"the willis report" lowing

>> the other thing happening is to the extent people have money, they put off the european trip, they're taking the european trip, so we see some more tickets being sold there. gerri: that is what we are doing. >> and you have economic headwinds with the payroll tax rebate and the economy, where it is at. that is good news for this summer, at least prices are going up. there are some pretty good deals, especially if you have flex ability.

gerri: competition, fuel prices, is that weighing in? >> not a lot. the merger will not happen until 18 months from now. united continental is fully merged at this point. everything is fully baked into the system. gerri: you have good rules of thumb for people. the price point they are probably going to encounter starting with the u.s. domestic flights, what can i expect to pay? >> if you're going to fly an hour-long flight, you have $150 round-trip, even this summer. when you stand out an hour to three hours, it is like going from chicago to the coast looks like the 250, 275 range. on coast to coast flights $375 round-trip including all taxes and fees. don't pay more than $400. you will see prices and a $500 range coast to coast, but you can find deals under $400 if you

look. gerri: let's talk about international flights, what can i expect? >> looking at prices in the $1000 to $1050. from chicago midwest, from the east coast 1350 range. if you're going to london, paris, rome, add an extra 15, 20%. especially for nonstop. you're going to pay a serious premium. if you go to places like germany, ireland, spain, switzerland, which are the cheapest countries right now, those are the best bet. gerri: let's talk about making the fares cheaper, what do i do? you have to be in the shoulder season, right? >> certainly if you can buy your ticket for example before the second week in june, ther therea little bit of break. the last week in august ticket

prices drop, kids go back to school. in between they are the expected tickets are. there is a $30 surcharge each way on those days so if you don't fly on those days, he will not incur the surcharge. tuesday afternoon is after the sales occur, monday night everything matches tuesday morning. tuesday afternoon is the best time to shop. gerri: we did cheapest destinations in europe, now cheaper destinations in the u.s. what if i didn't want to pay up for it? >> northeast the cheapest city of boston. let's help the folks out in boston. washington, d.c., baltimore area. toward florida, orlando, tampa, fort lauderdale competing pretty heavy. the southwest austin, san antonio, some of the cheapest places to go right now. denver, los angeles are your

best bet. gerri: there's a lot to do, a lot of history. >> fenway park is my favorite place on the planet. gerri: thank you for coming on, we appreciate your time. everybody has their own method for getting their best travel deals. i hit the street of new york to ask about their favorite methods. here is what they told me. >> we do a lot online, a lot through american express travel. >> usually go through kayak online or through a travel agent. >> definitely online. travel zoo, depends. >> do you feel you are getting good prices are the prices go up? >> it is really all luck, i think. depends on the day of the week. gerri: do feel you get a good deal or the prices going up? >> prices are always going up.

>> if you fly, cannot go anywhere directly. the prices are outrageous. in a big city, the prices aren't so bad. from a small town, they are really high. gerri: interesting. kayak seems to be the website of choice for travel with our viewers. if you're planning to take a trip overseas anytime soon and wants to speed through immigration and customs lines, therthere's a special new progrm out there. hereto as they question how do you do that, mark murphy. author of "travel unscripted." a fantastic program and nobody seems to know about it. you can get through security lines in like 40 seconds. tell folks what it is and how it works. >> all you do is go online and you apply, and once you apply you pay $100 application fee, the schedule an interview for you with the customs and border

patrol. they will do a background check on you, when they do that if you have anything in your background, if you are under investigation, if you have had any issues with immigration or customs in the past or any criminal record, you will not get it. once you do that, you get approved, you literally whisk right through, go to a kiosk instead of a person, put your fingers down, the passport, two seconds later you take the customs form and walked the express customs line and you are literally out the door two to three minutes from the time you hit the immigrations you're getting in your taxi. gerri: what about getting domestically? you have some ideas for that, people encounter it all the time. >> , cue from the philadelphia right now and the terminals in philadelphia are interconnected.

