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Posted
Jul 31 2008, 11:40 AM
by
Karen Datko
This post comes from Martin H. Bosworth at partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com. In the face of high gas prices, stagnant wages and a moribund housing market, Americans are using credit cards less and less. A new study by Javelin Strategy & Research found that all ages of Americans, across all income levels, are cutting back on discretionary spending with cards, buying only necessary items, and often having trouble with the balances they maintain. "The sharp decline in credit card spending challenges the popular belief that more Americans are charging basic goods in order to sustain their quality of life," said Javelin president James Van ***. "Consumers are making deliberate cutbacks like shopping at superstores, eating out less and watching what they charge."
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Posted
Jul 01 2008, 11:46 AM
by
Karen Datko
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This post comes from partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com. When large corporations face tough times, they often hire "efficiency experts" who come in and tell them how to save money. Households, struggling under the strain of higher gasoline prices, could use the same kind of service right about now. Playing the role of an efficiency expert, Consumer Reports magazine says it has looked for and found ways for the average consumer household to trim up to $500 a month from its budget. Even at $4 a gallon, that buys a lot of gas.
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Posted
May 13 2008, 06:52 AM
by
Karen Datko
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This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. When I was young, I used to write a fake company name on all sorts of papers to make it look like my company stationery, as if I were a big-swinging successful entrepreneur like Andrew Carnegie. We'd play football in the streets and pretend to be Joe Montana throwing yet another touchdown pass to Jerry Rice. We'd tackle each other in the field and pretend we were LT (no, not Ladainian Tomlinson -- the real LT, Mr. Lawrence Taylor) getting Joe Theisman, minus the snapping leg.
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Posted
May 10 2008, 05:38 PM
by
Karen Datko
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Did you know that you can learn a lot about personal finance from the Rolling Stones? They said, "You Can't Always Get What You Want." "They didn't say, 'Put it on a credit card,'" writes Debbie Dragon at Destroy Debt. Debbie identifies 28 songs that contain lessons about money management. Here are some of our favorites:
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Posted
May 07 2008, 12:07 PM
by
Karen Datko
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This tip from reader "kara17" is a good one, but only if you have unwavering discipline: We put absolutely everything on credit cards with cashback rewards. (Warning: This obviously doesn't work if you don't pay your full balance every month. If you're paying 15% interest, a 5% cashback reward isn't doing much good.) We both have cards (from different companies -- one from Discover and one from Citi) with 5% cash back on gas, 3% cash back on groceries, and 1% cash back on all other purchases. There is a limit on how much you can get 5% cash back on (I think ours is $2,000 a year), so once we hit that limit, we switch to using the other card we have. These percentages may not seem high, but if you put everything on the cards, the cashback savings really add up.
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Posted
Mar 28 2008, 11:33 AM
by
Karen Datko
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This post comes from Mark Huffman at partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com. Unauthorized charges and negative-option marketing traps continue to plague consumers, judging by the number of complaints received at ConsumerAffairs.com. One company in particular, Columbia House, seems to get under consumers' skin, producing 41 complaints in the last 30 days. Will, of Locust Grove, Ga., says he has no idea how he became a member of Columbia House, but now says he is receiving a steady stream of DVDs -- and bills. "I canceled my account, but nothing happens," he told us. "You can't call and talk to anyone. I fear they are going to ruin my good credit for something I never signed up for." Columbia House is one of the oldest "record of the month" clubs in the U.S., offering its members inexpensive CDs or DVDs in exchange for an ongoing commitment to keep buying its products. Book and record clubs like Columbia House pioneered "negative-option" marketing, where a lack of response from a consumer is taken as implied consent. But while some negative- option plans are well-run, many others are questionable.
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Posted
Mar 19 2008, 03:01 PM
by
Karen Datko
Unlike Betamax owners of years gone by, buyers of HD DVD players can get some compensation for picking a technology that suddenly became obsolete. The New York Times has alerted the buying public that Best Buy will give $50 gift cards to the 200,000 people who purchased HD DVD players or attachments from the chain before Feb. 23, about the time Toshiba announced its surrender to Sony's Blu-ray in the latest format war. You can keep the HD DVD player and use it for your old DVDs and HD DVDs. Best Buy is offering a double bonus: If you no longer want your player or HD DVD movies -- no matter where you bought them -- you can trade them in for a Best Buy gift card. You'll be able to get a value for them at www.bestbuytradein.com beginning March 21. And this from the Circuit City Web site: "If you purchased a Toshiba HD DVD player from Circuit City in the last 90 days, you can return the player to your local store to receive your purchase amount back in the form of a Circuit City store credit." HD DVD players generally cost about $250 to $400.
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Posted
Mar 18 2008, 01:50 PM
by
Karen Datko
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"NCN" at No Credit Needed had trouble sleeping the other night and flipped on the boob tube. Soon he was captivated by the TV shopping networks. "Now I'm hooked," he writes. "Not on the products -- but on the way that the products are presented and promoted." Among his observations: Every product is a "special value" or an "amazing deal," and can be purchased in several handy installments. Dazzled shoppers call in, praise the product, and gush even more about the host. "I find it fascinating (perplexing, and a bit sad) that the callers seemed to consider the hosts to be their 'friends,'" NCN says. And invariably this: By the end of each segment, the item is "nearly sold out." "And, as the host talked to the 'producer,' she'd be informed that those who 'called right now' could be assured that the product would be available, but they needed to call 'right now,'" NCN writes.
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Posted
Jan 03 2008, 08:49 AM
by
Karen Datko
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Some personal-finance bloggers are well on their way to financial security. But others live like the rest of us, trying to build savings while getting through each day. We learned this after a group of PF bloggers decided to post about net worth (assets minus liabilities) at the end of 2007. For instance, Lynnae at Being Frugal reported that for the first time in 12 years of married life, she and her husband are starting the new year with a positive net worth.
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Posted
Dec 27 2007, 06:19 PM
by
Karen Datko
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Krystalatwork, who blogs at Give Me Back My Five Bucks, shares pretty much every detail of her financial life in little charts on her Web site. She keeps readers up to date about her triumphs, large and small, her disappointments, and her hunt for full-time employment. And her readership is bound to grow after she was included in a Wall Street Journal article about young PF bloggers. So why is it that she doesn't want the new man in her life to read her blog?
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