Unless you have been asleep for the past month or two, you probably have seen the bright red Toyota commercial touting their commitment to safety:

It says:

“At Toyota, we care about your safety. That’s why we’re investing a million dollars every hour to improve our technology and your safety. It’s an investment that has helped Toyota win multiple top safety pick awards for 2010 by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. No other brand has won more. These top safety picks and all our new safety innovations are available at Toyota.com/safety . “

The average TV watcher will likely take away the message that Toyota cares about safety, has won a lot of safety awards, and is spending a million dollars an hour to improve safety.

Mouse Print* asked the company how they arrived at the million dollars an hour figure.

*MOUSE PRINT:

“The $1 million figure represents Toyota’s total global spending on R&D to enhance the safety and technology of its vehicles. [Toyota] projects $760 billion yen [to be spent in FY2011] on R&D. Breaking down the calculations, 90 yen to the dollar equals $8.44 billion, which works out to $2,318,310 per day or $965,962 an hour, rounded to $1 million an hour. In any event, any fluctuations in the yen would impact the exact final figure.”

The key issue is not so much that they rounded up the figure to a million dollars an hour (exaggerating the amount spent by almost $30 million a year) but rather that the number is TOTAL spending on research and development, not just on safety issues. The company could not provide a number for the actual amount just spent on safety, but it certainly is less than the total spent on R&D, and therefore is not $1 million dollars an hour.

When this discrepancy and interpretation of the commercial was pointed out to Toyota, they responded:

“As the commercials mention, the $1 million figure represents Toyota’s R&D spending on new technology and safety, much of it allocated to quality and safety features.”

If you parse the key sentence in the commercial, it does indeed say that they are spending $1 million an hour to “improve our technology AND your safety.” But by using the term “safety” seven times in 30 seconds, and displaying the words “safety” or “safe” on the screen for much of the commercial, listeners are likely to get the net impression that Toyota is spending a million dollars an hour to “improve our technology FOR your safety.” We don’t think the average consumer would take away from the commercial that the company is spending some number less than a million dollars an hour on safety.

In Massachusetts, we have an advertising regulation that provides:

“An advertisement as a whole may be unfair or deceptive although each representation separately construed is literally true.”

The second phase of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (CARD Act) goes into effect today.

In the past few months, however, credit card issuers have been busy making fine print changes to their rules before the reigns tighten, as this satirical video points out. [ Direct link to video if box below is blank, but in Windows 7, you must use the 32-bit version of Internet Explorer or Firefox.]

*MOUSE PRINT:

You can be sure that credit card companies will find new and clever fees and loopholes in the law to help offset any loss of revenue suffered as a result of the new rules. Keep your eye on those fine print notices!

American Express had good news for shoppers a few months ago when it announced that it was no longer going to charge monthly maintenance fees or dormancy fees on gift cards that previously were imposed after one year.  That truly was a bold and welcome move, considering other gift card issuers continue to charge as much as $2.95 a month after a year, thus depleting the card’s value.

What American Express didn’t say so loudly, is that it will continue to charge other rather high fees associated with buying the card.

*MOUSE PRINT:

There is a purchase fee of $3.95, and a shipping fee of $5.95. Considering the card could have been sent for a mere 44 cents first class, the nearly six dollar shipping fee is exorbitant. On their least expensive $25 gift card, it costs you nearly $10 in fees to buy it, thus in essence reducing the value of the card by 40%.

In the holiday spirit, however, AMEX is making a special offer via email:

Our NEW American Express Gift Cards for the holidays make great gifts this season. As a special offer to you, they are FEE-FREE through 1/31/10. Don’t delay! Order online by December 22 11am EST to ensure your Gift Cards are delivered before December 25.

American Express Gift Cards are 100% Gift, 0% fees:
• No fees after purchase
• No customer service fees
• No lost value

While you will save the $3.95 purchase fee when entering the coupon code EMDECCM, it appears the $5.95 shipping fee still applies.

Ho, ho, ho.

“Important Account Price Change Notification” was the title of the letter that American Express sent to certain cardholders last week. “Change”, of course, is usually a euphemism for “increase”. And this letter was no exception.

They were announcing three rate increases: on finance charges for cash advances, on finance charges that have a penalty rate on them because of a late payment, and on late fees. The latter, incidentally, is going up to $39 on previous balances of $250 or more.

The last item was a shocker, however.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Effective with billing periods that begin on or after October 1, 2009, the Over-limit Fee subsection of the Other Fees section of your Agreement is deleted.

Wow… no more over the limit fees on certain AMEX cards. Hey Citi, Chase, and Bank of America… did you hear that?

Freescore.com has just begun advertising (with Ben Stein as its spokesman) that you can get credit scores from all three credit bureaus free:

You will note that nowhere in this main panel above on their website  is there ANY disclosure about cost and obligation. “When you try FreeScore” does not communicate anything. And there is not even an asterisk.

*MOUSE PRINT:

*A refundable $1.00 processing fee applies.

And only when you decide to sign up for the “free” scores, do you learn the rest of the details:

*MOUSE PRINT:

Simply click “View Scores” on the next page to activate your trial membership in FreeScore and claim your Free 3-in-1 Credit Report and Triple Credit Score! To activate your trial membership in FreeScore, you will be charged/debited a $1.00 refundable processing fee and then you can immediately take advantage of the exciting savings FreeScore has to offer! After your 7-day FREE trial period it’s just $29.95 per month for FreeScore. Remember, you can call FreeScore toll-free at 1-800-316-8824 within the first 7 days to cancel, and you will not be charged/debited. Also, remember to ask for a refund of your $1 processing fee.

As with similar offers for credit monitoring services, you only get your “free” scores by signing up for a trial membership in a credit report access program for nearly $30 a month — a new high. (These things used to cost $79 a year, but without any credit scores.)

Their TV commercial is no better, and arguably worse:

*MOUSE PRINT:   For only about one and half seconds is a disclaimer on the screen in the tiniest of fonts that says “scores and reports free with trial membership in FreeScore.” There is no disclosure at all about a refundable $1 processing charge.

Trans Union is the provider of this service, and one would have thought the lessons that Experian learned (after the FTC went after them) would be apparent: you should be upfront on the website and say to get your “free” scores you must join a trial program for $1 and that it will cost you money if you fail to cancel within X period of time.