Slideshow: A greener, cleaner office building?

Lm Otero / AP

Meredith Havens looks at Volkswagens on Feb. 22, 2013, at a car dealership in Richardson, Texas. The average new car loan in the fourth quarter of 2012 was 65 months.

Auto loans have gotten longer.

Six- and seven-year loans are becoming an increasingly popular choice — and some lenders will even stretch out those payments eight years. These long-term loans allow buyers buy the vehicle they want with the monthly payments they can afford. But it also means they will pay more overall. 

The average new car loan in the fourth quarter of 2012 was 65 months, according to Experian Information Solutions. That's a new record.

“It’s gotten ridiculous,” said Anthony Giorgianni, associate finance editor for Consumer Reports Money Adviser. “With a long-term loan you pay more interest because you’re paying off the loan over a longer period of time. And longer-term loans tend to have higher interest rates.”

Consumer Reports Money Lab ran the numbers on the purchase of a new car that cost $30,520, presuming a 10-percent down payment. They used loan rates from CapitalOne.com in mid-October 2012.

With a 48-month loan, the rate would have been 3.39 percent and the monthly payment $659. The longer 72-month loan would be at a higher interest rate – 3.99 percent – but the monthly payment would be significantly lower, just $462.

Consider the total cost: $34,702 for the shorter loan, $36,339 for the longer loan. That’s a difference of $1,637.

Jack Gillis, author of The Car Book 2013, advises buyers to look at the big picture, not just the monthly payment.

“A car is a bad investment, so you want to reduce the cost of ownership as much as possible,” Gillis said. “The best way to do that is to get a loan with as short of a term as you can possibly afford.  The way I see it, that means no longer than a 48-month loan.”

Dealers and lenders don’t argue with the math, but they say longer loans let them better serve their customers.

“The more options people have in terms of how to structure their credit transaction, the better it is for them,” said Bill Himpler, executive vice president of the American Financial Services Association, the trade association for the consumer credit industry.

Low down payments can also hurt you
Interest rates on new car loans have been incredibly low for several years now and that’s resulted in lower down payments.

The experts at Edmunds.com believe 20 percent is the sweet spot for a down payment, but most car buyers are nowhere near that.  According to their analysis of new and used car purchases, the average down payment in 2011 was about 11 percent.

“The faster you pay off the car, the better it is for you,” said Ronald Montoya with Edmunds.com.

That’s because cars depreciate most quickly when they are new. With a low down payment you’re not getting as much equity in the vehicle. In other words, you may owe more on the car than it’s worth.

“If anything happens to that vehicle in the first year or two – it’s in an accident or is stolen – you may owe some money out of pocket to the lender even after you get the insurance payoff.”

That’s called being upside down. The longer the loan, the longer the upside-down period is likely to be, especially if there’s a low down payment. If you need to sell or trade-in the car for some reason when you’re still upside down, you won’t get enough for it to pay off your existing loan.

The bottom line
The shorter the loan and the bigger the down payment, the less that vehicle will cost you to own. It will also reduce the risk that you will lose money from an early sale or trade-in, accident or theft.

Don’t fixate on the monthly payment; that’s what the dealer wants you to do. Consider the total cost of the deal during the life of that loan.

“Our rule of thumb: Buy a car that you can get with a loan of no more than 48 months and keep that car at least as long as it takes to pay off that loan,” said Giorgianni at Consumer Reports. “If you have to go more than four years to get the payments where you need them, get a used car or get a lower cost car.”

It’s also important to comparison shop around for the loan, just as you shopped for the car.

“Before you go into the dealership, make sure you know what sort of rate you can get from your bank or credit union, so that you know if the rate at the dealership is better,” Gillis advised.

More Info:

• Consumer Reports Money Adviser: Low Car Payments Can Hurt You
• Edmunds.com: How Much Should a Car Down Payment Be?

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website. 

New car sales are up. People who’ve owned their vehicles for a long time seem ready to spend the money on a new set of wheels.

Buying a car is a complicated transaction. You need to find the right vehicle, negotiate a good price and shop for a loan.

