, I'll have to call back to cancel because someone else gave me a better quote."

He responds, "Oh, well, you should've started the call this way.  Hold on.."

Now, let's pause here.  At this time, I was just furious by the new monthly quote price he gave me. I didn't have the assurance a better quote even existed out there. Yes, I was lying.  I asked about 5 of my friends what they paid, and came to the conclusion I was getting the short end of the stick. 

He goes on to transfer me to a nice young lady, and she starts with, "Hi Mr., I hear that you received some other options. If there was a number that you'd like to pay per month, what would it be?"

I knew this was my chance, but, I responded, "$90."  

With a pause, she answered, "Well, let's verify some of your information here and see what we can do."

She goes on to crunch some data, and comes back shortly with, "Well, Mr. we can, in fact, match this offer and keep your policy the same and lower your monthly plan to $91." 

Wow! A short phone call led to over $1,000 a year in savings!