even if i'm going out of terminal b for instance, i take a look at the terminals and i will check in at terminal a. if you want get your boarding pass ahead of time, you can go to any security checkpoint. you get right in and you can walk over to terminal b, terminal c, whatever. instead of standing in line, you're getting a little exercise and your heart rate up, which is good. gerri: if you have checked in already, you can go through any security line? i did not know that. >> i do that quite a bit, it is a great way to do that. gerri: are the security lines getting longer and longer? i have to give more and more time to do that. >> i make sure i can go through a couple of things, tsa which i

don't even have to take my shoes off for my jacket off, don't have to take my computer out, that is great for heavy business travelers. also credit cards get to the front of the line. you can bypass and go to the priority lines, that is another travel tip. gerri: i avoid the lines with the kids. it takes longer. >> the family line. the little ones, you avoid that. there are ways to get around the problem areas. talk to travel professionals because they can give you insight into the best way to get through security and on your way. also understand that been through these lines it depends on what is going on any given day. there are different times of the

day to fly, and you can avoid a lot of the headaches as well. gerri: you said to dress appropriately and be nice because just being nice goes a long way in this world, right? >> the gate agents, they catch a lot of. show them some kindness, they are working hard. they will give you attitude back. if you say i am running late, anyway to move to the front of the line? they will do everything they can to help you because kindness begets kindness. when i was on a week ago he said he always gets shunned at those lines, so he has to take a look at his approach for security. gerri: thank you for coming on, great tips, great information. >> thank you. gerri: when it comes to travel there is more than one app for that. travel is the third most important category in the top

five, the best apps out there. number five, giving you flights around the world and of even terminals. number four, trippit lets you set up a mobile itinerary of the flight for the flight, car rental. number three, what you heard about on the street, kayak. just like the site, letting you know if they change and compares different travelers. number three, waze. waze provides up to date traffic news, plus it allows you to see before you pass the cops. and the number one travel app, the hotel app monitors were you book your next will rebook your room if the rate drops. like having a secretary. go to gerr gerriwillis.com.

coming up, tips for getting the most bang for your buck when it comes to complaining to a company. vo: traveling you definitely end up meeting a lot more people but

a friend under water is mething completelyifferent. i t a turtle friend today so, you don't get that very often. it seemed like it was mo than happy to have us in his home. so beautiful. avo: more travel. more options. more personal. whatever you're looking for expedia has more ways to help you find yours. how old is the oldest person yove known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. we learned a lot of us have known someone who's lived well into their 90s. anthat's a great thing. but even though we're living longer, one thing that hasn't changed much is the official retirement age. ♪ the question is how do you make sure you have the money you need to enjoy all of these years. ♪

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gerri: so apparently if you're like most consumers, chances are you're letting big companies off the hook for their mistake. nearly 70% of americans won't speak up if you have a problem with their produut or service. this, despite one in for getting real results when they complain. so how do you do that? senior project editor, it is always great to see you, thank you for coming back on the show. why aren't people complaining? i thought americans love to complain. >> we do, but we are kind of closet complainers and passive aggressive. we are afraid of being a

cheapskate, a whiner, we're afraid of being rebuffed or perhaps what really is happening is people are just put off by the arcane process of trying to get through to someone to complain to. gerri: the anonymous voices, it is the most frustrating thing in the world. you say if you can navigate it, you can actually get something. >> there are actually two systems in place in terms of customer service. there is the main system where they have the easy to play person, the person who gives up quickly. and then they have another system for what they call the squeaky wheels, people like you and me. people who raise a ruckus. studies have shown people who raise cain with companies

actually get satisfied more often than not. they have goodwill departments that a lot of companies to nullify the squeaky wheel because they know if people stand up for their rights and make a lot of noise, they will complain at least 21 other people, otherwise one bad experience gets broadcast through other outlets and it is easier to retain and keep the grouchy customer happy than to get a new customer. if you speak up, you will get rewarded. gerri: a lot of people listen to this conversation and think these two people are trying to get something for nothing. they want to take advantage of the company. that is not true. there are times you have problems with a huge company and a little tiny consumer you feel powerless. what are the keys to getting something done?