Jack Gillis

During a TODAY Money web chat on Wednesday, Jack Gillis, author of The Car Book 2013 and the public affairs director for the Consumer Federation of America, covered all that and much more.

TODAY: What’s new and exciting for 2013?

Jack Gillis:  There are three things consumers will note.

Increased fuel economy: Car makers are responding to both consumer demand as well as the impending new 54.5 mpg standard.

More 4-cylinder engines: While engines are getting smaller, their horse power is increasing, so it will save at the pump while not seriously compromising performance.

Automation:  I call them technological safety belts. Crash avoidance, lane changing warnings, and even cars that park themselves.

TODAY:  If you’re in the market for a new vehicle right now and you’re not sold on electric, is a hybrid the smart way to go?

Jack Gillis: Hybrids are great because you get the benefits of electric with the fact that your gas engine will keep you going long after the battery dies. And there are a large variety of hybrids to choose from.

JoAnne:  My daughter wants a car for graduation. What's the best low-cost car for teens that are SAFEST!?

Jack Gillis: The key is finding a car that is comfortable to handle and safe. Here are some good choices: Chevrolet Sonic, Chevrolet Cruze, Dodge Dart and Hyundai Elantra.  All are good, economical safe choices.  JoAnne, be sure your daughter takes a test drive and feels confident driving the vehicle.

Read the rest of the Q & A below:

Prepaid debit cards are billed as a better way to manage your money, a smart alternative to checking accounts. With a prepaid card there’s no credit check and no minimum balance required. Since you can’t spend more than you load on the card, there are no overdraft penalty fees. (Note: Some prepaid cards now offer overdraft protection for a fee, defeating one of the main reasons to have the card.)

No wonder this formerly niche financial product has gone mainstream. Millions of people now use them for shopping, to transfer money to kids in college or receive federal benefits. 

According to the Mercator Advisory Group, a financial consulting company, Americans will load about $200 billion onto general reloadable prepaid cards this year, a 600 percent increase from 2010. (This figure does not include traditional gift cards.)

The nation’s bankers have noticed the trend and they have moved into this market, according to a new survey out today from Bankrate.com. That’s generally good news for consumers.

“Some of the large national and regional banks that started to offer these cards recently have lower fees and a pretty transparent fee structure,” said Greg McBride, Bankrate’s senior financial analyst. “They often have just one monthly fee and they allow the cardholder to use the bank’s ATM network for free withdrawals and its branches for free reloads.”

Consumer advocates agree: Some prepaid cards can be a convenient and cost-effective financial tool. But they point out; some of these cards still have all sorts of “gotcha” fees to watch out for. Some have an activation fee of as much as $15. There can also be an inactivity fee, a declined transaction fee and  a charge to contact customer service.

“The pricing of prepaid cards is highly variable and it’s behavior driven,” said Tom Feltner, director of financial services at the Consumer Federation of America. “If you don’t manage your transactions in a way to minimize fees, you could wind up with a very high monthly charge, in many cases exceeding what you would pay for a comparable checking account.”

The good news is that a lot of these fees can be avoided. That’s why it’s so important to figure out how you’ll use the card before you get one.

“There’s not a one-size fits all answer in terms of which card is right for you,” McBride told me. “Determine which fees you will and won’t incur and which card is going to produce your lowest total monthly cost.”

For its just-released 2013 Survey of Prepaid Debit Card Fees, Bankrate looked at 24 widely issued prepaid cards. Here are some of the key findings:

Monthly service fees

•  63 percent charge a monthly service fee ranging from $3.00 to $9.95. Eight of the 15 cards that charge a monthly service fee offer a fee waiver or reduction, which is usually based upon how much money is automatically loaded onto the card.

Activation fees

• Two-thirds of the cards do not have activation fees if purchased online. Fifty-four percent can be purchased in-person without an activation fee.

