WSJ says:

A Sallie Mae spokesperson told me that you can use money earned through Upromise rewards to help pay off your student loans. You can even have the funds earned withdrawn as a check. Then, the options are limitless. Roll it over to a charity of your choice. Give it in lieu of a gift card. Cushion your rainy-day savings fund — or get one started. Or, if you’re feeling brave, really put it to work by tossing the extra cash in an IRA or your 401(k).

Neat.

Some Help For Paying Student Loans [WSJ]
UPromise.com

1. Ask for a lower price. This is the most painless way to lower your bills. Simply call up your cable company, for example, and ask them to lower your bill. Before you call, do a little research. Find out what the competition is charging and what your provider is offering new customers so you know what you can expect to get. Tell them that you're thinking of switching to another provider and explain that you can save money if you do.

   Here's a success story: Threatening To Cancel Comcast Saves Man $238.92 Per Year

2. Eliminate what you don't use and can live without. Bundling your services with cable or telephone companies might save you money— but it might not. Take some time to do research and find out which combination works for you. Maybe it's "dry loop" or "naked" DSL and a bigger cellphone package. Maybe it's cable internet and phone with no cable. Maybe its Netflix instead of cable. An HD antenna and GameFly? Splitting the cost of internet by sharing WiFi with your neighbor? Switching to a pay as you go phone? Getting a family cellphone plan? Be creative.

   Here's a success story: iTunes + Netflix = Cancel Cable?

3. Shop around. When your cellphone contract has expired you are in a position of enormous power. You are in demand. Do not waste this opportunity by renewing your contract for a free phone. Shop around. You're likely to get the best deal from a new company. Even if you're happy with your current provider, there's no reason not to negotiate. Also, make sure that you're taking advantage of all the discounts that are available to you. You might be eligible for a discount simply because of the company you work for.

   Here's a success story: How Joe Saved Hundreds Of Dollars Using Confessions Of A Cellphone Sales Rep

Good luck! Share how you saved on your "information age" bills in the comments and we'll round up the best ideas in another post.

(Photo: darabidduckie )

This, of course, assumes that you're not already using these tips, some of which Ramit admits will come from Consumerist. (Aw, shucks, he likes us.)

Anyway, if you've got an hour a day and want to save some money, why not join Ramit's challenge? What's the worst that could happen? You save money?

Announcing the Save $1,000 in 30 Days Challenge [I Will Teach You To Be Rich]
(Photo: donbuciak )

aishel says:

I've been getting the Comcast internet promotion for $33/month (I only have cable internet service with them). This month, I noticed that my bill said $35/month instead of $33. I used their online chat support to complain, and even though my promotion was about to expire, he extended it for an entire year! I'll be saving $300/year!

I have the whole transcript, but here are the main parts:

First he told me that they had to raise costs

Comcast Rep > It has gone up to $59.95 [from $57.95] per month minus the promotion rate of $24.95 every month. We are highly focused on controlling our costs, but price adjustments are a necessity in view of the increased cost of doing business in this challenging economic environment, including gas prices, healthcare costs, increases in the cost we pay for programming, and technology and service improvements.

Me > So if its supposed to be $33/month for an entire year, that means that the rate doesn't just randomly go up
Me > So how can you help me solve this problem?

Comcast Rep> I was able to correct the rate.
Comcast Rep> You will still have your current rate of $33.00 for your Internet service for 12 months.

Me> do you know when the 12 months is up?

Comcast Rep> what I did was I reset the date your promotion will run. It will expire on November 2009.

So just like that, instead of my rate going up to $59.95/month in a few months, I got the promotional rate extended for an entire year. That's a savings of $323.40

Good work! Oh, and don't think this can't work with other cable and internet companies, too. If your promotional rate is expiring, call them up and ask them to extend it. What's the worst that can happen? They might say no?

SmartHippo
SmartHippo says the mortgage process is too complicated for consumers, with too much data hidden from plain view. Their service focuses on transparency in the home lending process. Imagine everyone in your company trading info on their salaries before the next employee review—HR wouldn't like it, but it would arm you with info you didn't previously have, to better negotiate for yourself. SmartHippo lets users build lending profiles and share information on their mortgage rates and lenders, so that you can compare notes before you settle on a rate of your own. Lenders also have a presence on the site and can share their rates directly.

The service claims to be truly transparent in collecting and sharing data among users—no bait and switch with interest rates. This month, they're rolling out a revamped rate search engine that pulls data from over 200 lenders. They claim that since lenders don't purchase position in their database, it's a great way to see what are frequently better rates from small banks and credit unions that you wouldn't otherwise see, since they don't have large advertising budgets to get the word out to consumers. If you try it out, let us know what you think.

