Reader Alex bought an Acer laptop with a 3 year extended warranty, and honestly, we lost count of how many times he’s sent it in to Acer for repairs — but every time Acer sends it back it seems to get a little bit less functional. Now he’s finally had enough and is demanding a replacement. This has lead to a 5 month stand-off in which Acer is refusing to send him a replacement because it would be a “downgrade” from his current broken laptop. Alex has already replaced the laptop and was going to give up. We’re his last hope…
credit cards
Are We Nearing The End Of Credit Card Consumerism?
By 8.12.08
Is it possible? Can this country’s insatiable appetite for consumer goods be slowing down? No! Surely not! US News & World Report’s Alpha Consumer, Kimberly Palmer took a look at consumer demand and its relationship to cheap credit.
Citibank's Website Glitch Tricks Man Into Overpaying $755, But They Won't Issue Refund
By 8.12.08
Citibank’s website isn’t reliable, at least according to them. Matt assumed that a website from a bank could be trustworthy, and that if there was no scheduled payment showing up, then he must have forgotten to arrange it. He scheduled a second payment, but then both payments went through one day apart. Now Citibank refuses to give him a refund: he should have called or emailed before rescheduling, they’ve told him, and not trusted what the website was telling him.
And You Thought Credit Cards Companies Here Were Vicious?
By 8.11.08
America’s painfully slow economic decline is partly fueled by almost $1 trillion of revolving credit card debt, an albatross our imperial credit card companies are all too happy to export. Most of the world’s 3.76 billion credit cards already circulate abroad, “handed out to unsophisticated consumers — as they often are in shopping malls, factories and university campuses in middle-income developing countries.”
Which Credit Cards Have The Best Rental Car Insurance?
By 8.7.08
One of the tricks that seasoned travelers know is to always deny the insurance when renting a car. Why? Because the credit card that they are using already comes with insurance that they are familiar with, and because you are required to deny coverage from the rental car company in order to take advantage of your credit card’s insurance. But how do you pick a credit card that has good rental insurance?
Don't Let Your Credit Card Rate Get Spiked
By 8.5.08
Credit card companies are raising interest rates and canceling cards left and right. Bankrate has seven ways to avoid getting caught up in the “risk repricing” spree. It all comes down to keeping everything looking normal.
TJX Credit Card Theft Crew Busted
By 8.5.08
The world’s greatest bank thief is in custody. For ripping off over 45.7 million consumer’s credit cards from TJ Maxx, and other retailers, authorities pressed charges on Miami mastermind Albert Gonzalez and 11 others. The stolen numbers were sold to other scammers who manufactured fake debit cards and drained their victims’ accounts. The breach stemmed mainly from TJ Maxx stores using an unsecured wireless router.
Crowne Plaza Hotel Blindsides You With A $235.13 Hold For Incidental Charges
By 8.4.08
Much like that nasty little gas station problem we talked about awhile back, hotels just love to slap holds on your debit or credit card accounts for “incidental charges.” There’s nothing wrong or uncommon about the practice, but its difficult or impossible to tell exactly how much the hold might be — and for some consumers who aren’t expecting it, the holds can cause big problems. Reader Eric recently got slapped with a $253.13 hold from the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Kansas City, and he’s a little irked because they didn’t disclose the hold when he was checking in, and they only refunded $160 of it when he checked out.
Convicted Pedophile Sues AmEx For $4 Million, Says Creditor Violated His Privacy
By 8.2.08
Meet James Colliton, a disbarred corporate lawyer who served 19 months in jail after bribing a mother so he could sleep with her 13 and 15 year-old daughters. Colliton recently sued American Express for $4 million, claiming that he was captured because the credit card company told authorities that the fugitive gutter-cretin was signing for hotel rooms in Ontario.
Credit Score Piggybacking Saved From Death
By 7.30.08
Piggybacking is back in, baby. FICO was all set to terminate the credit-score boosting technique of adding another authorized user to an account held by someone with good credit, but they demurred. Piggbyack away, little money pigs. Here’s how it went down…
More On Minimum Purchases, Surcharges, And Other Credit Card Merchant Agreement Violations, From The Companies Themselves
By 7.30.08
We’ve posted a lot of stories of businesses requiring customers who pay with a credit card to make minimum purchases, or pay a surcharge, or show ID. And as we’ve repeatedly said, the businesses’ merchant agreements with the credit card companies forbids these practices. A reader wrote in to argue that this might not be true, as many businesses contract with third-party credit card processors, and are not bound by the merchant agreement. So we did some investigating.
How To Report Do Not Call List Scofflaws To The Proper Authorities
By 7.28.08
Reader Brian says that he’s getting weird scammy calls about “lowering his interest rates” and would like to know what he should do about it.
2008 Consumer Action Credit Card Survey Declares Credit Cards 'Really !@$% Evil!'
By 7.27.08
Credit cards are so much worse than you thought, according to the 2008 Consumer Action credit card survey. Creditors have carte blanche to do pretty much whatever they want, including randomly changing terms, conditions, and rates, even to cardholders with perfect payment histories and pristine credit scores.
Uno Chicago Grill Charges You $200 When You're Not Even There
By 7.21.08
Lauren was shocked to find five charges for a total of $200 on her account from a pizza place she hadn’t been to in months. They were all levied from one Uno Chicago Grill during a day she wasn’t even in town. What she found out about why they happened in the first place was even more disturbing, and annoying.
Good News: Compulsive Buying Is A Treatable Illness
By 7.19.08
Can’t stop shopping? You’re not alone. According to the L.A. Times, one in twenty Americans buy compulsively, a destructive yet treatable economy-propping impulse control disorder.
Why No Credit Card Is 100% Safe Against Fraud
By 7.18.08
It seems that there is nothing a consumer can do to completely prevent a merchant from putting an unauthorized charge through on their account. Even if that account is closed or you’re using a “single-use” or “virtual” credit card, fraud-prevention cards with disposable credit card numbers that change after you use them once, you’re not 100% secure. How come? Well, we’ll tell ya.
UPDATE: Bank Of America Has No Idea Whether It Treats Parking Meter Payments As A Cash Advance
By 7.16.08
Remember our reader who tried to use his Bank of America debit card on a parking meter and was charged a $10 cash advance fee? One of our commenters did a little investigation on our story and got two conflicting responses from Bank of America.
Bestsmartstore Is A Scam, Check Your Statements For Fake Charges
By 7.16.08
Watch out for fraudulent charges from Bestsmartstore.com on your credit card statements. Consumers are complaining about unauthorized charges for $4.95 or $4.99 for “e books” they never ordered or received. E-books are a favorite tool of online scammers as, if they ever got caught, they could just point to a few PDFs on their computer and say that’s the inventory of their legitimate business. If you get one of these charges, do a chargeback on the card and cancel the card immediately.
