Spring cleaning your retirement accounts, subscriptions and credit report can save time and money

Spring is a good time to do some cleaning, organizing and general decluttering. That extends to your financial affairs, too, especially if you do a lot of job hopping or take advantage of internet shopping specials.

In addition to simplifying your life, you can save money by cleaning out or consolidating little-used or redundant accounts. Many charge ongoing subscription or account-maintenance fees, and these can add up.

Consider consolidating your retirement accounts

Americans, especially younger ones, might change jobs a dozen or more times over their lifetimes. If you open a 401(k) or similar account at each employer, that can add to your retirement clutter. This can create problems if you incur separate fees on each, not to mention the paperwork and associated passwords to keep track of.

Fees and ease of oversight are among the reasons to consider consolidating retirement accounts, said Savant Wealth Management in a recent report. With few accounts, “You’ll have a clear picture of your investments and can make adjustments to your portfolio more easily,” the company said.

Jeff Young, a senior wealth adviser at Kierland Financial Group in Scottsdale, suggests evaluating your accounts at least once a year. "Find out where your money is going to see if you're being nickle-and-dimed to death," he said.

You also can manage beneficiary designations more easily with fewer accounts. You may name beneficiaries ― the people to whom you want your money to go at death — on Individual Retirement Accounts, 401(k)s and so on. You should update these annually or as births, deaths, marriages or other life changes occur. Make sure your designations don't conflict with what you listed on other estate planning documents, such as revocable living trusts.

“The beneficiaries you list on your IRA will take precedence over what’s listed on your trust,” Young said.

Will canceling subscriptions, memberships get easier?

Consumers can spend hundreds of dollars a year or more on subscriptions, memberships and ongoing product deliveries that they no longer want and perhaps didn’t even sign up for. That’s why the Federal Trade Commission has proposed a “click to cancel” rule that would require businesses to make it as easy for people to terminate their enrollments as it was to sign up.

The new rule, if adopted, could help people close gym memberships, magazine subscriptions, computer-virus and credit-monitoring services, ongoing deliveries of bottled water or food, and other purchases.

“Some businesses too often trick consumers into paying for subscriptions they no longer want or didn’t sign up for in the first place,” FTC Chairperson Lina M. Khan said in a statement. “The proposal would save consumers time and money, and businesses that continued to use subscription tricks and traps would be subject to stiff penalties.”

Marketers sometimes require customers to cancel in person or face long telephone waits before connecting to service representatives, the FTC said.

The proposal would require a simple cancellation mechanism and prohibit misrepresentations. If you sign up for a service online, the business also must allow you to cancel online, in the same number of steps. And before pitching new products or services to consumers when they try to cancel, businesses first must ask for permission. In other words, a seller would have to take “no” for an answer and, upon hearing “no,” would have to implement the cancellation process immediately, the FTC said.

After the proposal is published in the Federal Register, a public comment period will ensue. When that closes, the commission will decide whether to adopt the rule, “either as proposed or with changes based on the comments received,” said Jay Mayfield, a senior FTC public affairs specialist. More information is at ftc.gov.

Be sure to check for credit report errors

Now also is a good time to monitor information that's listed in your credit reports. When such information isn't accurate, obtaining loans including credit cards can get more difficult, or you could face higher interest rates, higher rents or even scuttle a home purchase.

You can obtain free credit reports at annualcreditreport.com. One thing to check for: information contained in reports that doesn't apply to you.

Attorneys at FCRA, a law firm that focuses on correcting credit reports, inaccurate background checks and the like, said they analyzed nearly 198,000 credit-report complaints over a recent 12-month period. Of these reports with complaints, roughly two in three contained information that was attributed to the wrong person.

When facing low credit scores, which are based on information in credit reports, consumers often assume they must change their financial habits. But sometimes it’s simply a matter of correcting what's in a credit report.

The website www.FCRA.com lists these among the common mistakes in credit reports: inaccurate personal-identifying information, settled accounts that still show a balance, credit files that are mixed with someone else’s and debts older than seven years that should have gotten removed.

Reach the writer at russ.wiles@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tips to consolidate retirement accounts, save money on your finances