Other fees

•  All 24 cards surveyed charge a fee of $1.50 to $2.75 per transaction to withdraw money from another institution’s ATM.
•  54 percent charge an ATM balance inquiry fee ranging from $0.45 to $1.00 regardless of which network the ATM belongs to.
• 17 percent charge for all customer service calls, with $2.00 the most common fee. Eighty-three percent provide at least one free call per month.
•  21 percent charge between $0.25 and $1.95 for each declined transaction.
•  29 percent charge an inactivity fee which ranges from $1.95 to $5.95 a month. It typically begins after no activity for at least 90 days.

Are these cards insured?
Most of them are covered by FDIC insurance, but not all. It’s up to the card provider to decide whether to offer it. They can choose to be governed by state money transmitter laws which do not offer the same level of protection as federal insurance.

 "If the card is not federally insured and the company goes under, there’s no telling if or when you’ll get your money back,” noted Susan Weinstock, director of the Safe Checking in the Electronic Age Project at Pew Trusts. “We think there should be a requirement that all prepaid cards have FDIC insurance, so a customer knows their funds are protected.” (Read: Imperfect Protection from Pew)

The prepaid card industry says insurance is not an issue and customers have nothing to worry about.

Two weeks ago, American Express started offering FDIC insurance on its new Bluebird card. Other AMEX prepaid cards are not covered by the FDIC.

A few more things you should know
Prepaid debit cards are different from credit cards or even debit cards tied to a checking account. They may not provide the same level of protection again loss or fraud.

Ed Mierzwinski, director of consumer programs at U.S. PIRG, doesn’t think most people understand the difference.

“You need to realize that a prepaid card is just like cash. You could lose all of the money on the card,” he said. “And you don’t have a lot of rights, if any at all, when you have problems with the card.”

The prepaid card industry disagrees.

“You get the same fraud protection as with any other debit card,” said Judith Rinearson with the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association. She explained that Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discovery all have zero liability policies if the card is lost, stolen or misused.

Ruth Susswein with the advocacy group Consumer Action said they’ve found that most prepaid cards do “voluntarily” apply the debit card protections and limitations on fraud liability. She doesn’t think that’s good enough.

“When a protection is offered voluntarily, it can disappear at any time and for any reason,” she said. “With all of the money pouring onto these cards, they need to have mandatory fraud and loss protection at least at the level of a traditional debit card, and that’s not the case.”

Rinearson told me the industry is working to change that, so federal regulations would treat a prepaid card like any other debit card.   

More information:

Consumer Action: Prepaid Card Survey 2012 

Pew: Prepaid Cards Research Project 

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website.

Parents always want their children to succeed, but the new Parents, Kids & Money Survey from mutual fund company T. Rowe Price shows many parents are “unrealistically optimistic” about their children’s financial future.  This over-confidence can result in behavior that ignores the long-term strategies and financial discipline required for kids to achieve financial success.

Most parents (73 percent) say they regularly talk to their kids about money issues – and that’s good. It’s what they’re talking about that concerns T. Rowe Price senior financial planner Stuart Ritter.

“These conversations are focused almost exclusively on short-term goals, such as back-to-school shopping or family vacations,” he said.

Kids and parents aren’t dealing with long-term family goals – like saving for college.

“Even with younger children it’s important for them to understand that there are longer-term goals and that planning for them requires making decisions today,” Ritter said. “This needs to be in the mix of the priorities and trade-offs the family is making.”

And it’s not just talk. They survey found that more parents save for vacation (46 percent) than for college (41 percent). And less than two-thirds talk to their children about how their college education will be paid for.

A surprising finding:  14 percent of the parents stated they discourage their kids from talking about money.

Ritter, a father of three young children, believes it’s critical to explain how the financial world works. Explain how bank accounts work. Explain the pros and cons of using a credit card. Explain how to save for that first car.

“Recognize that your kids are learning about money whether you’re talking about it or not,” Ritter told me. “They observe what’s going on … and they’re likely to come away with a lot of misconceptions and incorrect conclusions without the input and guidance that a parent can provide.”

His advice: Take advantage of everyday teachable moments to discuss how money works. Ritter believes this is critically important if your kids are going to develop the financial skills they will need.

Another key finding:  A third of the parents surveyed said their biggest financial regret is overextending themselves financially.

