WHEN IT COMES to communication, I’m kind of a fanatic. (My wife would say I should drop the “kind of.”) More specifically, I’m a fan of responsive communication. Back in my working days, when I practiced criminal law, I made it a point to return phone calls and emails from clients promptly. It was rare that I didn’t do it the same day. If that meant staying late at the office until I caught up, I stayed late. Whenever I had a client who had had a different lawyer on a previous case, the most frequent complaints were “I couldn’t ever talk to him” or “she wouldn’t return my calls or emails.” I was always sympathetic to these gripes. It really gets my dander up if someone I’m doing business with is nonresponsive. When it comes to dealing with our finances, responsive communication is essential. How hard is it to communicate with the financial companies you use? And what means of communication do they provide? I’ve noticed a growing trend away from email, and toward telephone and “chat.” I dislike this for several reasons. First, I like email because you have a written record—the all-important paper trail. I keep every message of any significance, which is probably why my email cache is so huge. As for “chat,” which every company seems to tout these days, sometimes you can request that a transcript of the chat be emailed to you. If they do (and not all will), that’s good for your records. But based on my experience, I suspect that the chat gig is reserved for the newest hires. I’ve seldom had much luck getting anything but the most basic chores accomplished by “chatting.” [xyz-ihs snippet="Mobile-Subscribe"] As for the phone, which companies tend to push, we all know the headaches. There’s a guaranteed initial round of aggravation as you negotiate with a robot. That’s followed by a total crapshoot when you finally manage to get a human on the line. Some phone reps are great, but more are mediocre or worse. And there’s no written record, of course. But the companies, as they are pleased to tell you, are recording the call—so they have a great record. I once heard of a fellow who’d always begin his conversation with the phone rep by announcing that “for security and training purposes” he was recording the call. When I’m contemplating doing business with a new company, sometimes I’ll first try communicating with the folks there. If they make that unduly burdensome, I’ll look elsewhere. When I first began investing on my own, I opened accounts at Charles Schwab and Vanguard Group, both of which I still use today. One of the best things about Schwab has been their topnotch customer service and responsiveness. You could actually call them up and very quickly not only get a human on the line, but an intelligent human who made it clear he or she was actually going to help. And the folks almost always did. I think that’s still pretty much the case, although the other day I needed to call them and got hit with the dreaded, “We’re currently experiencing longer-than-normal wait times….” I hope that was just an aberration. As for Vanguard, there’s a lot I love about the company, but its communication and responsiveness are often mediocre. I always have an assigned rep, but there’s rapid turnover among them. The new ones often don’t even bother introducing themselves. (By contrast, I’ve had the same Schwab rep for years and he’s very responsive.) When I actually need something done—most often because of a website glitch—the typical Vanguard response is that they’ll report it to the technology folks. Then I never hear back, and the problem is often ignored. When you deal with a company rep, the Holy Grail is someone who asks for a little time to resolve the issue, and then not only resolves it but also later updates you. This doesn’t happen often. But when it does, what I really want to do is nominate them for an Academy Award for customer service. But instead, I usually contact their boss to make sure they get some well-deserved kudos. Andrew Forsythe retired in 2017 after almost four decades practicing criminal law in Austin, Texas, first as a prosecutor and then as a defense attorney. His wife Rosalinda and he, along with their dogs, live outside Austin, at the edge of the Texas Hill Country. Their four kids are now grown, independent and successful. They're also blessed with four beautiful grandkids. Andrew loves dogs, and enjoys collecting pocketknives and flashlights. Check out his earlier articles. [xyz-ihs snippet="Donate"]

EVEN AS I'VE WRITTEN regularly for HumbleDollar over the past year, I’ve also learned a lot from the other writers. There have been specific tips I’ve picked up, as well as more general strategies that have influenced my thinking. For instance, John Lim and others have touted the benefits of Series I savings bonds, with their virtually risk-free interest rate, currently set at a whopping 7.12%. My wife and I took the plunge, opened TreasuryDirect accounts and bought the maximum allowed. The comments on articles can likewise be helpful. Recently, a reader mentioned that, thanks to a couple of promos, he was getting 1.1% on his Marcus online savings account. My Marcus account was yielding 0.5%, so this got my attention. I referred my wife and she opened a Marcus account, getting us both a 0.5% interest bonus for three months. Then we joined AARP, which got us another 0.1% for two years. Adam Grossman’s article on how to analyze the total cost of owning a particular mutual fund is a great tool. I’ve used it in deciding whether to sell some actively managed funds I bought decades ago and which now have significant unrealized capital gains. Charles Ellis’s recent article on fees reinforced, in a dramatic way, my belief in a low-cost index fund approach. His same logic applies to fees paid to an advisor, strengthening my resolve to stay with my do-it-yourself approach for as long as I have enough marbles remaining. More generally, just seeing so many HumbleDollar contributors and commenters embracing the same basic principles—start early, keep fees low, diversify, trade infrequently, maintain a healthy cash reserve and so on—has been helpful. It reinforces what I’ve personally learned, often the hard way, and gives me confidence that I’m on the right path. Sometimes, the dividends paid by the site are unique and completely unexpected. A while back, I mentioned my hobby of collecting pocket knives, and how I sell some of them each year to benefit organizations that help our canine friends. A reader with a knife question got in touch. He had owned an unusual pocket knife decades ago, but sadly lost it. He asked my help in finding a replacement. The pocket knife gods were with us. I found one on eBay, and also gave the reader some eBay tips I’d picked up over the years. He won the auction for the knife and, to show his gratitude, made a contribution to a very worthy dog organization I’d mentioned in my article.