Credit Karma
We’ve previously recommended Credit Karma, which offers a near-FICO estimate of your credit score for free. Their new tool is a Credit Simulator, where you can play out various scenarios—applying for a new credit card, taking out a personal loan, making six months of on-time payments, declaring bankruptcy—to see how they affect your score.

MoneyAisle
This is an online auction site where banks compete for your CD and high yield savings account business. The banks participate in a true reverse auction in real time, using bots to increase rates until a winner emerges. The founder emphasizes that this is not comparison shopping or sponsored bids—it's basically eBay in reverse, where participating banks compete for you.

The site is four months old and has around 100 participating banks and credit unions, so they admit that they don't always have the very best rate, but the number of institutions are increasing. On the other hand, they also don't allow low-rated rated banks to participate, so bids will only come from "healthy" institutions.

Yodlee
Yodlee's new offering is called PayToday through their BillPay partnership with Western Union. Through Yodlee you can pay immediately-due bills (as in, it's due today) with over 1,000 billers. It's not cheap at $15 per use, but it "solves the problem of last-minute payments."

One interesting note if you're into finding weird little ways to save money: Yodlee says if you're paying $5-10k a month on a mortgage payment, making last-minute payments can actually work out cheaper than regular payments, because it buys you a couple days more float time on your funds each month.

Mint
Mint's big news is that it officially left beta today, and that it now offers lots of investment tracking tools.

Thrive from Loudwater Labs
Thrive—which looks a little like a citrus-flavored version of Mint—attempts to combine the data reporting that every personal finance site offers with some level of advice and financial planning. We're not sure how Thrive makes money, though, and when we checked out the question on their FAQ, they didn't provide much info on that either, although they announced yesterday that they've partnered with Credit.com.

Fun features: a numerical "Financial Health" score calculated based on your data, and interesting factoids like "You can survive without a job for n days," "You can afford a home priced at n dollars," and "You can retire on n per month."

BillShrink
We've discussed BillShrink before—the site finds the most valuable credit card offers for you, and lets you adjust your criteria quickly (and anonymously) to search for specific types of offers.

They've launched a third service called My Account, which lets you register with the site so that it can keep tabs on your criteria and keep updating the best offers for you.

Boulevard R
This is a web version of meeting with a financial planner to develop an investing and saving strategy—they describe their offering as a "3-step process that puts the interests of consumers first and lays out a clear, actionable path to financial security." You start off by dragging-and-dropping your life goals onto a timeline of when you hope to accomplish them, then you prioritize some other goals, then input your monthly savings and liabilities. The site then comes up with an animated chart showing what you'll need to do in the coming years to meet those initial goals.

Once the fun interactive part is over, you have two choices: for free, you can receive a financial plan on one of your goals; for $80, you get a comprehensive plan, access to lots of professional advice, and assorted online tools. As you can imagine from the $80 fee, Boulevard is targeting people making approximately $100k a year with roughly $200k in savings. But hey, even if you're not in that customer demographic, you can still play with the initial goal planning widget.

Inner8
A social site that matches people to people, stocks to stocks, your perception of market conditions to stocks, and and people to stocks. (That's how they described it.) They also said it's like a Match.com for investment advice, and sure enough, they use 45 different criteria to develop a profile of you.

In one example, you enter a stock—say, Apple—and you can see stocks that move with Apple, or stocks that run against it. Inner8 says the value is that some of the stocks you'll see will be counterintuitive, but supported by the data and their fuzzy logic. They said "fuzzy logic" several times. Lots of fuzzy logic in this service, apparently.

Another feature lets you see how other people are doing with stock selections, so you can track their choices. Yet another feature shows stocks that are "appropriate" to your profile.

We'll need someone with better investing experience to check out what Inner8 offers and see whether it looks worthwhile as a suite of investment research tools.

Rate Surfer by My Best Interest
Poor Rate Surfer looked old-skool and kind of ugly compared to the other screenshots being shown this morning. Its also Java-based, so, yay for cross-platform compatibility, boo for being slow-assed Java. (My Mac product ownership is revealing itself here.)

The application runs on your desktop and doesn't connect with any company middle-man, so it theoretically offers better privacy than most everything else on display today. (We're not saying better security, just more privacy.) The app downloads your credit card data, then goes out to bank websites and pulls rate info on comparable products, and then collects all of it into one dashboard for you to compare services.