The survey shows that many parents are not covering the basics needed to create a secure financial future for their families:

• 50 percent do not save regularly for retirement
• 48 percent do not have emergency savings
• 54 percent do not have life insurance
• 74 percent do not have an up-to-date will

Nearly all of the kids surveyed (97 percent) said they learn their money habits from their parents. That’s hard to do when mom and dad don’t agree on the right way to handle money matters.

Nearly half the parents (47 percent) said that when it comes to family finances they don’t always see eye-to-eye, and the kids are picking up on that. Forty-four percent said they know their parents disagree about money issues.

“If the parents can’t agree, the kids don’t know what to make of that,” Ritter said. “They’ll be confused by that confusion and it will prevent them from learning what they need to know about making good money decisions.”

To help families talk about money, T. Rowe Price just launched MoneyConfidentKids.com which can be used by parents and educators. The site includes online games parents can use to start a conversation with their kids. They’ve also created an interactive game called The Great Piggy Bank Adventure.

Resources for Parents:

The Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy

The Mint: Money Talk with the Kids

PBS Kids: It’s My Life – Money

Schwab: MoneyWise

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website. 

Tobie Stanger

You work all your life and dream of the day when you can ease back a bit and enjoy the fruits of your hard labor. But unless you plan for your retirement, that dream could turn into a financial nightmare.

During a TODAY Money web chat on Wednesday, Tobie Stanger, a senior editor at Consumer Reports Money Adviser answered a variety of questions about retirement. She said it’s never too early to start planning your retirement.

Tobie Stanger: Understanding what you spend now in your working life can help you determine what you'll need once you hit retirement.

Of course, things will change, but this is an important first step. And every financial planner worth his or her salt will ask you for this information. It also gives you a chance to look at what you're spending now. From there, you can plan changes so you'll be able to save more toward retirement.

Jon: How do I know how risky I should be on my 401k investments?

Tobie Stanger: It depends a lot on how old you are, and how long you expect to be retired. The rule of thumb is that the percentage of bonds you own should be about equal to your age.

Alice: Are annuities a good way to invest?

We're not crazy about variable annuities, which often come with steep fees and are very difficult to compare for shopping purposes. But a fixed immediate annuity may be a reasonable purchase.

There's a web site called immediateannuities.com that provides comparisons. Consumer Reports Money Adviser has an upcoming article in June on this very subject.

Omar: What are your thoughts on investing solely in index funds (S&P 500, small cap and foreign index) for an aggressive portfolio?

Tobie Stanger: Consumer Reports is very bullish on index funds. They are low-cost ways to track the market. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are somewhat like index funds, but can be even more low-cost. Check out Schwab and Fidelity for some good ETF choices and Vanguard for index mutual funds.

Stanger suggested using the retirement calculator on the T. Rowe Price website to help figure out how much you need to save to reach your goal. She said it's the most complete one Consumer Reports has judged.

Read the rest of the Q & A below:

Jacquelyn Martin / AP file

Rich Cordray

Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to making a financial decision such as applying for a loan or choosing a credit card. 

That’s why the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) opened its database of complaints – 90,000 and counting – about problems with credit cards, mortgages, banks and private student loans.

In an interview with TODAY.com, CFPB director Richard Cordray encouraged consumers to file a complaint when they have a problem.

“It is very important to our work to be able to see the patterns of these complaints,” Cordray said. “It’s like a real finger on the pulse for us of what’s going on for consumers in the financial marketplace.”

Cordray told me he believes this information is also important for the business community.

“Good companies are carefully assessing complaint information and learning from that and improving both their products and their customer service,” he said.

Consumer advocates are pleased the CFPB is going public with its complaints.

“It allows consumers to be selective in seeking out financial providers and financial products,” said Pam Banks with Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports. “If you were thinking about opening a bank account, you might want to check the database to see which banks have the most complaints and what type of complaints. That will arm you with the information you need to make a better and informed decision.”

(Red Tape Chronicles: Consumer watchdog unveils list of top lending gripes)

Here is more of my conversation with CFPB Director Richard Cordray.

