Make it, Save it, Spend it. Today's Moves

Your Medical Bill Has a Mistake In It

80% of hospital bills contain errors — and most patients never look.

The number on your bill isn't the number you have to pay. About 40% of patients who challenge a medical bill end up getting a reduction or having their balance wiped entirely, according to the Commonwealth Fund. One journalist went through her family's bills line by line and saved $862 in a year — through a few phone calls, not a lawyer.

Start by asking for an itemized bill. Hospitals aren't required to hand it to you automatically — you have to ask. Then check for duplicate charges, services listed that you didn't receive, and the charity care discount your hospital is legally required to offer if your income qualifies. Many hospitals set the income threshold much higher than people expect.

The exact process — what to say, who to call, and in what order:

Your Library Card Is Worth $40 a Month

It's sitting in your wallet unlocking free streaming, audiobooks, and movies right now.

Most library cards unlock Hoopla and Kanopy — two streaming services that together offer movies, TV shows, documentaries, music, audiobooks, and comics. Kanopy alone has 30,000+ films and is completely ad-free. Hoopla has new releases and lets you download for offline viewing. Both are funded by your library, so they cost you exactly nothing.

Add the Libby app for ebooks and audiobooks and you've got a legitimate replacement for Audible ($14.95/month), Spotify Premium, and a Netflix-style movie service — all from the card you already have. The app works on your phone, tablet, smart TV, and Roku.

Here's exactly what each app offers and how to get set up in under five minutes:

Call Your Cable Company. Say This.

Loyal customers quietly pay more than new ones. One call can change that.

Cable and internet companies advertise great rates — for new customers. Existing ones just keep paying whatever the bill says. But calling customer service and asking about current promotions, loyalty discounts, or what it would take to cancel often unlocks rate cuts the company never offered proactively. Threatening to leave is leverage, even if you don't mean it.

The key is knowing what to say. Leading with “I'm considering canceling” gets you to the retention department, which has more power to offer discounts than regular customer service. If they won't budge, ask for a supervisor. Most providers have unadvertised retention offers that never appear on their website.

The word-for-word negotiation script that works — and what to say if they push back: