hi, everyone stuck on hold when you call customer service the real reason some of us wait and others don't. the stock market has been on a wild ride lately protecting your retirement savings through the ups and downs. ready for a new car or truck how the rising sticker prices are changing auto loans. >> it's time to check your paycheck what's taken out and what you take home. january has some of the year's best deals. we have your guide to finding bargains on the money starts right now. this is on the money

your money, your life, your future now becky quick. >> we begin with a new hacking threat you have strong passwords. you even set up the extra layer of two factor authentication but a former hacker on the fbi's most wanted list has a warning you want to hear risk factor is this week's cover story. >> user name, password, and now for extra security, two factor authentication typically a special code acceptability to your smartphone enter it in and you're good to go. >> you can't relax. >> meet one of the fbi's most wanted hackers. >> even though you're using two-factor authentication, a smart hacker could get into your account. >> it could open up your business files or personal akounlts toel akouna accounts to criminals. >> any 13-year-old could carry out these attacks. >> the bad guys start by sending you a phony e-mail that looks

like the real deal it's called phishing in this demo it's from linked in saying a fan wants to connect. he clicks the link and is directed to the real linked in page. >> now i'm logged in. >> but now the bad guys can log in too here's how before he was directed to linked in, it secretly went through the hacker's server where it left what's called a cookie that's a bunch of info like his user name and password and all hackers need to get in. >> now i'm going to be magically locked into the victim's account. >> take a close look at our demo it came from a fake domain not linked in but llnked.com. >> it's not linked in that's vulnerab vulnerable it's the user. >> linkedin tells us we take these types of reports very seriously and have a number of technical measures in place to

protect our members. when we detect this type of activity, we work to quickly remove it and prevent future occurrences. we strongly encourage members to report any messages or postings they believe are scams some companies like google are making tools to prevent it called security keys. >> the security key stores it's own password and requires the site to prove that it's legitimate before releasing that password and getting you signed in we're encouraged to see more and more sites, more and more apps. >> and the solutions may be one step closer, but the pros say that you still need to play a role and pay close attention to everything that you enter, even with that special code for on the money, i'm andrea day. >> your personal information is not only a hot commodity for criminals but it's essential for companies that use it to secretly rate you. buying everything on sale or make too many returns could hurt your score and that may determine how long you're kept on hold when you try to call one of these companies

joining us to talk about this is ed lee from the new york times thank you for being here. >> sure. >> this is creep y. companies are rating me as a shopper. >> your value. your actual customer value it goes basically to if i'm the company and i want to market to you further. that could mean giving you diskoundi diskounl diskoundi discounts or a break on certain things, that's the whole point about it because the way they go about it is tricky they're going from your transaction history and how often you return things and complain about stuff which could lower your score. >> i must have a terrible score. not that i return things but i do call to complain from time to time if i don't like it. >> you call to m coplain i call to complain it's part of being a savvy shopper. you want the best possible deal. complaining is about well, this isn't what i ordered or this isn't what i paid for. i want what i paid for

so a lot of times being a smarter shopper, you get hurt. >> how do i get a view of what my customer transaction score looks like >> so the scores are largely proprieta proprietary. it's down to the specific retailer or vendor and they come up with their own way of defining what is valuable to them you can't see it if you request it, so to speak. >> do all companies do this? >> most companies do this. fortune 500 companies that sell tons and tons of stuff every year they're going to invest in -- there's a lot of third party companies that help them to period coup with the scores and get the data to do it as well as using the data on hand for the specific retailer. >> this is proprietary and i can't get information on it, should i assume any operator is allowed to ding you? >> they're allowed to ding you. >> is this like my uber rating >> it's like your uber rating and it follows you around conceivably from vendor to

vendor because they're using it where they're mixing their own data with third party data a lot of third party data comes from -- it used to be the catalogs you got in the mail your name and your address and what you bought, now it's everything that you do online. every site you visit creates a data point that gets sold to everyone. >> if i get a ton of catalogs in my mailbox should i assume i'm a valuable wanted customer or is it not necessarily -- >> it's not necessarily. it just assumes they sold your information and keep reselling it so you're full of catalogs at home on the off chance you're going to buy something and if you do end up buying something, it's going to add to your profile, your customer profile. >> if i can't find out my score, i can't challenge it and say this isn't a fair score. >> this isn't a fair score. >> should it be regulated? >> that's a great question it gets a little sticky because so much of this is -- from a company's standpoint, this is my marketing strategy i'm not going to give that up,

right? >> sure. but you are marking me as somebody that's either a good customer or a bad customer and i can't challenge it. >> sure. >> you're selling that to other companies. >> there's little to no appeal, right? so for all of those reasons, it's right for a certain kind of regulation and oversight and i think the degree to which it effects your ability to buy something, absolutely. that's going to be where the pain point will be and where you're like, hey, this is hurting consumers now. we need to take a closer look at this. >> stupid companies. >> yes. >> thank you great to see you. stocks are coming off the worst year in a decade and the markets roller coaster ride is continuing in the new year all of this volatility is creating lots of anxiety for many concerned about their retirement savings thank you so much for being here today, stacy, it's good to see you. >> thank you. >> let's talk about what we have seen the last few weeks. anybody watching the wild swings

