Good morning ...and thanks for signing up for your weekly Dose of Dover!   I'm pleased to be sending you your weekly shot of un-common sense advice, ideas and other observations.  This stuff comes together as a direct result of your e-mails, letters and telephone calls from the radio shows, TV segments and newspaper column.   Do me a favor and put me out of a job!!!    Forward this e-mail to everyone in your Address Book, others that will benefit from the information I've assembled below.   Dose of Dover Tuesday, September 10, 2002:   You're not gonna believe the latest device one credit card company's come up with! It's supposed to make it easier for you to use their card, but I predict it's gonna go down as one of the dumbest innovations in the history of consumer plastic !!! You've probably seen it advertised on TV the last few weeks; a heavy rotation of commercials running inside morning shows like Today or Good Morning, America touting the new Discover2Go card, something you'll want to think twice about signing up for.  Designed to always be there, think of it as a credit card conveniently attached to your car keys. Here's Discover's own description from their website: "The Discover 2GO Card is a compact-sized addition to your existing Discover Card Account. It's perfect when your hands are full at the grocery store, at the mall or anywhere else you don't want to carry a bulky wallet! With your Discover 2GO Card kit, you will receive a key chain that has a detachable section. Just put your Discover 2GO Card on one section and your keys on the other. That way you can separate your keys from your Card anytime you want."  Really? Sounds good, but I seriously doubt you're going to remember to detach your Discover2Go credit card from your keychain every time you get your car washed, valet park or leave your car with the mechanic. It's hard enough avoiding credit card related fraud under conventional transaction circumstances...I think I'll be skipping this offer from my pals at Discover, thank you very much.     Not only will obesity cut your life short-according to statistics, anyway-but now a recent study indicates that being fat will cut your paycheck short, too! There's evidence now that's confirming something that "large" people already suspected; aside from the recognized level of discrimination and in some cases, disdain that obese or severely obese individuals are accustomed to, apparently these anti-fat attitudes can carry over to their paychecks, too.  Ben's Bottom Line? If you're overweight, and by the way, it's not that hard to reach the obese or severely obese category these days, you might wanna think about taking drastic action that more and more insurance companies are willing to pay for.  If you want more information, I've got a ton of it [oops, poor word choice] on the website and I know what I'm talking about, 105 pounds later as a result of the gastric bypass surgery I had a couple of years ago... Problems getting an insurance company to pay up?  No surprise...one of the biggest thorns in the side of the insurance biz, especially when it comes to property and casualty claims [like homeowners and car-related heartburn] is Ron Alford; check out his website for advice and direction: www.theplan.com   Did you know that NOW you can have a loved one or that faithful dog or cat turned into some diamond earrings or a pendant or even a pinkie ring after they pass on?  We now have evidence that Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton, while they might appear to be somewhat "whacked," are actually a couple of marketing geniuses that spotted a trend lonnnnnnnng before any of us saw it coming. It's the story of death and diamonds...and it sounds more like an episode of the Munsters than anything else.  Wanna turn Grandma into a set of diamond studs? [Wait until she passes on, first!]  Here you go.....   Of course when it comes to complaining, you know you've found the best weapon in your quest for fair dealing!  It's not about complaining, but how to complain effectively that really matters.  Check out my Six Steps To Effective Complaining section...but don't come whinin' to me if you haven't exhausted all of your resources, first! Last week I told you about a hidden racist message...the number "88" that forced Target to pull any clothing adorned with this apparent pro-Nazi plug. Now you're not gonna believe the latest piece of clothing being pulled from store shelves, yet another example of a bunch of politically correct wimps in high places. [Thank God they don't work at KFI!!!] I'm convinced that America's retailers wanna dress you up like a bunch of mindless robots wearing gray Mao Tse Tung-like frocks that could never hurt anyone's feelings!!!  By the way: Since several of you have asked for me to repeat this story...the Department of Motor Vehicles has been denying my request for a personalized license plate that I've been submitting every year for the last 12 years. For some reason they think I'm trying to get a hidden message on my license plate...can you believe that?  Why would anyone think I'd try to sneak some subliminal message by? Hmmmmm...the license number I've been trying to get since 1988 is: 3M TA3.  [If you don't understand why they keep rejecting it, you might wanna write it down and do what some smart guy did at the DMV, and hold it up to a mirror. Think of it as one of our mottos for surviving the real world here on the BFD show.....] I've been telling you this forever! And now one of the largest service providers in the country is proving once again that my strategies really do work!  Remember their positioning statement Avis used? "We're #2! We try harder!!!"   Apparently this type of strategy to connect with customers (especially former customers) is now being utilized by the Sheraton Hotel chain. Didja see the story in yesterday's LA Times?  Ben's Bottom Line? Since you never know if or when you'll be traveling again, combined with the uncertainty of or desire to "try" that service provider-in this case, Sheraton Hotels-again in the future, take whatever cash or discounts they're offering now, on the spot. Don't let 'em give you a spa deal that you may never use, a "reward" that may be designed to simply upsell you into additional services, anyway. Would an extra 50 cents really keep you from ordering a pizza to be delivered?  Did you realize that the ready-to-eat pizza industry generates $25.5 billion in sales every year??? Amazing...and while you may remember the big pitch for pizza chains back in the late 70's and early 1980's...the big hook was free delivery. [Of course that allowed teenagers to drive like ambulance drivers in order to get you your order on time and avoid the "free penalty"...a hook pioneered by Domino's.]  