There's no third-party aggregating being involved—it's just scraping bank websites directly and displaying them for you, so if you really don't want to trust third-parties with your accounts, here's a way to do it from your desktop.

The app also lets you control all of your bank accounts from a single interface, and lets you set up a phone account so that you can execute bank transactions—things like balance transfers—from your phone via text message.

MyMoney on Facebook, by FiServ
Their goal: connecting generation Y with financial providers, because they earn a considerable amount of money, and stand to inherit a lot of ca$h from dying Boomer parents. Hey, that's what the guy said, basically. They're here today to talk about a FaceBook app called "MyMoney" that they introduced earlier this year.

If you're shopping for a place to store your money, MyMoney hooks you up with banks and credit unions, based on search criteria you enter—things like "auto loans" or your zip code. It also shares reviews and commentary from trusted friends (the Facebook version, at least) to help you evaluate offerings.

If you already have a bank or credit union account and it's cooperating with the MyMoney app, you can authorize that account through MyMoney and will be able to see balances and other account info directly on your Facebook page.

Some of you may remember that I am being laid off in four days, and may wonder why I, of all people, have been assigned to do this extra bout of work on behalf of Consumerist. I know, right? But Ben has asked me to watch the presentations and report their new features for you, the readers, so I have agreed. I have ulterior motives: I have also brought along a pile of business cards to pass out, and I figure I can pocket a bunch of these croissants and freeze them, then live off of them through Thanksgiving.

Here's the first group of customer-facing service being discussed this morning:

QuickenOnline
Intuit's fully free (as of yesterday) online money tracking service has been intentionally simplified—their presenter kept emphasizing that this is not supposed to be as dense or complicated as their desktop software. Features include a "What's Left" summary of your dwindling account balance, as well as a cool-looking and potentially very useful "Spending Money Outlook"—a fancy chart that graphs your budget over a timeline and pegs scheduled payments to your balance, so you can visually take in your budget in the weeks to come in a purely graphical representation. They'll also text you daily balance updates and let you know whether or not you're on track to making your payments.

WeSeed
If you're a bit afraid of the stock market—and we don't mean just this past month, because that doesn't count—then you might really appreciate WeSeed, which is basically a giant sandbox where you can play with investments using fake money with real data.

The site pulls you into investing as soon as you hit the site, by asking you what you like—pizza, dogs, survivalism—and then throwing specific companies at you that you might want to investigate. From there you can read about the company, check out its financial history, or see what other users are saying about it in the comments section. We're not sure what value the comments section will have in real life, but the social aspect will probably be a welcome safety net for beginners who want to talk about investing as they learn.

We're impressed with the concept. It will look too simple for knowledgeable investors, but if you've been putting off investing because you don't know what you're doing, it looks like a great immersion-based way to learn. (We have a feeling it will be good for teens and tweens, too.)

Wesabe
Personal finance site Wesabe now has Twitter functionality—you can tweet data into your wesabe account as you're running around buying those dreaded budget-killing lattes financial advisors are always warning you about.

Another new feature Wesabe is rolling out: graphs you can use to see how you spend in particular categories, then compare to how other Wesabe members (they want you to call them "Wesabeans") spend compared to you. Wesabe says over time the community data will build into a library of spending graphs that you can pull up and map your own data against.

Wesabe also lets you rate your relationship to merchants: fan, user, or captive, although I'm not sure yet how this helps your spending.

ZoneAlarm ForceField by Checkpoint Software
Cybercrime is coming after you! Arrrggh!!! "Hooking into your web browser" is a "new thing this year" that's threatening your way of life. Bleyarg, ZoneAlarm's presentation is kind of vague.

ZoneAlarm ForceField has heuristics, which I think are what causes allergic reactions in your nose, that they use to identify phishing sites as soon as they're created—sort of a SpamSieve for phishing sites. FF also watches out for things like keylogging software.

Basically, ForceField looks like an antivirus program specifically for your web browser, which means it will likely be just as intrusive ("We've just stopped 66 MB of data from being spied upon!") and annoying. Until we look more closely at it, we'd suggest your best defense against phishing and scams is to continue being as careful as we hope you're already being.

FiLife
FiLife says their goal is to help find the best products available to you. To do that, they've amassed a vast directory of "product types," and then huge amounts of supporting content to explain the product types and provide reviews and recommendations.

New navigation tool, a "product picker." Their launch product picker is for credit cards: you enter data on your credit card usage patterns and desires, and FiLife filters out the noise and

FiLife also uses proprietary algorithms to come up with a "Personal Value" of the selected product—for instance, credit card A has a personal value to you of $84. We don't fully get it how that translates into real money for you, but it definitely works as a sort of score you can use to quickly compare choices.

