Consumerist
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How To
Get Those Credit Card Rate increases Canceled
A Kiplinger reader shares his strategy for getting ridiculous rate increases on his three credit cards rolled back to their original rates. It's a technique that's probably familiar to a lot of Consumerist readers when negotiating for lower rates in general: be polite but unyielding, know where you stand as far as leverage (it helps to have a perfect history with the company), start with basic customer service, and then escalate as needed. More » -
Health
Teenager Discovers Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria In Chicken
A 17-year-old student in New Zealand has discovered antibiotic resistant bacteria that could be difficult to treat in humans... in a bunch of grocery store chickens. More » -
Cable
Comcast: Wanna Pay An Extra $2.95 A Month For TiVo?
TiVo says that you will soon have the privilege of paying Comcast an extra $2.95 a month for TiVo service (on top of what you already pay for a DVR)."We are very excited by the emphasis that Comcast has placed on this product within its organization and their plans to aggressively market it at a $2.95 up-charge as well as through packaged bundles and win-back offers," Rogers said. "Further, we are pleased with Comcast's plans to promote and market the value of the TiVo experience, which will leverage many of their marketing assets including cross-channel TV."
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decisions
Kmart Loses Toilet Paper Tax Lawsuit
Mary Bach, the woman who sued Kmart for charging tax on toilet paper, has won her lawsuit and $100. Kmart offered to settle with Bach, but she declined. More » -
subprime meltdown
Bush Subprime Mortgage Plan Will Be Finalized Soon
ABC News has an interview with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in which he says that the administration's plan to help subprime borrowers is nearing completion. More » -
Defects
Oh No! iMac Screens Failing
There seems to be a defect with the screens of certain iMacs, says MacNN. More and more users are reporting an issue where weird pink lines appear on the LCD and get progressively worse as time goes on. More » -
Crime
FTC Says Identity Theft Has Dropped, Sort Of, Maybe Not?
The FTC's figure for identity theft in 2005 was 8.3 million Americans over the age of 18, a drop of about 16% from the 9.9 million it measured in 2003. (2005 is the most recent year for which they have data.) However, not only are consumer groups saying that these numbers are faulty, even the FTC admits in a footnote that "its conclusion is not 'statistically significant' because the sample size was too small." More » -
Credit
Which Is Better: "Store Cards" Or Store Branded Visas?
It has now become common for store to offer, in addition to their regular store-brand credit card, a co-branded Visa, Amex or Mastercard. More » -
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How To
Fix Your Old Christmas Lights
Save some money by re-using your existing strings of light this Christmas—even if they're currently acting all wonky. Here are some handy guides on how to repair dark strings of Christmas lights, whether they're LED or the classic incandescent type. They're fairly detailed, with a sort of techy "how things work" vibe, but contain a lot of useful information. For example, just because a string of incandescents has an AC outlet at the end, that doesn't make it an extension cord—the more power you pull through the cord, the greater the current and the higher the risk of shorting out bulbs. More » -
The Feb will likely cut rates again in December "providing three conditions are met: financial markets remain distressed, the risks to inflation do not increase and the remaining economic data do not come in stronger than expected." [MSNMoney]
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My That's Odd
Please Don't Hunt At The Pittsburgh International Airport
Important tip for aspiring sportsmen: Don't "hunt" at Pittsburgh International Airport. It's not legal to be creeping around airport property with loaded firearms. Shocking, we know. More » -
Ethics
Did CNET's Gamespot Fire Reviewer For Angering Advertisers?
So much for even the illusion of editorial independence in video game reviews. One of Gamespot's editors and top reviewers was apparently fired this week after writing an unenthusiastic review for the game "Kane & Lynch," which was being advertised heavily all over the Gamespot site, according to our sister site Kotaku. More » -
Interest
Mortgage Rates Are At 2 Year Lows
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the national average interest rate on the benchmark 30-year, fixed-rate loan averaged 6.1% last week, the lowest rate since Oct 13, 2005. More » -
State of the Console Wars: Wii is still winning, Microsoft is second, and Sony is complaining that they're not as far back as Microsoft says they are. [Seattle P-I]
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Safety
Too Stinky To Fly: "Unfamiliar Smell" Grounds Southwest Flight
An "unfamiliar smell" grounded a flight from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Thursday after flight attendants noticed the smell shortly after take off. More » -
bad consumer
A Year Supply Of Coke For Anyone Who Helps Catch The Vending Machine Bandits
If you know who has been ripping off Coke vending machines in Pennsylvania's LeHigh Valley, you could be the winner of a years supply of Coca-Cola. More »
New York, 1:34 PM
Wed Nov 11
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