Ben's Bottom Line: An extra 50 cents or a buck for delivery's not gonna kill me and if it's gonna kill you, then maybe you shouldn't be paying a premium for fast food in the first place!  And don't be a cheapskate/punk and forget to tip your driver...if the delivery person's egregiously late or cops a bad attitude, then you can take it out on them with a lousy tip, but don't order from that place again or they'll probably spit [or worse] on your order when they see your name pop up.  [By the way: I've been told on several occasions from people that work in this business that some places DO make notes in their computers if you're a pain in the butt or have stiffed drivers in the past...and sometimes they've been known to take it out on you on future orders. So if you didn't order anchovies but see some on your pizza, that may not be an anchovy, if you know what I mean.] If you're a current homeowner or just thinking about it, get ready for the price of admission to go up...and there's probably nothing you can do to stop it! In case you missed this story, you're about to cover the insurance industry's mistakes...again! Ben's Bottom Line? If you've gotta claim to submit to your homeowner's insurance company, ask yourself a couple of questions first:     a) Have you filed any claims in the last 3-5 years? If so, you're on thin ice.     b) How much is the claim going to actually pay out, net of deductible? If it's more than 20% of your annual premium, multiplied by 5, [equal to a full year's premium on the property] then it's probably a claim worth submitting. Otherwise, your nickel-and-diming of your insurance company could cost you a helluva lot more in premium increases, or cancellation altogether, if you try to get 'em to pay up for the little stuff. You're probably paying too much in taxes or taking deductions that are gonna put you in front of an IRS or State of California taxman sooner or later! But I may have a solution to help you avoid both! 40 million Americans donated household items to charity last year, but 80% of them (32 million) didn't maximize the total write-off benefit of their donations! Ben's Bottom Line: Like practically everything else out there, you're gonna have to pay a reasonable fee for the expertise of the folks behind www.itsdeductible.com.  Just because it's on the Internet doesn't mean it's always free;  they claim to have a variety of money-back guarantees and other enticements to cover the nominal cost of their services being rendered! I got an e-mail a few weeks ago from a listener that was about to make a $60,000 mistake as she was about to take on her recently deceased Mom's debts!  The lesson she learned is the tip of an iceberg and a growing problem across Southern California: Are you responsible for Mom or Dad's debts when they die?  This is another example of why you need to hire and listen to qualified counsel, otherwise your adversaries [creditors in this case] could brain-wash you into making a costly decision!  And before you start firing off hateful e-mails to me, let me remind you one more time of the credo of this show and the website: "What's popular isn't always right, and what's right isn't always popular."  I'm not here to be your moral or ethical compass, just to give you the facts of life and information that will allow you to avoid making some huge mistakes.  Always consult with qualified legal counsel...do not assume anything nor advice from someone collecting a debt, especially when it comes to creditors and deceased relatives. Did you sign up yet for the free Dose of Dover weekly newsletter yet?  Why not?  You too, can help put Ben out of a job!  Sign up for the free newsletter and get so smart that you'll never have to listen to his radio show ever again. When I got Terry-from-Norwalk's e-mail a few weeks ago, her dilemma revealed an even bigger and far more frightening picture of an aging America: Mom & Dad are probably deeper in debt than you realize! Why?  Because today's seniors are more likely to be in debt than ever before -- and the amounts they owe are growing. You really need to read this terrific article by Liz Pulliam Weston on MSN Moneycentral...and here are some highlights that you need to print and save, but first, some statistics:         $$$ Average household debt for those 65 and older rose 164% between 1992 and 2000, according to SRI Consulting Business Intelligence, to $20,302. Among younger households, debt loads increased by 92%.         $$$  Half of senior households now carry credit card balances, compared with fewer than one in five 10 years ago. The average balance has increased nearly 50%, to $1,900.         $$$  Bankruptcy filings by people over 65 have more than tripled in 10 years, from 23,890 in 1991 to 82,207 last year.         $$$  By the time they get to bankruptcy court, seniors tend to be deeper in debt than other filers. Most people filing for bankruptcy have unsecured debts, including credit-card balances, that just about equal their incomes, according to Department of Justice statistics. Bankruptcy filers over 70, by contrast, have credit-card debt that averages twice their annual incomes.   There's a right way and a wrong way to handle phone calls from telemarketers.  If you're smart, you'll make sure you don't miss next Sunday's show, when telephone bad boy Jim Florentine joins us and helps us learn the proper way to torture telephone solicitors.  It's good clean fun that the whole family can enjoy!  [Check out Jim's latest CD for yourself on his website!]  And we'll be talking about this on next week's show...put it on your calendar: Sunday morning, September 15, 2002, from 8-10a PT on KFI-AM/640. Think of it as un-common sense, delivered conveniently to your e-mail once a week: And the best news of all?  It's free.  Okay, maybe you're enlightened enough to already be receiving your Dose of Dover; why not make a friend, family member, co-worker, fellow [former] cellmate--you name it--just as smart as you!  Send 'em this link: www.bendover.com/newsletter.asp so they can get on board and get their own [free] weekly Dose of Dover.      Gotta question for Ben?  Call in and get it answered live on the air during his Sunday morning radio show (8-10 am Pacific/9-10 am Mountain/10 am-12 noon Central/11 am-1 pm Eastern, 4-6 pm GMT) on KFI-AM/640, Los Angeles: (800) 520-1-KFI     [And you can listen live via the Internet, no matter where you are!]