Another fun toy is the Stacker, a graphical representation of your personal data. In the example given, you can enter your salary and your age range, and the Stacker reveals a pyramid of little animated people and shows where you stand among your peers or the nation. It looks like a fun way to explore your own personal data and gain a different perspective on things.

And that's the first batch. Off to grab some more croissants, and then we'll hear from the next batch of presenters.

Every week, thousands of Illinoisans struggle to feed themselves and their families on less than $25 per person each week – or approximately $3.50 a day. If this sounds nearly impossible, it is. As a result, more and more of our neighbors are turning to food banks and pantries just to make ends meet.

The challenge is over now and the participants have shared what they learned about hunger and about frugality.

One poster, named Becky, was optimistic about the project. With $100 to feed four people, she thought she could clip coupons and make it work:

We all worked together to plan our menu (a lot of carbs, leftovers, and pb&j), collect coupons, and find the best sales. We between 2 coupons we had, a brand deal, and a store discount we actually got 6 boxes of cereal for free! However, at the store, when we had to stay away from our organic, whole grain, carbonated fruit juice all natural soda, and anything at all convenient the challenge began to be less of game and sunk in for real. We were terrified as our sub-total climbed and we still had meat, dairy, and produce on the list.

As the week has progressed, I feel an overwhelming sense of failure and guilt for not providing for my family. I cannot help but to think of the families who face this every week.
Now we are out of milk and fresh fruit. We have 6 boxes of cereal to eat, but no milk...

Another poster shared her shopping trip to Aldi, where she got a good deal on ingredients for chicken soup— but her family still craved between meal snacks, and her husband quit after one day.

I bought a whole chicken, a loaf of bread, a bag of salad, a box of rice, a bag of egg noodles, a gallon of milk, a box of grapes, a 24-pack of bottled water, a box of deli turkey for sandwiches, a bag of cheese and a 30-count package of eggs...all for $24.88.

Another participant was astonished at how grouchy and distracted the challenge made him:

I have lost a lot of concentration and patience due to the Challenge. I have become extremely agitated for no decent reason. Last night when I came home, my girlfriend asked me what I would like for dinner and said I wanted something I bought off my list. She said fine, but proceeded to fancy up the dinner by adding some things to it. My tone came off negative as I told her I could not have the fancied dinner because of what she was adding was not within my $25. I'm not sure if I was just grumpy because I hadn't eaten much, but I did not like it. After I ate, I was cheerful again. It's a weird conundrum.

The challenge is over, but that's no reason not to challenge yourself. Can you feed yourself on $25 a week? Can you eat healthy meals? How do you save money on food?

Hunger Action Month [IFBA]
They tried eating on $25 a week [MSNMoney via Digg]
25 Dollar Challenge Blog

[Amazon via ProBargainHunter]

I am in the military and both my wife and I bank with USAA. She and I have separate checking accounts and separate Roth IRA's through USAA. Since we don't live in San Antonio, we bank online with USAA. My wife went online yesterday to check on some transactions and discovered her IRA balance was $0. Six hours prior to that, her balance was $14,000. We live on the East coast and the banks phone lines close at 10:00 PM Eastern. My wife discovered her missing balance at about 10:30 PM.

USAA allows you to e-mail them and promises to provide a response within 24 hours. We sent an e-mail and waited until the next business day. No e-mail arrived and finally my wife could not take it any longer. She called at 5:00 PM Eastern and got a CSR on the line. The CSR treated my wife as if she was lying and kept telling her she must be thinking about her husband's account because my wife has no account! My wife then demaned to speak to a supervisor and was "transferred" to the proverbial click.....dial tone. She called back and got in touch with another CSR who told her to "refresh" her screen because my wife must have been staring at the page too long. Lo and behold, her account appeared.

While her account was ultimately restored, I find it disconcerting that $14,000 can disappear that easily and then be treated so nonchalantly or even accusatory by the CSR. I also find it disheartening that USAA does not return e-mails for something of this magnitude.

I want to get a hold of someone HIGH in the food chain for an EECB and some phone numbers to go along with it. USAA guards these like the Colonels secret recipe and I wanted to ask the Consumerist for help. Can you help me??

