Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub

Home tech, money and everyday skills that actually work. Plain explanations, no jargon, no hype. From The Basics Hub.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

QoS - Stop Your Buffering . My new post on Substack

https://t.co/idPEDErk7o

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

A locked phone still hands your bank's codes to a thief.

The lock protects the phone, not the SIM. They the SIM in another phone and the bank's texts follow.

Turn on the SIM PIN: Settings, SIM card security, Lock SIM card. Get the PUK first - three wrong tries lock it.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

You cannot tell from the label whether a supplement is safe. "Natural" is a marketing word - yellow oleander is natural, and the FDA has found it in diet pills.

Two checks: put back anything that says it cures, treats or prevents a disease, then search the name plus FDA.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

Where does your money go when you put it in a bank? Not into a vault. The bank borrows it and lends most of it out, which is how it pays you interest.

The safety is in insurance. Find your country's deposit insurance limit and check your balance against it.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

I know I should exercise, and then the day gets away. The plan was too big.

Four moves, thirty seconds each, daily: stand from a chair without your hands, rise on your toes, balance on one leg, march in place.

81 percent of the 97 who tried it kept going twelve weeks later.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

You search your electric company, click the first result, and pay your bill. That search result can be a paid ad copying the company's name and logo.

Type the address printed on your paper bill instead, and bookmark it.

If the page adds a fee on top of the bill, close it.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

An email says your account is locked. A text says a payment needs approving.

Both want the code your bank just texted you, or your sign-in on a page that only looks like the bank.

The code is the key, the link is the trap. Share neither. Open the bank's app yourself.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

Someone calls, says they are your bank's fraud team, and knows your name and address. Ask them one question: what is the number on the back of my card?

Your bank printed that number. A caller who cannot read it out is not your bank. Hang up and dial the phone number on the card.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

Your check clears for an amount you never wrote. A thief lifts it from the mailbox, washes the name and the amount off with nail polish remover, and writes in their own. Your signature is real, so the bank pays.

Fix: move the bill to your bank's online bill pay.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

Bank Rate rose to 4% yesterday, the first rise in three years, to stop energy costs spreading into wages and prices. The Bank finds little sign of that yet, but enough pressure to act.

More rises are likely unless the Middle East war is resolved.

https://t.co/qGDloaaTjw

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

Your phone dies by mid afternoon and closing apps does not stop it. A suspended app is not running, and restarting it costs power.

The screen is the drain. Turn on automatic brightness, lock after 30 seconds, open Settings, then Battery, and restrict the top app you barely use.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

Your budget died in week two. Too much detail: an app, categories, a line for every pack of gum.

One sheet of paper instead. Write down what comes in. Draw two lines to make three boxes - bills, everyday, savings. Take the everyday money out in cash and split it into envelopes.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

There is probably a subscription you meant to cancel and never did. It renews itself and nothing asks again whether you still want it.

Open three months of bank and card statements, list every charge that repeats, and cancel the ones you have not used since. Thirty minutes.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

Your printer worked yesterday. Today Windows says it is offline.

Change your Wi-Fi password, or replace the router, and the printer keeps trying to join the old network. Check the printer's own screen: if it is not on your network, run its wireless setup with the new password.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

You are a few dollars short at the register. The bank covers the purchase and charges you about $27. That fee is overdraft coverage, and on debit card purchases and ATM withdrawals it only happens if you said yes.

Call the number on the back of your card and ask to decline it.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

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A package arrives in your name that you never ordered. It is not a gift. A seller used your address to post a five-star review of their product. The package makes the review look real.

Do not scan the code inside. Throw the item away and report it at https://t.co/AZZ4SzAxlx.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

You made the text bigger and the buttons are still tiny. Text size and screen size are two different settings, and only one got changed.

On an Android phone, open Settings, type screen zoom in the search box, and drag the dot toward the plus. Everything grows.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

You will start saving when you have more money. That is backwards.
Save $200 a month for ten years, then stop. Someone who saves the same $200 for thirty years but starts ten years later ends up behind.
So set a $25 automatic transfer in your bank app for the day after payday.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

Your electric bill is due, so you search the company's name and pay on the first page that comes up. That page is often a paid ad, and anyone can put the electric company's name and logo on it.

Type the address from your paper bill instead, and save it as a bookmark.

[Sam Berlin - The Basic Hub @Sam_Berlin_tech]

Much of it went to people who DID have accidents. That's the point of insurance.

[Bill @BillWiIdin]

CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS TO ME WITHOUT MAKING ME FEEL DUMB?

I pay $2,400 a year for car insurance. Over 20 years of driving, that’s $48,000. I’ve never been in an accident, never filed a single claim. That money just disappears into corporate profits.

Then I get into one minor fender bender, my repair costs $2,000, and they raise my monthly rate by $80 "due to market conditions."

THEN WHY IS IT CALLED "PROTECTION"?

I'm not trying to start a fight. I genuinely want someone to show me where the rest of that $48,000 went.