>> the fine print in all of these customer service policies is designed by lawyers for lawyers to keep you at bay. resolve a complaint you have to know the basic policy. you have to read the fine print and understand it, and you have to know your rights. call the company, to get somebody unable or unwilling to help or listen to you, keep calling back until you get a more sympathetic, helpful here. tell the representative you would like to escalate the issue or speak with a retention department. the word escalate makes people quake in their boots because of the customer service repetitive gets too many escalates which gets bumped up to a higher level, that reflects badly on them and says you are not doing your job. they want to deal with it at the ground level to keep from getting themselves in trouble. gerri: lets talk about mistakes. >> one of the things is they

don't understand what is plausible and what is not. if they are not aware of things, they are not intelligent enough to have a good back-and-forth. it is a part of it is your personality, have you take the time to investigate. what is the policy? do i take no for an answer? how do i advocate on my own part? one of the greatest things i think people can advocate themselves for us to go to message board on company websites or take it to facebook and twitter because companies monitor these sites and they know if this problem is not resolved, to be broadcast widely and they want to nip that in the bud. that is why they take these steps, we go back to the squeaky wheel. if you know what you're talking

about, you have all your documentation and you threatened to escalate, chances are. gerri: my husband is the best escalator i have seen on the telephone. his greatest line towards the end is that is just not good enough. >> if you're willing to not take no for an answer, chances are you will be placated and you will get to yes, that is the bottom line. gerri: love that. you're always terrific on these topics. thank you so much. next, going to college without leaving your living room. online classes are all the rage now. we will tell you about one of your options. [ male announcer ] this is the age of knowing what you're made of.

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gerri: an ivy league education free of charge. next, where he can take free online courses by top university

professors coming up.

gerri: here on "the willis report" who talk a lot about how education is just too expensive. today we have a solution for that. college students seek out massive open online courses. being offered by institutions like harvard, mit, stanford. sounds good, doesn't it? free of charge. but is it right for you? joining us now. professor at stanford university. tell me what it does. >> it works with the best universities to offer the best classes from the best instructors to students all over the world. we have 3.3 million students taking some of the world's best for free.

gerri: 300 plus online courses with teachers from 200 universities. how do you do this? my goodness, how do you convince these people to teach for free? >> for professor giving opportunity to take something they are passionate about and convey it to tens of thousands or even 100,000 people is a priceless opportunity for them to get the message out about something they care deeply about. at the same time for universities we are working with, this is a great opportunity for them to change the way on-campus instruction is done because a lot of times instructors to the insight and materials they have developed as part of the online education effort and use it to teach the students on their own college campuses moving more active learning into the classroom so they have a chance to really engage with their students. gerri: what kind of students or take advantage of the online version?

>> we have students from every age group. 10-year-olds, 90-year-olds. students from every country around the world, students very different economic backgrounds, a lot of students who have disabilities with a real educational experience. gerri: if i take your courses, can i get a degree eventually? can i get the satisfaction of having the knowledge? >> we are not a degree granting institution but you have the option of getting statements of a combo's rent, a letter from the instructor saying you successfully completed the class. an option of getting a verified certificate which verifies your identity, this is for some of the classes, and some more rigorous ways that include universities.

access the credit ability. it can potentially transfer those into a college degree and an institution at which they are enrolled. gerri: it could become credit, is awesome. at the end of the day, say you've really want to have a better understanding of what you are doing. put it on the resume. bolsters your own sense of accomplishment, i think i said free. free. >> it is totally free. the options available for those of us working professionals over the course of the life are very limited. you can find a babysitter and go to a community college. neither of these is all that attractive for these people.

gerri: really appreciated, thank you. >> thank you. gerri: are you on the cloud? an easy way to keep your information in one place, but also easy prey for thieves. how to keep yourself safe. eepin? eepin? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers. ♪