We don't have that info. Do any of you? The best we can come up with is the general mailing address and phone number, and names of executives. But even if you can't get hold of private email addresses or phone numbers, you should still write a detailed account of what happened and mail copies of it to each one of USAA's executives:

• Joe Robles, CEO
• Kristi Ann Matus, CFO
• F. David Bohne, President of USAA Federal Savings Bank
• Christopher Weber Claus, President of USAA Financial Services Group
• Wendi E. Strong, EVP, Corporate Communications
• Dawn M. Johnson, EVP Marketing

Update: A lot of readers are referring to a "glitch" and implying that the OP must have not refreshed her browser. I've marked in bold the important line from the second paragraph of the OP's own story, where the CSR tells Travis' wife that she has no IRA. If this was a glitch, it was certainly more than just on the OP's computer.

(Photo: informant)

The "What's Left" approach might be too vague for those of you who want details, details, details when it comes to your money. Instead of presenting you a dashboard of data, Rudder uses what our editor Ben called a "no-thought-required cash flow management" approach. Not that there's anything wrong with that, especially if you feel like you need to take control of your finances but don't know where to start.

Click here to see a sample Rudder email.

As Cnet puts it:

Rudder's name for this magic number is "what's left" and it figures out what you've got for discretionary spending based on when you're getting your next paycheck and what's in your various savings and checking accounts, compared to credit card payments and other bills that need paying off. The entire process is shown to users, something Roy hopes will educate as much as it does take the work out of doing the math yourself.

As far as security, Rudder asks for read-only access to your accounts through CashEdge; Rudder itself doesn't store any user names, passwords, or account numbers. It's free as in ad-supported—you can see an example of the sort of ads they serve in the sample email above.

Rudder.com
"Rudder steers personal finance to your in-box" [Cnet]

The funds are FDIC-insured and deposited in West Bank, which has been in Des Moines, Iowa since 1893.

If you decide you need the cash and want to stop saving up with SmartyPig, you can close your goal ("break the piggy bank") and withdraw or transfer your money.

If you're looking for something with built-in restrictions and tools that will both help and force you to save up for specific purchase goals, instead of whipping out the plastic, SmartyPig could be worth a shot.

Smarty Pig [Official Site]

The site has been around for a bit, here's a few other people who've written reviews about it worth checking out:

Get Rich Slowly [Get Rich Slowly]
SmartyPig Review: With Less Fees, Are Piggy Banks Back? [My Money Blog]
Social Networking Meets Savings Accounts: SmartyPig Launches this Week [NetBanker]
Some people had trouble with the sign-up, but I was able to clickity-click and get rolling within minutes.

1) It can unconsciously rationalize spending. Some part of your brain is going, "It's ok, I'm saving."

2) Personally, I only use my debit card to withdraw money from the ATM. I don't want my account number getting stolen off some insecure store PIN pad, and paying only in cash encourages wiser spending.

3) If you're going to do this program, at least once a month move the money from the savings to an online savings account. Interest rates at brick and mortar banks are like .0crap, online you can get upwards of 3% right now.

One neat thing is that for the first 3 months, they will match everything you save 100%. After that, 5% of your purchases up to $250.

The deal has been around for a while, we wrote about it in 2005, but a new smarmy ad campaign (the one that goes, "This is America. Do we let the sun just shine or the wind just blow? No, we put them to work.") and recent events, made me think we could revisit it. What do you think? Is this a handy program, or the Diet Coke of savings plans? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Keep The Change [Bank of America] (Photo: atbartlett)

Two websites are making saving for college almost as easy as using PayPal.

• Upromise allows you to contribute to any of their 529 savings plans.
• FreshmanFund allows you to contribute to any plan, including those hosted elsewhere.

The Gift of College Savings, Now Made Easy Online [The Washington Post]
RELATED: 529 College Savings Plans By State

"This ladies Rolex retails for approximately $5,000, and it's something we would offer for around $3,000," explains [Stan Lukowicz from Capital City Loan.]

We also found a diamond ring appraised for $5500, selling for $1800.

A Mitre saw priced for $350 at Capital City Loan usually sells for about $600 in stores.

"When you come to a second hand store or a pawn shop, you can save dramatically from the retail because we don't have the high mall rents and the large advertising budget that they have," says Stan.

And keep in mind, everything is negotiable.

Pawned items aren't synonymous with mint condition, so remember to ask about return policies, and as always, caveat emptor.

Do you have pawn shop experience? Hock your stories in the comments.

Save With Dave: Pawn Shop Savings [CBS13]
(Photo: nalilo)

Before you scream "obvious computer error!," remember that "PriceBreakers are hand-picked by [Priceline's] travel deal experts for their exceptional value."

It's like that Curb Your Enthusiasm episode where Larry thinks rain forecasts are the weatherman's way of guaranteeing empty golf courses. Except here, you end up stranded under a tropical storm.