Q: You give companies a chance to review the complaints and respond to them before you post them, but I know there’s been push-back. How do you respond to businesses that believe this is unfiltered information and that it’s not fair to let people post this sort of stuff?

Cordray: First, we’re working closely with industry and I think we’ve responded to a lot of their concerns. Second, I do think people need to toughen up a bit on this. This is the Internet age. There’s all kinds of information out there and good companies are monitoring all of that already.

This is also a matter of philosophy. At the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau we pride ourselves on being a 21^st century agency. We have a bias toward being an open-data agency.

We don’t want to suppress information like this. It’s just information. You put it out there and everyone can have their own take on it. Everybody can make their arguments back and forth and people can kind of battle it out. What’s most persuasive will win out. That’s the court of public opinion and that’s where this should be fought out.

Q: A lot of government agencies ask people to file complaints because they want to build a database, but they don’t try to help the individuals who report the problem. What can someone expect if they file a complaint with the CFPB?

Cordray: We do try to address the complaints individually. We also benefit tremendously from the information in the aggregate.

We have a system set up to specifically work with companies to get these complaints resolved. Sometimes they merit resolution, sometimes they don’t. That’s always a judgment that has to be made case by case. But we do work with the company in the first instance.

We go back to the consumer and give them a chance to dispute the resolution and appropriate cases are then elevated to our investigations unit where different approaches can be taken depending on the facts and circumstances of the individual complaint.

We’re an agency that is working to get individual resolution where appropriate and in thousands of cases already we have managed to do that.

Sometimes it’s money relief, where they get money back or payments adjusted.

Sometimes it’s non-monetary relief that’s very important to people, like the woman I spoke to in Iowa recently. She was being constantly bombarded with harassing phone calls after her husband died and she took over the mortgage. We were able to get the calls to stop.

Sometimes it’s fixing things on their credit report.

Some of these problems loom very large for people and getting it resolved, knowing that somebody is trying to help them and really listen to them really means a lot to them.

What’s next?
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will start taking complaints about debt collection later this year. Director Cordray would like to see the agency handle complaints about even more types of financial products and services, such as payday loans.

Click here to file a complaint about: auto loan, bank account, consumer loan, credit card, credit reporting, money transfer, mortgage or student loan.

More Information:
CFPB: A Snapshot of the Complaints Received
CFPB: Consumer Response Annual Report

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website.

There’s no need to panic – yet – but you’d better get going if you want to get your tax return done on time.  During a TODAY Money web chat on Wednesday, Mark Steber, chief tax officer at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service answered a variety of questions on this subject.

Where do you start? Steber said to get organized and gather your documents and records, such as W2 wage statement, 1099 interest/dividend forms and mortgage data.

Mark Steber: Best practice – EMBRACE technology: websites like IRS.gov. Locate that prior year’s tax return - a great place to get started. And finally get help as you need it. Do NOT rush to get it all done and leave off a tax credit or deduction JUST to get finished

Bob B: What are the biggest changes in the code for this year?

Mark Steber: Tax returns for 2012 are not tremendously different than last year, but there were changes all the same. Many were for statutory things like: mileage rates, amounts for standard deductions and the like.

But for some specifics for 2012: the extension of the expired provisions - educator expenses deduction, tuition and fees deduction and sales tax deduction AND the permanent extension of the increased AMT exemption

More common for taxpayers than tax law changes are LIFE CHANGES... more common and more likely to create tax benefits: back to school for taxpayer or family member, new dependent like taking care of a parent, displace or laid off or start new small business ALL have big tax benefits. Look to LIFE CHANGES for real tax savings.

Here are two NBC News stories you might find helpful:
My story on 7 Money-Saving Tips for Last-Minute Filers and Sharon Epperson's column about what to do if you can't pay your tax bill.

Read the rest of the Q & A below:

With less than two weeks until tax day, millions of Americans are racing to get their tax returns done. This year’s filing season was delayed by the fiscal cliff negotiations, and the latest IRS statistics show we’re still running behind. Compared to last year at this time about 4.5 million fewer returns have been filed, a difference of 5 percent.

