I came across a very interesting article urging me not to pay my medical bills today.

As health-care costs continue to soar, millions of confused consumers are paying medical bills they don’t actually owe. Typically this occurs when an insurance plan covers less than what a doctor, hospital, or lab service wants to be paid. The health-care provider demands the balance from the patient. Uncertain and fearing the calls of a debt collector, the patient pays up.

Most consumers don’t realize it, but this common practice, known as balance billing, often is illegal. When doctors or hospitals think an insurer has reimbursed too little, state and federal laws generally bar the medical providers from pressuring patients to pay the difference. Instead, doctors and hospitals should be wrangling directly with insurers. Economists and patient advocates estimate that consumers pay $1 billion or more a year for which they’re not responsible.

In this world where consumers and citizens are constantly urged not to take responsibility for their own lives, I find this to be an interesting conundrum.

If my insurance agency is acting as my agent, then why should I be paying the bills or spending little pieces of my life arguing about the amounts? That seems pretty logical. On the other hand, I have an obligation to pay for services rendered. Yet the provider did not spend any time explaining what the cost of the services being rendered would be.

I received a bill for eight dollars for dental services the other day showing that my insurance company did not pay and explaining that I owed the difference. I think I’ll just forward it to my insurance company - they spend all their time making me prove that I was actually treated for whatever I saw the doctor for - they’ve wasted hours of my time rejecting claims that were clearly valid. Now it’s their turn to respond to my demands.

In a world where customer service often seems to be the last thing on people’s minds, I’m going to demand more from those I do business with.

If hundreds of banks are going to fail, we need to be asking why. Who is responsible?

NEW YORK, Aug 3 (Reuters) - The United States is in the second inning of a recession that will last for at least 18 months and help kill off hundreds of banks, influential economist and New York University Professor Nouriel Roubini told Barron’s in Sunday’s edition.

Taxpayers will pay a big price for helping bail out the rest of the financial services industry as well, Roubini said — at least $1 trillion and more likely $2 trillion.

The banks will become insolvent because of mounting losses as a result of the housing bust and because they have only written down their subprime loans so far, he said. Still in front of them are their consumer-credit losses, for which they lack the reserves, Barron’s reported.

The entity responsible for oversight of banks (a self-appointed entity) is the federal government.

U.S. consumers, meanwhile, are “shopped out” and saving less, while the Federal Reserve’s performance in handling the crisis has been poor, Roubini said, because it failed to see that the problem extended beyond subprime mortgage debt.

Now, Roubini told Barron’s, the government is overregulating, bailing out troubled participants and intervening in every market.

“The regulators should investigate themselves for bailing out Fannie Mae (FNM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the creditors of Bear Stearns and the financial system with new lending facilities. They have swapped U.S. Treasury bonds for toxic securities,” he told Barron’s. “It is privatizing the gains and profits, and socializing the losses as usual. This is socialism for Wall Street and the rich.”

We should be demanding that a bailout be off the table as an option. We should be demanding jail sentences for those officials responsible for this fiasco. A bailout will mean that the half trillion dollars in new debt the government is currently projecting will grow to an even larger number. It boggles the mind. Do we really want to saddle future generations with this sort of a ball and chain around their economic ankles?

The age of easy credit may be drawing to a close. The age of bailouts needs to die with it.

Stephanie Clifford of The New York Times interviewed me for a story about freecreditreport.com - a web site run by Experian. I’ve complained about the company a few times on this blog. Their phone reps are pushy and aggressive and their service is deceptively advertised and certainly not free. Stephanie did a good job of presenting the facts and it is always nice to see yourself quoted somewhere that draws a large audience.

“I took advantage, I thought, of a good offer,” said Mr. Snyder, 37, an information-technology manager for a construction company. “Unfortunately, I think the offer is purposefully designed to make it easy for you to get your credit report, and then forget that you’ve just signed up for an in-perpetuity fee.”

“My wife comments continuously on their TV commercials because she likes the ditty,” Mr. Snyder said. “I get irritable and tell her that it might be a catchy song, but I don’t like the company.”