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gerri: all right, storing your files on the cloud is more important than ever. offering users ample space for their files, but just how safe are these sites and what are the dangers you are facing? media reporter joining me now with how to protect your data on the cloud. i had to tell you i am so worried about this because all of my stuff is there. you want to know what coupon i've got? it is up there. you want to know where i live? anything about me is there. should i be concerned? >> the same concern as always,

now the consequences can be a lot more severe as you said, it is your photographs, your documents, your life, somebody gets into it, can be big trouble. the cloud is not that new. you have been using it all along. the differences in the old days we had hard drives, flash drives or cd-roms, and priestley let us put the documents, the photos, our life in these remote storage devices. like having a personal locker in the sky. very convenient. gerri: look at what is going on. all of the major media since i've have had some sort of a break-in. anywhere you look it seems like nothing is secure. >> you are right, they are more

vulnerable than they let on. you have chinese hackers, criminal gangs looking for credit card information. sometimes the hackers win. gerri: i want to play something he had to say about this topic. with the cloud you do not own anything, you have already signed it away. there will be a lot of horrible problems in the next five years. is he just to negative? >> not really. i use it, you use it, but if something goes wrong it will go really wrong. gerri: i was hoping you would inspire me to be confident, but you are not. tell me what i can do to keep myself safe, at least i can take just the basic steps to protect myself. >> a lot of these are within your control, don't have a weak

password, do not make your password "password" or "i love you." that is where most of the breaches happen. those are the accounts you will get into first. you're seeing some great things from google and dropbox. if there is accessing your cloud, they'll ask for text message confirmation. use that security feature. >> you give your password to your friend or boyfriend or something like that, that is asking for trouble. gerri: you say watch out for public wi-fi. >> don't start doing your banking. be careful. gerri: i think our viewers need to hear this because a lot of us

don't even realize we are using the cloud and we have to make sure that we take a lot of it away. always good to have you here. when we come back some important tips on rebalancing our portfolio, working out for you and your money next.

gerri: 401(k) rejoice, the stock market is on fire with all three major indexes seeing big games so far this year. all good news, but for most of us that means investment portfolio are way out of whack. most money in stocks and little in bonds. is it time to rebalance, and how do you do that? joining us now, a financial advisor and the author of you can never be too rich. welcome to the show.

we brought this up because last night on the show david was with us, he had this to say about rebalancing. >> that type of a person who is really in a bull market, it is a great time to pull back a little bit of those profits, enjoy it because we will see a market pullback this summer. gerri: i am one of those people, i have let it ride for a while and i am now 80% stocks and my portfolio, which is probably too much. should i rebalance and how should i do with? >> people have to understand what is rebalancing. can i touch upon it for just a second? gerri: please do. >> it gives an investor systematic way to take the guesswork out of trying to manage money. anytime you can take emotion and guesswork out of managing money you are in a much better position. for those who don't understand

what rebalancing is, i will make it super simple. imagine in the pizza pie you have four different sectors, stocks, bonds, u.s. stocks, emerging markets and international market. let's say the way i set up my portfolio is each sector represents 25% in each slice of the pie. the u.s. stock market exploding and grow. a lot of people tend to let that ride as we all know, the market cycles come and go. what is up today can be down tomorrow. instead of letting it grow and the chances of it going down in the future, you should take emotion out of the equation and take the prophets out of the u.s. stock market and use it to buy into other sectors that aren't doing so well. if you don't get emotion in the mix, should allow you to sell

high-end buy things low. gerri: these are things that can be difficult to make. should you a moment like this in time rebalance or should you do it once a year, once a quarter, how often? >> is typically say every 366 days, the reason for 366 days is because if you have those gains, i sell it one day after the new year, i have a much better chance of reaping the rewards of long-term capital gains instead of short-term capital gains so in the best case scenario wait a little bit after a year to rebalance but that is not always the case. we have about six months of a big run-up in the u.s. stock market and if you are something that could be a pullback, sensing there could be a