Hilton Head not your cup of tea? Hang in there, we expect the savings to rush up the eastern seaboard:
(Thanks to Steve!)

Across the country, shoppers bought more than 1.1 million freezers during the first six months of the year — up more than 7 percent from the same period last year, according to research firm NPD Group.

That rings up to nearly $400 million in freezer sales — a staggering figure compared to the rest of the home appliance sector, where industry data shows shipments are down nearly 8 percent.

And, experts said, it's a trend that's expected to continue at least through much of next year as penny-pinching shoppers buy in bulk to take advantage of deals or bundle grocery shopping trips to conserve gas.

We once had an adorably clunky spare freezer straight out of the 50s hiding in our basement. It held ice cream and pasta sauce, and its outrageous power demands easily gobbled up any savings gleaned from buying ice cream in bulk. It's not the kind of freezer you want. Instead, look for newer, Energy Star compliant freezers that might actually save you money.

Socking it away, in freezers [AP]
Refrigerators & Freezers [Energy Star]
(Photo: Getty)

3. Cut out investment charges and fees
BusinessWeek notes that "many investors end up paying 2% to 3% off the top each year for investing costs. Lower-cost mutual funds and index funds can slash that bill, savings that compound over several decades of investing."

7. Make sure you don't have too much insurance
Don't have dependents? Cut back on life insurance. Are your auto and home deductibles very low? Look for cheaper coverage with higher deductibles. They also recommend shopping around for new insurance every 2 to 3 years.

13. Lay down the law with your free-spending friends
It's harder to save if you hang out with big spenders. "Some financial planners advise cash-strapped clients to seek out social companions with similar budgets. However, if you're honest about your spending limits, true friends should be willing to adjust their plans by, for example, choosing a less pricey restaurant."

18. Annualize your expenses

"Realizing how much things cost over the course of a year can really help put things in perspective," says Bob Nusbaum of Middle America Planning in Pittsburgh. For example, if you spend $10 for snacks and lunch each weekday, that adds up to $2,500 in a year.

"Let's Get Cheap" [BusinessWeek]
(Photo: Getty)

1. Authorizing transactions via debit card even if it triggers an overdraft fee
"Debit card use triggers 46% of all overdrafts, according to the Center for Responsible Lending," writes SmartMoney. Keep an eye on your spending and never trust the bank to let you know if you've spent more than you have. As a "courtesy," they'll approve your transaction, then apply a fee.

SmartMoney suggests you ask your bank to set your debit overdraw amount to zero, so that any transaction that would be rejected in the real world will also be rejected by your bank.

2. Reordering transactions to maximize the number of them that can be considered overdrafts
"Banks justify the practice as a way to ensure the most important debits get processed first (say, so a mortgage payment doesn't bounce)." This is utter bullshit. Banks do this for one reason—to generate more revenue in overdraft fees from customers who screw up. Here's an example:

Say you start the day with $100 in your account. You buy a latte ($5), fill up on gas ($50), buy groceries ($35), swing by the drugstore ($8) and then the dry cleaner's ($25). Processed chronologically, only the last transaction triggers an overdraft. Reordered from high to low, however, three purchases do.

SmartMoney suggests two things to protect against this:

• Keep an extra $100 or so as "buffer money" in your account, and never plan on using it.
• Always make sure any deposits have shown up as available funds before you rely on them.

3. Extended overdraft fees
If you take too long to pay an overdraft fee, your bank may attach a second penalty fee. One suggestion is to attach a line of credit or savings account to automatically pay overdaft fees—but don't use the line of credit for anything other than overdraft protection.

4. High daily maximums
Many banks will allow you to generate multiple overdraft transactions in a single day—Chase, for exammple, sets no limit on the number of times they can charge you, and they increase the charges after the first transaction. SmartMoney suggests you negotiate these fees away by pointing out that the trouble stemmed from a single incident, and that the entire unpleasant affair is a rare occurrence for you. (It is rare, isn't it? Otherwise you're just giving money away to the bank.)

5. Taking a day or more to release funds on hold
This last one is triggered by merchants—hotels, gas stations—who place holds on your account before you complete the transaction. Banks, however, apparently have no technology available to release those holds in a timely manner, despite the fact that they're initially placed in mere seconds. If you conduct any business that generates holds on your funds, assume that money is spent until you can confirm it's been released again.

SmartMoney suggests you use a credit card to pay for things that trigger holds—"While it still counts against your available credit, it's more likely that account can withstand a tighter balance for the 24 hours or so it takes for the hold to clear."

