Tele-scammers
I got an illegal telephone call this morning offering to help me with interest rates. The phone call started with a recording issuing a vague statement expressing concern about my credit card interest rates. Since I’m on the national and Oklahoma “Do Not Call” list, I followed through with the offer to talk to a live person.
The guy who picked up the phone immediately asked for my name and telephone number (hey, you called me, dude!) When I tried to tell him to remove me from their calling list and to complain that the company was illegally employing a prerecorded telemarketing message, I found I was talking into a dead phone.
Looks like I’m not the only one receiving the calls. I had no information about the company or the phone number that called me, or I would have reported it here.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Bank on it
Several recent bank failures have made many consumers nervous about their own banks. For the vast majority of depositors, there is little to fear.
FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair recently issued a good reminder of our protections for cash deposited in institutions covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
FDIC’s Depositor’s Bill of Rights
1. You have the right to automatic deposit insurance coverage when you open a deposit account at an FDIC-insured bank, with no additional cost or action on your part.
2. You have the right to separate FDIC insurance coverage for deposits held at different FDIC-insured banks.
3. You have the right to confirm that a bank is insured by using the FDIC’s Bank Find service (www2.fdic.gov/IDASP/main_bankfind.asp) or by calling the FDIC toll-free at 877-275-3342.
4. You have the right to deposit insurance coverage of $100,000 for your deposits at an FDIC-insured bank – up to $250,000 for your IRA deposits.
5. You have the right to deposit insurance coverage of more than $100,000 at a single bank when deposits are held in different “ownership categories,” such as a single, joint and trust accounts.
6. You have the right to confirm that your deposits are within the insurance limits by using the FDIC’s Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator and other online resources at www.fdic.gov/deposit/deposits or by calling the FDIC at 877-275-3342.
7. You have the right to be informed when a financial product offered by your bank is not covered by FDIC insurance.
8. You have a right, if your bank fails, to prompt access to your insured deposits.
9. You have the right, if you are an uninsured depositor, to receive distributions from the receivership as the sale of assets permits.
10. You have the right to sleep well, knowing that since the creation of the FDIC 75 years ago, no depositor has ever lost one penny of insured deposits.
Oklahoma Banking Commissioner Mick Thompson this month issued a statement assuring state consumers that our banking system is not experiencing the ills of those in other regions.
“Oklahoma has not experienced a bank failure in 16 years and the industry in Oklahoma is well-capitalized and strong,” Thompson said.
If that doesn’t make you feel any better, here’s a list of “talking points” created by the Oklahoma Bankers Association for its members.
Finally, here’s Roger Beverage, chief executive officer of the Oklahoma Bankers Association, producing some of those talking points on camera.
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Business Writer
Plastic panic
Americans are more likely to discuss their sex lives, their salary, weight, religious views and even the death of a loved one before they are willing to talk about their credit card debt.
Those are the findings of a poll conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media for CreditCards.com. More than eight out of 10 respondents said they are reluctant to talk about their credit card debts with someone they just met.
Here, in order, are the topics respondents said they would be somewhat or highly unlikely to discuss with a new acquaintance:
- Amount of credit card debt
- Your love life
- Your salary
- Your mortgage, rent payment
- Your health
- The death of a loved one
- Your weight
- Your religious views
- Your political views
- Your age
- Gas prices
- The weather
Nearly one-third of respondents said they carry a balance on their credit card, the survey showed.
These numbers aren’t all that surprising, but it’s unfortunate that many consumers have trouble controlling their credit card debt, which may be the most insidious form on consumer debt. If you have some extra money, such as that government stimulus check, use it to pay down your credit card debt. It’s the best return on your money available. Don’t be shopping for a stock or mutual fund if you’ve got credit card debt. Pay it off.
My question is: where the heck are these people who are reluctant to discuss gasoline prices and the weather? They seem to be clustered around these parts.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Just one thing
You remember the scene in “City Slickers” when Jack Palance tells Billy Crystal about the secret of life? “It’s this,” he said, holding up his index finger. “One thing.”
“That’s great, but what’s the one thing?” Crystal’s character asked.
”That’s what you gotta figure out.”
Aubrey McClendon has a similar theory about investing. Just one thing — Chesapeake Energy — seems to be his favorite thing to buy. On Thursday, an SEC filing showed that McClendon this week bought 750,000 shares at $57.25. That’s a cool $42.9 million.
Although McClendon has a piece of a basketball team, a private equity fund, a fondness for real estate here and elsewhere, Chesapeake appears to be his favorite place to sink cash.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Oklahoma is Wally World
If you don’t like the weather in Oklahoma, wait a few minutes and Wal-Mart will build a store nearby and you can go inside. Well, that’s not exactly how the saying goes, but there’s a kernel of truth in it.
If it seems like we’ve got a lot of Wal-Marts in Oklahoma, it’s because we do. After the company was founded in Arkansas, Oklahoma was one of the first states it built in. Now data analyst Nathan Yau has produced a fascinating look at the explosive growth of the world’s largest retailer.
Like Kudzu, the growth is concentrated in the South.
Other than its native Arkansas, Wal-Mart may be most closely aligned with Oklahoma.
Wal-Mart built its first Sam’s Club in Midwest City. The company employs more than 33,000 Oklahomans as associates. The average wage for Wal-Mart’s regular, full-time hourly associates in the Sooner state is $10.31. The company operates 71 Supercenters; 14 discount stores; 16 neighborhood markets, eight Sam’s Clubs and two distribution centers in Oklahoma.