pullback, take some of that growth out of the center and use it to rebuy to things like europe. the speegerri: i like that. thank you. 401(k) hopefully your 401(k) is growing with the bull market, so bigger nest egg means bigger fee. cut down on those hidden costs, but how do you do that? joining me now, chad, welcome back to the show. you know what is amazing to me, nobody thinks about the 401(k). they are misled, how so? >> no such thing as a free lunch. the fees come out of the top of your investment return. you see a return of maybe 10% on the fund, that is the net of fees. the weight is structured is they don't have to tell you that, so basically here is the return.

gerri: fees for mutual funds, but obviously there are fees for maintenance of the 401(k). a lot has a handout. you have a mutual fund investment expenses in addition to you have things in the marketing cost, sub transfer agency fees, fees mutual funds pay companies like mine to help record keep, and then you have what insurance company plans m&a fees. i won't even go into it, we don't have time. gerri: short story, you are paying a lot of fees. can i as an individual negotiate these down or can reduce them anyway? >> you as an individual cannot but you can go to your hr

department, definitely pay attention to the fees, shop around, do your homework, look at the investments you are paying, bring its detention of a business owner and stand up for yourself because these are your dollars and they are, your hiring these people to work for you so make sure you have the right people at the right prices. gerrii the fees are lower instead of a very expensive actively managed fund. so much money do you think over my lifetime i missing out on because of these fees? >> i've seen different studies up to $150,000. you owe it to yourself to absolutely make sure you're getting the right balance. this is not a race to the bottom. are you getting the best value for what you are paying?

gerri: typical fees can be half a%, up to 2%, be your best advocate and tell the people what you need. great to see you, as always. coming up next, don't be fooled how packaging and have you buy things you don't need or even want. what to look out for next. ♪ [ male announcer ] from the way the bristles move to the way they clean, once you try an oral-b deep sweep power brush,

you'll never go back to a regular manual brush. its three cleaning zones with dynamic power bristles reach between teeth with more brush movements to remove up to 100% more plaque than a regul manual br and even 76% more plaque than sonicare flexcare in hard to reach areas. oral-b deep sweep 5000 power brush. life ons up when you do. gerri, now, a warning how not to get fooled by sneaky packaging next.

♪ gerri: welcome back to the show, we are at consumer reports testing facility and i'm here with one of my favorite consumer reports people.

we are talking the claim that companies make on their products when they go to the grocery store. some of this may be the fault of consumers who have the wrong attitude when they walk into the store. >> consumers walk and the supermarket, they are in a heightened state, a very hot states. to believe that they're making excellent choices when it comes to nutrition, when it comes to value. they love to see pretty things, pretty packaging, pretty colors, they want to see these health claims that make them feel very good about their decision. gerri: 25% more, armand hammer. >> who would not want more of anything? it is 25% more than the 40-ounce detergent. it is a 50-ounce package they are comparing it to a 40-ounce. of course it is more. any school kid knows that, so that is the king of the

erroneous comparison. gerri: how about this, peter pan peanut butter. no fructose corn syrup. >> sure, there is no high fructose corn syrup and we applaud that, but it doesn't tell you there is partially hydrogenated fat in there, not so good for you. gerri: here's one of my favorite things to talk about, so the people who make corn starch, fortified it with calcium. they want to put things in products. >> fortification is all over the place. who doesn't think calcium is not good for you? but if you fortify product like cornstarch with calcium, i uess that is okay for you, but to make a claim, let's be honest, cornstarch is mostly used as a thickener for sauce and gravy.