we have seen, that creates anxiety. have you been hearing from your clienl clien clients about it >> we have seen more this year than 2008. >> if your retirement savings is in the market right now, what are you telling people they should do and that they shouldn't do >> number one, they should keep on dollar cost averaging. >> they should keep buying. >> keep buying every single paycheck that comes you should be contributing money to that. you get to take advantage of the day that there are down marks by getting stocks cheaper and the day when the market is doing better you're happy because your accounts are going up but what you shouldn't do is you shouldn't abandon it and go to cash we've seen some people talk about that it's the worst thing you can do. it's the worst financial move. 7 out of 10 years the market goes up. 7 out of 10 years the market goes up and most industry analysts are saying that 2019 is going to be a goodyear

so selling now to be the exact opposite thing of what you should be doing. >> we have seen a lot of up and down rides do you think the volatility is through or do you think it's going to go for awhile. >> the volatility is so not through. this is just the beginning and we expect 2019 to be as rocky and as choppy as it was last year. i liken it to a teenager you don't know how they're going to react they may blow up over something you didn't expect. the market is acting like a teenager, and we expect it's going to be that way at least until they get into their early 20s. >> depending on your retirement time plan, am i in a situation where i should consider putting off retirement if i'm getting close to that age? >> you should be thinking about if you have the right allocation so if we do see a really good rebound like we saw not too long ago, day after christmas, you may use that as an opportunity to right size your portfolio so it could be that you have many more assets in stocks than

really is going to be right for you to be able to weather the storm. >> so if prices come back up, you would say maybe lock in some of the gains, sell some of your stocks in bonds or cash? >> exactly if, again, you're not in the right portfolio. the vast majority of americans are in the right portfolio and some americans, actually, unfortunately, don't have a choice a lot of us are behind on retirement so you may have to stick with the larger allocation of stocks to try to make up for the times that you weren't able to put money away. >> thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. >> up next, we're on the money are you looking for a new car? if it's been awhile you may be in for sticker shock new auto loan payments are hitting new highs. we're going to tell you what's driving the prices higher. later, does your paycheck need a check up how to make sure that you're making the right choices with the new tax laws right now let's have a look at how the stock market ended the week

welcome back, everyone new year, new truck? you may want to hit the brakes until you hear this. auto loans are hitting a new high for new cars and used cars. what's behind the auto surge we have more. >> america's love with bigger trucks, suv and crossovers means more vehicles with higher sticker prices so we're

borrowing more and spending more each month repaying the loans. in the third quarter, the average auto loan hit a record of just under $31,000 with the average monthly payment for a new vehicle climbing to an all time high of $530. and the average used vehicle loan payment also hit a record at $381. >> if you've been out of the market for five or six years then these numbers can be surprising, but for the average consumer that seems to come back into the market every 35 or 36 months, they're still higher than what they saw previously and they're certainly not going to go down. >> one reason car prices stay high is because demand remains robust auto sales are on pace to top 17 million vehicles for a fourth straight year. the best stretch of sales ever in the u.s so auto makers can and will charge higher prices, especially for pick ups and suvs with the latest features and technology,

which explains why experian says one out of every five borrowers is now taking out a loan for at least $50,000. >> they don't represent a huge portion of the market, but they're definitely the area where we see the most growth you know, these loan amounts that are over 50 and even over $70,000. you know, a small portion but definitely growing. >> so who is borrowing 50 or $60,000 to buy a new vehicle those with the best credit ratings. the super prime and prime credit rating customers that is one of the fastest growing segments of the auto loan market. by comparison, becky, those with the poorest credit records, they are actually pulling back and not borrowing as much. in fact, loans to those people are at an 11 year low. >> is that because people aren't borrowing or is it because they can't get the loans? what do you think? >> they're not borrowing as much that's the primary factor there. >> when you get into the monthly

payments, you're talking not only about higher monthly payments but also longer loan terms. how many years on average? >> just under 70 months. >> 70 months. >> just under six years and it's not uncommon to find people taking out 6.5 and 7 year auto loans. that sounds crazy, but that's a growing part of the market. >> thank you it's great to see you. >> you too. up next, on the money. ways to check in on your paycheck and later, if you didn't get everything you wanted for the holiday season, don't worry, the deals are still out there. we'll tell you where to find them xfinity mobile is a new wireless network