In it’s most recent fiscal year, Wal-Mart spent more than $655 million on merchandise and services with Oklahoma suppliers. In that same period, the company collected more than $483 million in sales taxes in Oklahoma, and paid more than $23.1 million in state and local taxes in Oklahoma.
I would add that despite the thousands of Oklahoma associates, only about 5 percent of the cash registers seem to be in operation at any Wal-Mart I visit even during the busiest shopping times.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
A billion here, a billion there
Forbes magazine covers the billionaire beat like a blanket. Who are the billionaires? Where are the billionaires? What do the billionaires drive? Forbes can answer those questions and more.
This week, Forbes.com offered a story on blue-collar billionaires. The photograph above of Enid’s Harold Hamm hunting with his trusty dog was featured prominently in the report. Hamm, the youngest of 13 children, was reared in a one-bedroom house. After taking his oil company public last May, Hamm’s fortune crossed that magic billion-dollar threshold.
A couple of little corrections for our Forbes friends. Hamm lives in Enid, not Oklahoma City. And his net worth now is a bit more than $4.4 billion. Just his stock holdings in Continental Resources are worth more than $9.4 billion.
The increase in the value of Hamm’s holdings combined with the recent slip in price of BOK Financial Corp.’s stock may have allowed the Enid oilman to surpass BOK Chairman and oilman George Kaiser as Oklahoma’s wealthiest citizen.
I’m sure Forbes will keep us apprised.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Oh, it’s a profit deal
I love me some bargains. When you clothe four kids, shopping can be more of a mission than a chore. So the first time my wife and I wandered into Steve & Barry’s at Crossroads Mall, we felt like we had found the Holy Grail of back-to-school savings.
Three T-shirts for $15? Sure, they were a bit thin, but the kids loved the graphics and snarky catch phrases.
A winter coat for $12? It only has to last until she outgrows it because there are no other girls to accept pink hand-me-downs.
$15 for sneakers? I think I welled up a bit when I first saw the Starburys.
But Steve & Barry’s has filed for bankruptcy, and although the company plans to reorganize, the Wall Street Journal reports that finances may force a liquidation.
The newspaper also explains how the company may have been able to sell its apparel so cheaply — they didn’t make any profit on their sales. Steve & Barry’s produced much of its revenue from incentives paid by mall owners seeking anchor clients.
For the 2003 fiscal year, which ended Jan. 31, 2004, when Steve & Barry’s had 31 stores, tenant-improvement payments totaled $17.5 million, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The payments jumped to $58.6 million the next year, the documents say. The peak came in the 2006 fiscal year, when the company received $122.3 million in payments, but spent only about $59 million to build out new stores, leaving about $63 million in unused cash, the documents indicate. From fiscal years 2004 to 2007, the company received $380 million of payments.
The company says it will keep its stores open for now, honor all its gift cards and continue selling the same merchandise. But if I had a Steve & Barry’s gift card, I might redeem sooner rather than later. Holy cow, the Starbury’s are marked down to $9!
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
“If it doesn’t go up, don’t buy it!”
Sir John Templeton. (AP Photo)
One of the legends in investing died Tuesday. Sir John Templeton, a pioneer in international finance and mutual funds, passed away at the age of 95.
Templeton was one of the best stock-pickers of the 20th Century, and the Templeton Growth Fund he founded in 1954 provided an annual average return of 14.5 percent at the time he sold it for $913 million in 1992. He spent his later years funding and investigating spiritual matters, creating and funding a foundation to explore science and theology.
Sir John’s 1993 publication “16 Rules for Investment Success” remains a touchstone for many seeking sound investment advice. Among his recommendations:
- Remain flexible and open-minded about types of investment.
- Invest — don’t trade or speculate.
- Diversify. In stocks and bonds, as in much else, there is safety in numbers.
- Do not be fearful or negative too often.
Templeton said his investing rationale was well summed-up by Will Rogers:
“Don’t gamble,” he said. “Buy some good stock. Hold it till it goes up…and then sell it.
If it doesn’t go up, don’t buy it!”
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Free beer!
A&W is offering free root beer floats today to ease the pain of soaring gas prices during this summer driving season.
From the news release:
With gas prices at all time highs, 30 percent higher than a year ago, and grocery food prices increasing by double digits, A&W thought it was high time to provide Americans some sweet relief.
“We want to give people a great start to their summer and a little economic relief by treating America to one of their favorite sweets, the A&W Root Beer Float,” said Ben Butler, President, A&W Restaurants. The free A&W Root Beer Float treat will be available at the national restaurant’s nearly 700 stores.
Remember that locally based Sonic offered a similar promotion last year that was wildly successful, serving up more than 3 million small root beer floats. To find your nearest A&W, click here.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Can’t afford to buy the cheap stuff
I bought premium gasoline for the first time ever on the way to work this morning (on purpose, I mean, since I’ve accidentally grabbed the wrong nozzle a time or two): 11.7 gallons of it $4.01 per.
It was my first time to pay $4 or more for gas, too.
It killed me. I’ve been buying the 87-octane juice forever, it seems like, to save a dime or 20 cents per gallon.
But this little whizbang of a compact car I’m driving now (my big 4WD pickup is parked) requires the higher octane. The little car’s mileage suffers with the cheap stuff.
It got 25 mpg on the 91-octane premium it came with, then 27 mpg, but only 22 mpg on the last couple tanks of 87 proof.
Habits are just habits. I grabbed that high-octane nozzle, even though it cost more per gallon, after just a little math: For about $2 more, I’d get about 50 more miles per tank.
It’s summertime, and the livin’ is easy. But driving’s not anymore. Do you find yourself breaking out a calculator, or a pen and pad, everytime you buy gas? Or is it just me?
Richard Mize
Real Estate Editor