Notice a trend here? Most of the suggestions SmartMoney makes to protect yourself amount to little more than socking more money away at the offending bank, or setting up more potential ways for something bad to happen in the form of unexpected fees. If your bank is practicing more than one or two of these bad habits, your best bet is to start looking for another bank or credit union, one that doesn't view you as its own personal ATM machine.

"5 Sneaky Overdraft Traps" [SmartMoney]
(Photo: Getty)

1. You can't have everything you want.
2. Financial institutions are not your friends.
3. Nobody is going to teach you personal finance.
4. You are your own worst enemy.
5. You need to stop watching TV.
6. Personal finance is easy.

What? Personal finance is easy? Yep:

You already know what you need to be successful in personal finances. All you need to do to get your personal finances in order is spend less than you make. It's a concept that even a child can comprehend. Unfortunately, knowing and implementing it are two separate issues.

Much like people wanting to lose weight know that that they need to consume less calories than they use, actually doing it is a lot harder than merely realizing it. Yes, implementing the knowledge is more difficult than simply having it and will require some effort on your part, but that's not an excuse to claim that it's too difficult because the reality is that it is not.

The interesting thing about #3—that nobody is going to teach you personal finance—is that in a related article Strain writes, "Don't spend time learning how to invest." He explains:

When you are first starting to improve your finances, don't make learning how to invest a priority. Instead, put your investing on autopilot and follow the advice of Warren Buffett: "The best way to own common stocks is through an index fund."

Once you've mastered your finances and have saved a nice nest egg, then you'll have time to research individual stockts. Until then, your time will be much better spent on improving your finances through other means.

"Six Awful Truths About Personal Finance" [TheStreet.com]
"7 Counterintuitive Ways to Improve Finances" [TheStreet.com]
(Photo: Getty)

From Coinstar's website:

Think of it as a new form of recycling—when you reuse your change instead of letting it sit idle in your coin jar, fewer coins are produced. And that translates into environmental savings by reducing hte need for limited natural resources used to create new coin.

We're deeply skeptical of any one-to-one benefit statement like this, not least because it ignores the total cost of running the Coinstar company, which is a key component of any coin recycling "movement."

If you're going to cash in your spare change, look for a Commerce Bank branch nearby first. Their change machines are free and you don't have to be a Commerce customer to use them.

Reader Austyn, who found the deal at the Layton supercenter in Utah, adds:

Great to know if I go to Walmart I can "Buy 2 and Save!" a grand total of -32 cents.

This isn't the first time we've seen stores futz with unit pricing to screw careless consumers. If you see "Buy 2 And Save," slow down and look for the unit price.

PREVIOUSLY: Target's Degree Deodorant Pricing Scheme Rewards Those Who Pay Attention
Target: Buy 2 And Save! Sort of!

1) Don't waste money on pre-chopped food.
Pre-chopped or single serving food is expensive! Want to save money? Buy a good knife and some plastic bags.

2) Pay attention to unit pricing.
Just because something is bigger or has a sticker on it that says "special value," doesn't mean it costs less per unit. If you hate doing math, use a calculator!

3) Try store brands. It might be the exact same food you're used to eating.
The no name food you see in stores is often made by the exact same factories that produce the brand name stuff. For example, Walmart "Great Value" peanut butter is really just Peter Pan with a different label. Try the store brands. You might like them.

4) Compare prices in different areas of the store.
Deli meats, cheese and olives may be a better deal than similar products in other areas of the store — or they might not. It pays to walk around and compare, says Consumer Reports.

5) Try other stores.
The grocery store isn't always the cheapest place to buy food. Sometimes drug stores have good deals on things like milk, and liquor is cheaper at warehouse stores. Discount stores like Aldi can have great deals. Farmer's markets are fun and often inexpensive. Be careful not to blow your budget by driving all over the place to save $0.50 on organic turnips, however.

6) Make a list that fits within your budget.
Wandering around the grocery store when your hungry is a terrible idea, particularly if you don't have a set budget or a list of items you need. Take a few moments to plan your trip. You'll be done faster and you'll have saved money.

7) Eliminate waste.
People waste a lot of food. The New York Times says we Americans toss about a quarter of what is available to eat. That's not cool. The Guardian has a list of tips that will help you cut down on the food you waste.

Hate coupons, but love money? Share your coupon-free tips in the comments.

(Photo: flyingember )

1. Shop With A Timer: Avoid wasteful and expensive browsing by marching into stores with firm deadlines. Looking for a single item? Remind yourself it's time to leave by setting your cellphone to ring after five minutes.

