Company perk

Your January report "Best Cell-Phone Service" should have advised readers to ask about discounts based on the company they work for. Most cell-phone carriers offer a cooperative discount to employees of a variety of companies. When I discovered this, I switched carriers and got a 20 percent discount on my calling plan and a deal on two cell phones, all without having to mail in any rebates.

Richard Guibilo
Doylestown, PA

Thanks for the tip. In fact, carriers including Alltel, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon offer such discounts. A 20 percent discount, for example, could cut $10 off the average $50 monthly bill and $32 off a multiphone family plan with 1,400 minutes a month.

Not so smart

Your January 2009 report on cell phones misses an important point about smart phones: Those used as a PDA must be synched with a computer, and not all smart phones do so easily. For example, Palm's "hot sync" feature doesn't support the new Vista 64-bit operating system, so Palm Centro devices end up being useless with many new PCs.

Steve Walden
Atlanta

Hidden sodium

It's not just food that has hidden sodium ("Shake Salt from Your Diet," January 2009). Each tablet of Alka-Seltzer Plus Cough & Cold Formula has 415 mg of sodium, and the dose is two tablets every 4 hours. And a tablet of Alka-Seltzer Plus Night Cold Formula has 474 mg of sodium, with a similar dosage.

Gaynor Bloom
Denver

Mortgage mess

Reading "A Rescue Plan for the Rest of Us" (January 2009), I was surprised to see a reference to mortgage problems in Hobart, Indiana, since I assumed the mortgage market was relatively sound in this area. Then I was dismayed to see the parents of one of my students in the picture. It breaks my heart that one of my students has to deal with such a stressful situation. I hope the mortgage company will relent. It's unfortunate that the government is moving so slowly to help homeowners that are trapped in such loans.

Eike Fischer
Chesterton, IN

"7 Steps Toward Reform" ("A Rescue Plan for the Rest of Us") didn't list the most important reform: Reform the consumer. Start with these steps: Thou shalt not covet more house than thou canst afford; thou shalt not use thy credit card for long-term debt; thou shalt not bear false witness on thy mortgage application. Those are among the sins that got us into this mess.

John Leonard
Seattle

Lose the ads

In "Cars" (January 2009), you describe pop-up ads on a Garmin GPS as a minor annoyance. Minor annoyance? If a GPS I bought showed ads, it would be returned posthaste. This would be the same as buying a cell phone and having ads inserted into conversations. Oops, I shouldn't give them any ideas.

Anthony Alderton
Ottawa

13 for the road

In your excellent Up Front article "12 for the Road: What to Keep in Your Car" (January 2009), you didn't include what can be a lifesaver: a small tool that allows you to break glass or otherwise escape should you become trapped. A friend's electric system failed, trapping her in a car (with electric door locks locked) that eventually caught fire. Had it not been for a passerby who broke her window and pulled her out, she would have died.

Kathy Harville
Redmond, OR

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