When a credit reporting agency is dishonest it is important that that company be called to task. I’m glad that Experian’s deceptive marketing tactics and sneaky ripoff scam is finally getting some of the attention it deserves. Credit reporting agencies are supposed to be keeping consumers honest, not the other way around.

The global banking crisis continues but should we really be worrying about doom and gloom? Not according to Bank of America Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis.

Bank of America (BAC) Chairman and Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis strongly believes that his bank, the largest in the U.S., is successfully navigating the credit crisis.

However, not everyone buys Lewis’ story, even if his bank’s second-quarter results bolster his case. BofA reported earnings of 72¢ per share, down from $1.28 a year ago, but above the 53¢ that analysts were expecting. It’s the latest big bank to beat Wall Street’s low expectations this quarter, following Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and Wells Fargo (WFC).

I’m not convinced that Bank of America’s recent purchase of Countrywide was a good move. I’m even less convinced that being a customer of Bank of America is a good move. That’s why I recently stopped doing business with the bank. Bank of America operates on a typical big bank model - a model that isn’t friendly to small business customers. The bank gave me a fee free two-year trial when I opened my account. The month after that two-year “grace period” ended the fees started being withdrawn from my business checking account.

Perhaps that is a good business model for Bank of America - they weren’t making any real money off my limited funds. However, if I ever become rich and famous, it’s unlikely I’ll do business with Bank of America again. They left a sour taste in my mouth.

Let’s get back to that Countrywide purchase for a moment. What was Bank of America thinking? I’m not sure.

BofA’s problems in real estate lending are many. Leading the list are home equity loans, hit hard by the drop in home prices. But the biggest challenge for BofA may be its July 1 acquisition of Countrywide Financial. The purchase of the U.S.’s largest mortgage lender is designed to help BofA dominate the mortgage industry in the long term. But in the near term, the Countrywide buyout brings BofA lots of trouble. The quality of Countrywide’s loans is much worse than the loans on BofA’s balance sheet.

In fact, according to the linked article referenced above, Bank of America absorbed $40 billion in problematic loans. In my mind, that’s antoher 40 billion reasons not to give my business to the bank. What do I know though? I’m not smart enough to understand why a quasi private shadow entity runs the U.S. banking system and I haven’t been able to wrap my mind around the concept of fiat currency yet. As far as I can tell, it’s all just made up money.

Maybe someone from the Federal Reserve Bank can drop by this blog and explain to me why our dollar is spiraling downward in value and how we’re not really in economic trouble.

Credit Karma pays for its credit reporting through advertiser supported deals, some of which might actually appeal to the consumer who is pulling his or her scores.

Unlike Freecreditreport.com and other similar services, there are no trial periods and hidden fees that you’ll have to pay down the road. Credit Karma is completely free. You can pull your credit score whenever you want and it doesn’t cost you anything (except ad views). Nor does it affect your credit score.

I use MyFico.com because I discovered it prior to being made aware of Credit Karma by founder Kenneth Lin. His site says:

Our services start with a FREE credit score. No credit card is required and no strings are attached. Return as often as you like and use our service to track your credit file and stay informed. Credit Karma believes this is a fundamental consumer right. Credit Karma will continue to provide these FREE credit scores while doing the most to protect your privacy regardless if you use our other services.

When you access the FREE credit score, Credit Karma will show personalized offers to you based on your credit profile . These offers are from advertisers who share our vision of consumer empowerment. If you wish to take advantage of Karma Offers, it is up to you. Credit Karma will never share your information without your consent.

Mr. Lin blogs on Credit Karma, and it was through his blog entries that I found out about another useful service. CheckingFinder lets you search by zip code for the closest high yield checking account.

As the dollar continues to slide in value, smart consumers are going to be looking for every opportunity to save money that they can find. Higher interest rates for your own banking accounts, and better credit resulting in lower interest rates on your credit cards are both significant ways to beat the economic downturn.

Credit Karma is a great way to beat the credit scoring fee scammers who hurt people that may already be struggling with a less than perfect credit score by charging them outrageous amounts to keep track of their credit score.

Credit Karma doesn’t necessarily report your exact credit score per Transunion, Experian or Equifax. Rather, it uses a proprietary technology to average the three scores - with fairly accurate results. I have a number of friends and relatives try the service and all of them said that Credit Karma was very accurate.