It’s easy to make a mistake when you’re in a hurry. Electronic filing has eliminated most math errors. So focus on things that can lower your tax bill.

“The mistake I most commonly see is the error of omission,” said Mark Steber, chief tax officer at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service. “In their rush to get their taxes done, a lot of people forget deductions or credits that could save them money."

According to the IRS about 20 percent of the taxpayers who qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, which can mean several thousand dollars for low- and moderate-income taxpayers, don’t claim it. (IRS Q & A: Earned Income Tax Credit)

“The IRS is there to make sure you pay what you owe, they are not set up to make sure you get the maximum refund you deserve,” Steber explained. "Your goal is to get the biggest refund you are legally entitled to."

Chances are your deductions changed if you got married, divorced, had a baby, adopted a child or bought a home in 2012. You may also qualify for a new deduction or credit if you're caring for a dependent parent, you or your spouse started a business or went back to school.

Some other commonly overlooked deductions for those who itemize: student loan interest paid, union dues, required uniforms and some work clothes, tools bought for use on your job, business gifts up to $25 per customer or client, fees for tax preparation and penalties for closing a Certificate of Deposit before maturity. (IRS: Exemptions and Deductions)

The tax experts at Jackson Hewitt and TurboTax provided these answers to some commonly asked tax-filing questions.

What if I was out of work in 2012?
Unemployment compensation is fully taxable. If you were unemployed during the year, you will probably need to file a tax return. If you did not have enough withheld during the year or if you did not make quarterly estimated tax payments, you may also owe an underpayment penalty.

Can I deduct the cost of searching for a job?
If you itemize, you may be able to deduct many expenses related to your search: printing resumes, fees for employment and outplacement agencies, career seminar costs and business-related travel. Moving expenses relevant to your job search may also be deductible if you meet the distance and time test.  

What if I started a business during 2012?
If you or your spouse started a business or offered your services as a consultant while looking for a new job, your income is considered self-employment income. If you earned $400 or more this way, you must pay self-employment tax on that income. (IRS: Self-Employment Tax)

Does healthcare reform impact my 2012 taxes?
“There’s been a lot of confusion about healthcare reform and taxes,” said Lisa Greene-Lewis, lead CPA for the American Tax & Financial Center at TurboTax. “Rest assured that the requirement to purchase healthcare insurance (which starts in 2014) does not impact your 2012 taxes.”

What should I do if I owe the IRS money?
You can authorize an electronic debit from a checking or savings account. You can also pay via debit or credit card, but there is a fee for that.  If you can’t pay the full amount, file your return and contact the IRS to find about payment options, such as an installment agreement.

What about filing an extension?
Speak with a tax preparer; you may have everything you need to file on time. An extension of time to file a tax return does not extend the time to pay. Taxpayers who do not file by tax deadline must file IRS Form 4868 and pay at least 90% of any  tax liability they owe to avoid penalties and interest.

Will filing my return on April 15 lower my chances of being audited?
This is a common tax myth. Filing last minute has no impact on your audit risk.

• More Information:
  Tax Break: The TurboTax Blog
  IRS: Where’s My Refund?
  IRS: What if I can’t pay my taxes?
  IRS: Extension of time to file tax return

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website.

Snopes.com

True or false? Sorry to disappoint, but Bill Gates isn't giving away his money so easily.

Could it be?  Will Bill Gates really give you $5,000 for sharing a link on Facebook?

Of course not. The email is bogus and so is the picture of Gates holding a sign that purportedly shows him making that promise.

This is just one of an ever-growing collection of email hoaxes that fill in-bins across the world. They’re not scams – no one is trying to steal your money or personal information – they’re just fiction.  

Why do so many people accept the bogus messages as fact and forward to others?

“It’s entertaining and it’s socially bonding; something fun that we can share together,” explained Nicholas DiFonzo, professor of psychology at Rochester Institute of Technology and author of The Water Cooler Effect. “The idea of double-checking to make sure that these things are true takes work. And even if it’s not true, it doesn’t seem to hurt anybody.”

Snopes.com has been exposing urban legends, rumors and email hoaxes since the mid-1990s.