you're not skipping it up like a bowl of soup so you're going to get very little benefit of it. gerri: i love triscuits, you have a problem with it. >> they are not friday, bbt they are not exactly a health food. however to look at the label you see may help reduce the risk, we like that, but it is like when you eat one particular serial, they say this can help your heart. the real thing is you're trying to portray the snack food as health food and that is a little bit disingenuous. what they are not telling you is six crackers contain 120 calories and 4 grams of fat and how many of us stop at six? gerri: these potatoes look pretty darn good. >> they look very good. a lot of produce packers are

doing the supermodel approach. it looks really good on one side but without makeup it doesn't look so attractive. we see this with things like grapefruits, the bag actually mimics the color of the product inside. it makes it look beautiful, blemish free, delicious. but when you flip the side, you see the clear plastic and then you can see the warts and all. you have to look at both sides of this story to find out what you are getting. gerri: love it. tell people to read the package. >> don't be seduced by pretty packaging. don't look for blaring claims. read the details on the ingredients and don't fall for a pretty face. gerri: it is always good to see you. thank you very much. gerri: bad credit can keep you from buying a home or getting a job. what causes bad credit and how

you can fix it. we will be right back. vo: traveling you definitely end up meeting a lot more people but a friend under water is something completely different. i met a turtle friend today so, you don't get that very often. it seemed like it was more than happy to have us in his home. so beautiful. avo: more travel. more options. more personal. whatever you're looking for expedia has more ways to help you find yours.

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gerri: had credit doesn't just happen to deadbeats. maybe your credit agency screwed up, maybe your ex screwed up, but now it is up to you to fix your credit. with more on this, always great to see you, you have such a great name. >> i agree. gerri: so let's speak about this, there is this idea people who are deadbeats have bad credit, but that is not true, is it? >> it is absolutely not true. one of my mortgage companies reported me late six months in a row, and i wasn't late, so this is something that can happen to anyone. gerri: how important is your credit score? >> it is very important. consumers who have a prime

credit score versus consumers with an average credit score on a 30-year mortgage talking $270,000, $20,000 over the course of a loan. there can be a big difference with just a few points difference. gerri: that is just money out of their pockets. it pays to know your credit score and build it if you can. first off you have to know what the score is. check your credit report and your scores. what am i looking for? >> go to annualcreditreport.com. i say get all three, they do not share information with each other. get a free credit score, check that each month, and what you are looking at is not so much the number, there are a lot of different scoring models, but what is strong, what is not strong, with plenty to look at improving? gerri: the further something bad is in your life the better off your scores going to be if you are doing the right things now.

>> that is right. if they have been through something really negative, not true. they are building current references. back on the wagon, using credit responsibly to build positive reference. gerri: a lot of people are juggling credit cards, i had to pay one of them off first. if you have a do it in a certain order, what order would you do it in? >> your best strategy is to pay off the credit card that is closest to its limit first because one third of your credit card is how close you are to your credit limit. most people think as long as i stay below 50% of the available credit i am okay. they say the best scores go to consumers who use about 10% of the available credit on the

credit card. gerri: earlier you mentioned building positive credit references. how do you do that? >> if you don't have a credit card currently, we can start with a secure card. we deposit in the bank, but because the credit limit is low, you want to make sure you keep the balance really low on that card. secure card support to the credit bureau, prepaid cards do not. gerri: tell us if i have a problem and i am going to it, how long will it take to repair that credit? >> if it is a mistake, as soon as it is gone, your score goes up. it is a product of rebuilding credit can because improvement as little as 18 months if you are very proactive about making sure that everything now gets paid on time. gerri: that is great information. thank you for coming on.

gerri: that is it for tonight's "the willis report." thank you for joining us. hope you have a safe and enjoyable rest of the holiday. see you tomorrow, have a great night. >>. >> lou: hello everybody, thanks for beg with us. president obama and his staff defending his administration against thr separate controversies and scandals that have forced the president to pivot from his presidentiil legacy. the benghazi cover-up and irs targeting conservatives andhe justice department's extraornary seizure of phone records of a.p. reporters. as a relt. white house officials are spending their time doing damage contl instead of working on the president's second term agenda. while the president said he wants to pass an