The customer is always right. The customer is king. Give the customer what they want. We hear and believe phrases like this all the time, but are you doing your part to earn good customer service? Quite often, I see people getting the service they deserve.

When you are an excellent customer, good customer service can also follow. Let me provide a couple of examples of how, but being an excellent customer, it can come back to reward you, and even save you money. In all cases though, it is the right thing to do.

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I must admit that I sometimes have unkind thoughts towards commercials that tell folks they can get credit regardless of their situation. Actions have consequences, and we don't really need to have brand new cars if we can't afford them. If your credit score is low, you are a high risk, or you don't have enough debt history to make the creditor comfortable.

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Tax Freedom Day — the day on which Americans have earned enough money to pay all federal, state, and local taxes for the year — arrived on April 9, 2010. Your specific Tax Freedom Day depends on where you live. Here in North Carolina, the date was April 7. My friends in California will celebrate April 14. The latest celebrations will be in Connecticut on April 27, while Louisiana celebrated way back on March 26.

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In preparation for some new rules as a result of Congress addressing credit issues, Bank of America announced announced that beginning this summer it will only authorize single debit card transactions at the point of sale if a customer has enough money in their account at the time. So what does this mean for their customers, and potentially other customers of different financial institutions?

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A number of signs in the economy indicate that consumers are developing habits like the old days. Now, when I say the old days, I'm not talking the 1990's, but rather the 1950's! As a financial coach, I find this very encouraging. Tightened up credit markets, job losses, and even a sense of reality have caused consumers to slow down their free-spending ways and be much wiser as to how they spend their money.

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