“The quality of the faked videos has gotten better, but a lot of it’s the same stuff with just slightly different details,” said David Mikkelson, who runs the site with his wife Barbara. “Some of them have been around literally since we started doing this site.”

Here are three current messages (spread by email or Facebook) that the fact-checkers at Snopes have found to be false:

Coffee Clash
The email says an angry shareholder confronted Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz at the annual meeting about the coffee company’s support for same-sex marriage.

“Breaking News: Starbucks moves even farther left and tells traditional marriage supporters we don’t want your business. He told a shareholder to sell his shares if he supported traditional marriage and didn’t like Starbucks stance against it.”

The email calls for a boycott of Starbucks.

Snopes Fact Check: While Schultz did affirm the company’s support of same-sex marriage at the shareholders meeting, he did not say supporters of traditional marriage were not wanted as customers or investors.

Talking Angela
This message warns parents about a website or app called Talking Angela that supposedly asks kids to provide personal information, such as their name and where they go to school, and takes their picture without any notice.

Snopes Fact Check:  While parents always need to be careful about what their kids do online, the Talking Angela app is not a security risk. Angela is a cat at a Parisian café who responds to the user’s gestures and mimics what they say back to them.

On its Naked Security site, the security experts at Sophos tell parents that Talking Angela “appears to be entirely benign, and there are no obvious privacy concerns that differentiate it from thousands of other iPhone apps.”

Free Mail for Frank
Did you know you can mail a letter for free if you write the word “Frank” or “Frankie” in the space where the stamp should go? According to another hoax email, this results from the settlement of a wrongful death lawsuit.

“The story was that Frankie (a young boy) was hit and killed by a mail truck, his parents sued the post office. Being wealthy they wanted no money, only wanted the post office to take for free any mail that had Frankie written on it instead of a stamp.”

Snopes Fact Check:  You can’t send a letter for free by writing Frank or Frankie on it. You may see “Frank” on some letters. This indicates the person who sent the letter, such as a member of Congress, has the legal right to mail it for free, what’s called the “franking privilege.”  

A lot of the email hoaxes making the rounds these days say something like: “I checked with Snopes and this is legit” to encourage you to share it with others. Don’t believe it. Check yourself before you pass it along. You can do that at sites such as Snopes, Urban Legends, Urban Myths, FactCheck.org and Hoax-Slayer.

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website.

It’s a serious crime that’s getting worse. Identity thieves are stealing people’s lives for their personal gain. Victims can suffer more than a hit to their wallet. They can have their credit score plunge with all sorts of devastating consequences.

During a TODAY Money web chat on Wednesday, Adam Levin, CEO and co-founder of Identity Theft 911 answered a variety of questions on this subject. We started with why things keep getting worse.

Adam Levin: ID theft is increasing because people over-share information on social networking sites, don’t encrypt their computers and smartphones, provide information to people they don’t know, are on databases that have been improperly accessed because government or corporate databases are not properly secured or employees click on the wrong attachment sent in a phishing email and release malware into their computers which permits unauthorized access to a hacker.

TODAY: Clearly, there’s nothing that can guarantee that someone won’t be the victim of identity theft, but there are things we can all do to improve the odds. Can you share a few tips with us?

Adam Levin: It is not preventable. There is simply too much information out there through consumer over-sharing, human error, breaches at all levels of government and business security lapses. So you need to look at the issue in three ways: 

1. Minimize your risk of exposure: Don't carry Social Security cards, don't carry your entire inventory of credit and debit cards, don't give information to people who call you - always return their call to the official number on the back of a credit or debit card, secure your computer and smartphone with the most advanced security software, shred everything in sight, never click on links that look unfamiliar, never click on pictures, never respond to charities that you don't check out

2. Engage in a culture of monitoring: Go to annualcreditreport.com, go to trusted sites where you can monitor your credit or scores free, check your bank and credit accounts daily, enroll in programs where your bank, credit union or credit card company alerts you to transactions in your accounts, enroll in credit and fraud monitoring programs if you like the price, and consider a credit freeze

3. Have a damage control program: Check with your insurance company, bank, credit union or employer if they have a program to help you through the problem. It might be free or available at minimal cost. Ask if you are enrolled, what is the cost and how you can get in.