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included with your internet. plus, get $200 back when you when you buy a new smartphone. xfinity mobile. it's simple. easy. awesome. click, call or visit a store today. taking just a few minutes now to check your paycheck could help you avoid the not so fun scenarios. sharon epperson is here and joins us to explain how and what we need to be doing. so sharon, why is this the time that we need to be looking at the amount of taxes that are taken out of your paycheck and why at the beginning of the year >> understanding your pay is probably the greatest financial asset that you have. you want to make sure that you know how it's going to work and work best for you. you want to know how much money the government is getting out of your pay that's the with holding and you

want to do it as soon as possible in the year and it's taken out of every paycheck on the way and if you wait until april to see what it might be you missed out on three months when you can make it work to your advantage. >> you start thinking about that if you're paying on a by weekly basis. >> you want to get it right as soon as possible. >> what taxpayers are most likely to be effected by something like this? >> h and r block did an analysis and those that will probably get a smaller refund or may actually owe uncle sam are those that itemize but have no dependents because of some of the tax law changes we have seen with the state and local income state deductions those in high tax states cap for them $10,000 so you may have an issue there. and also those that rely on unreimbursed business expenses because you can't write those off anymore. >> you can't write those off anymore? that's going to effect a lot of

people how did i not know that until now. >> there's a will the of things that you may not realize until you get that tax statement back and you see when you do your tax return for 2018 what you're going to owe this time and it may be a liability that many had not relied on but there's a brighter side for some of the families that have children under 17 that decide to take the standard deduction and not itemize, they may see a bigger refund, perhaps. >> you have to figure it out. >> how do i check to make sure that my with holding is correct. walk me through it. >> get your most recent paystub and a copy of last year's tax return you want to take that paycheck and information on the tax return, go to irs.gov and fill out the form on the tax with holding calculator and it will tell you if you need to fill out a new w4 form based on the information that it had. >> because you're taking out too much or too little. >> exactly you want to get thatform right and you may even want to go to a tax preparer to just make sure

that you have done it correctly. this is your greatest asset. it's your pay. you want to make sure that you get it right. >> thank you so much. >> sure. >> up next, a look at the news for the week ahead and savvy shoppers, stay tuned we'll tell you about the best bargain buys for the month of january.

the ism non-manufacturing for december on tuesday, the international trade numbers are scheduled to be released and the consumer electronics show kicks off in las vegas. on wednesday the federal reserve will release the minutes from the last meeting and it marks 12 years since steve jobs announced that apple would be launching the iphone on friday we'll see a measure of inflation with the consumer price index for december. even though the holidays are passed there's still deals to be had for the month of january >> it's great to be here. >> for anybody that's not completely shopped out, there's some stuff still around and maybe it's the best time to be buying it. where would you start? men's apparel. >> that's a great place. you may be tuckered out from shopping, but if you have to

return some things, it's a good time to buy. you're there anyway. what i'm seeing is men's warehouse and jos a. bank about $20 off 100 and all the way up to clearance level at top man and destination excel. so keep your eyes peeled from 20% off all the way to clearance. >> what about with linens and towels would you say this is a good time to be buying that too >> in january, since the 1800s. >> since 1800s, the year >> yes we have always seen white sales in january so i'm always advising people to wait, wait, wait. >> why >> i'm not sure. it's a thing we see every single january. we will see good sales on things like towels and sheets and bedding and with your typical retailers like your pottery barn, pottery barn kids, macy's, jcpenney and the sales are in the 20% offish category. so nothing clearance level necessarily but a solid deal if you need new sheets. >> i can't believe that goes back to the 1800s.

>> isn't that funny. this time of the year you also have people with new year's resolutions and that includes beefing up your financtness rou and dieting. >> we always see sales in this category if you need a new gym membership i would inquire locally. you don't want to sign a yearlong contract at a new gym, for instance but places like adidas and nigh i can will be having sales and fitness equipment sales at places like walmart. they're having a golds gym sale. academy will be have equipment sales. what about electronics >> i would say no. hold off on electronics. the biggest sales were black friday and cyber monday, but we can expect good sales in july. a lot of black friday in july coming up. another thing that if you really need it, i'd wait on mattresses because we'll see that on president's day but one little outlier will be tvs.

so through the super bowl, which is february 7th this year, we'll see good deals i'm seeing already some sale activity, walmart, costco, sam's club it will continue to heat up through the month. if there's a specific model you have in mind, i would set a deal alert. you can do that and they'll let you know when the item goes on sale, but outside of tvs i would hold off on electronics in general. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> that is the show for today. i'm becky quick. thank you for joining us next week, it's been in the family for six generations we'll meet the sisters that run america's oldest brewery each week keep it right here we're on the money have a great one and we will see you next weekend ♪ did you know you can save money by using dish soap to clean grease on more than dishes? using multiple cleaners on grease can be expensive, and sometimes ineffective. for better value, tackle grease with dawn ultra. dawn is for more than just dishes. it provides 3x more grease cleaning power per drop,

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the guys are getting ready behind me. while they do that, here's what's coming up. >> as we look at what's going on in china, it's clear that the economy began to slow. >> it was the words that spoke to apple investors this year but if you lost money, relax because mike has a way for you to make it back, for free. he will explain. plus. >> give me one good intel and it ain't here. >> intel shares are soaring and da