After just being hit with an almost 30% premium increase from Mutual of Omaha (MOO), I'm shopping around for a new Medicare Supplement carrier. I actually like MOO for their generally good customer service, user friendly website, and fast claims processing. Twice in past years, I've been able to stay with MOO but avoid a price hike by switching to one of their sister companies, which I wrote about here. It seems that option is no longer available, hence my looking into other carriers. I'm fortunate to have good health and should be able to pass medical underwriting. I've gotten somewhat lower quotes from Humana and Cigna. I've gotten substantially lower quotes from two less familiar names: Banker's Fidelity (part of Atlantic Capital Life Assurance Co.) and Wellabe (formerly Medico). I'd appreciate a post from anyone who's had experience with any of these companies, including their recent history of premium increases, customer service, website user friendliness, and claims processing. I'm particularly interested in hearing about Wellabe/Medico. Thanks!

Recently, and spurred by the horrific fires in L.A., there's been a lot of attention on home insurance, including skyrocketing premiums. Like many people, we have our home, auto, and umbrella policies with the same company, and have seen our premiums increase dramatically in the last few years. I've occasionally heard mention, without much in the way of specifics, of a "longevity benefit" in staying with the same insurance company rather than constantly shopping around and switching. I'm hoping someone with a background in insurance can shed some light on this. First off, is there any truth to it? If so, is the benefit in the form of smaller premium increases for long term policyholders, or a smaller chance of being dropped, or...? Thanks for any insights.

I'VE WRITTEN BEFORE about stumbling on an unexpected way to save on auto insurance. My education continues: I’ve also learned of a way to save on Medigap coverage. When I became eligible five years ago for Medicare, I bought Medigap Plan G supplemental coverage from Mutual of Omaha (MOO). Last summer, as my wife was about to become eligible for Medicare, we took another look at Medigap coverage. I was generally happy with MOO’s claims procedures and customer service, as well as the fact that MOO would extend a 12% “household discount” if we also got my wife’s policy from MOO. But I didn’t like the fact that my own premiums had gone from an initial $97 a month to $148.02, an increase of almost 53%. One day, I received a mailer from Omaha Supplemental Insurance Co., a MOO company, which quoted a $115.18 monthly premium for a 69-year-old male nonsmoker, my status at the time. Although my policy was with a different MOO company, United World Life Insurance, I couldn’t understand the significant price difference. I contacted the insurance broker who had helped me with my original Medigap application, and asked if I could simply switch MOO subsidiaries and benefit from the lower rate. She replied that the lower quote was for “new business” and, since I was already a MOO customer, I didn’t qualify. My broker was retiring, so I found a new broker who seemed very knowledgeable and I repeated my question to him. To my surprise, he said that I would indeed be considered “new business” if I applied to a different MOO subsidiary. I next contacted Mutual of Omaha directly and a representative confirmed the good news. Since I was applying for a new Medigap policy outside the initial open enrollment period—the period when I first became eligible for Medicare at age 65—I’d have to pass medical underwriting. Fortunately, I’m in good health and, after answering a few questions on a form, I was accepted. My wife’s quoted rates were the same at both my original MOO company and at the new one: $96.41 a month. And my new broker, since he was writing me a new policy, received a well-deserved commission. As for me, going from $148.02 to $115.18 a month is saving me $394.08 a year. While I’ll be on the receiving end of premium increases going forward, starting from this new lower base means I should keep saving every year. After a few years, if my premiums again get uncomfortably high, I’ll start researching whether there’s yet another MOO subsidiary that would be happy to consider me “new business.”

THE ABOVE HEADLINE doesn’t refer to Afghanistan. Even that 20-year struggle has finally come to an end. This is about an even more relentless campaign—against the cable company. In my case, that means Spectrum, part of Charter Communications. The first question is, why haven’t I cut the cord? The short answer: My wife loves sports on TV and cable seems to be the only way to get all her favorites. As cable victims know, after those enticing “new customer” deals expire, you’re subject to a constant series of escalating fees, which can quickly have your monthly bill skyrocketing. There’s only one remedy, I’ve found, and that’s constant negotiating. As soon as I see an increase in my bill, I examine it. If it’s just an increase in the cost of a standard component, I’m probably stuck with it. But the more substantial increases come from the expiration of whatever promotions I currently have. The next step is calling Spectrum and telling the robot I want to cancel service, which gets me to “Customer Retention.” Once there, I explain to the rep that I’m willing to remain a customer, but only with enough new promos to get my bill back to where it was. I’ve found that some reps really try to help and others have a bad attitude from the get-go. When I get the latter, I usually just claim a bad connection and spin the wheel with another call. It takes time on the phone and persistence, but I can usually get my bill back close to where it was—and occasionally even a little less. It’s crucial to take good notes, including the name of the rep, because often my next bill doesn’t jibe with the new discounts I’d been promised. That means yet another phone call is needed. Not long ago, I spoke with a friend who didn’t know negotiation was even possible, and probably wouldn’t bother with it anyway. His monthly Spectrum bill was $75 higher than mine for the same services.