Read the rest of the Q & A below:

Most big chain restaurants now put nutrition information – calories, fat and sodium – on their menus and websites. But just how accurate are these numbers? Does the meal you’re served match the nutritional profile promised?

Consumer Reports decided to find out. For its May issue, the magazine’s secret shoppers went to a dozen well-known restaurants and fast-food chains, from Applebee’s to Wendy’s, and ordered 17 different items. They tested the same item from three restaurants in each chain.

The good news: In most cases, the published information was accurate.

“We found that you can usually trust the figures you see,” said editor Leslie Ware. “On average, most of them were telling the truth.”

Only two of the 17 dishes Consumer Reports analyzed in the lab had a fat or calorie count that was higher than promised at all three locations.

Olive Garden’s Lasagna Primavera with Grilled Chicken was supposed to have 420 calories and 15 grams of fat. The samples the magazine tested had 508 to 585 calories and 25 to 32 grams of fat. That’s more than the 20 percent variance that’s generally considered acceptable with nutrition information.

The company told TODAY it takes great care to provide accurate nutrition information. In an email, Olive Garden explained that an error had been made in the initial testing of the entree when it was introduced last October.

“As soon as we caught this error, we retested the dish… and updated the nutritional information on our website with the new data in late December,” the email said. “Unfortunately, though, the information was not updated everywhere and one page on our website still contained the old nutritional data. We have since corrected this, too.”  

Olive Garden told TODAY that Consumer Reports never contacted them to confirm the numbers and did not give them an opportunity to respond.

“If they had, we would have been able to provide them with accurate data,” they said.

Consumer Reports' tests also showed the Chicken on the Barbie at Outback Steakhouse had more fat than advertised. The website claim was 7 grams of fat. The magazine’s analysis showed 10 to 13 grams.

"Nutritional information on our website has been verified by a recognized independent laboratory,” said Outback spokesperson Cathie Koch in an email to TODAY. “Our food is made from scratch daily using fresh ingredients. The variance in the report may be due to a larger container of sauce used for Take-Away."

This is not an exact science
Obviously, the calorie and fat content of the food you are served will not be exactly the same as what’s advertised on the menu or company website, but it should be in the ballpark.

That was not always the case with Denny’s Fit Slam breakfast. At two of the three locations Consumer Reports visited, the Fit Slam generally matched the advertised claim of 390 calories and 12 grams of fat. But at the third location, it was way off the mark: 494 calories and 19 grams of fat.

In a statement, Denny's said that it had not reviewed Consumer Reports' findings.

"Our goal is for each of our menu items to be created identically each time they are prepared," the statement said. "However, because all of Denny's food is prepared fresh and made to order by an individual cook, every dish is unique, including the exact portion size and the precise formulation or ingredient ratios. We recognize the importance of providing our guests with as accurate nutritional information as possible and will continue to do so.”

The National Restaurant Association says its members take extensive measures to make sure the nutritional information they provide customers is as accurate as possible. 

“But there are variations due to portion size and individual restaurant preparation, as well as the inherent variability of the food itself,” noted Joy Dubost, director of Nutrition at the National Restaurant Association.

The numbers will also be off if the portion size of the meal you’re served varies significantly from what is on the menu.

Consumer Reports found that serving sizes at the same chain “ran the gamut” from location to location.  For example, the Fettuccine Alfredo at the three Olive Garden restaurants visited weighed roughly 14 to 22 ounces.

The editors said portion sizes also “varied widely” at Applebee’s, Denny’s and Red Lobster.

National menu labeling on the way
Menu labeling is required in California and Vermont, and in a few major cities: New York City, Seattle and Philadelphia. It will soon be mandatory at chain restaurants – those with 20 or more locations – nationwide.

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to issue rules about nutrition labeling by this fall. They would take effect in late 2014.

 “Over time, this will help people make more informed choices and cut calories,” said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “And just as importantly, it provides an incentive for the restaurants to reformulate their items.”