2. Reward Your Effort: Need a little extra motivation to research that insurance you should have bought months ago? "Just like diet and exercise, slogging through the details of dreaded, uninteresting purchase decisions is hard work and requires some investment of time and energy. Set up the amount of time as well as the actual time, such as 2:30-3:00 p.m. on Sunday, that you will solely use to focus on evaluating the purchase details. Note this in your calendar along with a "treat" for sticking to the details and honoring your time commitment. Knowing that you have a reward for a job "well done" (or at least, "done") will help motivate you through the nitty-gritty of this kind of shopping situation."

3. Enlist An Expert: Alpha Consumer recommends enlisting an expert before making a large purchase, paying for outside help if necessary. Most of the "expert advice" available for sale is already hiding on the internet. Don't open your wallet without first training to become an armchair expert.

3 Ways to Be a Smarter Shopper [Alpha Consumer]
(Photo: goodrob13)

• Girl Talk: Girls Talk's new album "Feed The Animals." Pay what you want to pay.
• MGM Grand: $69/night + $25 Restaurant Credit
• Amazon: "The Complete Led Zeppelin" MP3 Album download for $9.99. 165 tracks.

• Endless.com: Save up to 40% or More off Shoes & Handbags
• TiVo.com: New Savings: TiVo HD DVR now $180 Shipped
• Amazon: Canon SD850 IS 8MP Digital Camera $230 Shipped

• See if the holiday applies to local taxes, too. Check with your state tax commission to see what your town offers before you hit the local mall.
• Check for exemptions. Find out which items the tax holiday excludes before putting together a shopping list.Review your receipt to ensure that you don't get charged.
• Shop online when your state is having a sales-tax holiday. Any retailer that charges sales tax for purchases shipped to your state must waive it, as long as the order is processed within the holiday time period.

Some States Extend Sales-Tax Holidays This Summer [Smart Money]

— FREE MONEY FINANCE

(Photo: ImNotQuiteJack)

"A Primer for Young People Starting Their First Job" [New York Times]
(Photo: webg33k)

Checking

The Wamu Free Checking acct gets 3c per swipe for Debit Rewards. The total occurred from all your swipes gets credited to the account on the anniversary date of the account opening or being converted to a Wamu Free Checking.

If you have the old Free Checking account which doesn't have debit rewards, or any other kind of checking for that matter, it can be upgraded by the 1-800 number. Filipino bankers are unable to process that request but a US based banker or supervisor can, and it will be switched within 1 bus day.

ATM's

ATM deposits can be a lot more difficult that in-store deposits. ATM deposits are ALWAYS placed on hold, not 80% of the time. First $100 immediately available, then the rest above $100 goes on hold. BIG TIP! If you want it all available, make separate deposits of $100 (if its cash you’re depositing). If the deposit is made after 3PM PST, or 1PM CST, it will be on hold 2 business days, if before, 1 business day. If it is ever placed on hold longer, that will be because our risk operations department, who review the deposited item scans, cannot properly verify the item, and they will adjust it to 5-7 bus day hold. If you do the deposit in the branch all this trouble can easily be avoided.

We CAN usually see the item deposited. Just call the 1-800 number and ask, if the banker says they cannot, ask for a supervisor. We can. If it's a cash deposit, and it's still on hold, the supervisor can remove the hold immediately if we can pull it up in the system.

Our ATMs do have a fee for customers of 3rd party banks. It is $2 in most states and is increasing to $3 shortly.

Fees

The puppy commercial is horribly wrong. The 1 overdraft/NSF fee waiver is automatic and you don’t have to call/stop in the branch to get it waived. The commercial makes it seem like we will waive all overdraft fees, and we wouldn’t be a bank that way would we.

Overdraft charges depend on state because it depends on state laws and the average market going rate of an overdraft fee as far as other competing banks go. This depends on what state you OPENED the account. For example, California is $33, Texas is $27 for the first 5 fees occurred in the rolling year cycle, then $35 for all above the 5 mark.

You can only get courtesy fee waivers from the branch the account was opened at, or the 1-800 number by speaking to a supervisor ONLY. If it’s a bank error anyone should be able to waive it. At the 1-800 number courtesies are judged from an internal checklist. The account has to be opened for at least one year, have no returned deposit within the last 90 days, or have any kind of block on the account for account abuse/deposit fraud etc. The account cannot have had a fee waiver between the time you are calling and the last anniversary date of the account opening. As long as everything checks out we go by a typical grid to determine how many fees:

$0-$3000 - gets one fee waiver (such as OD/NSF/SERVICE)
$3000 - $5000 - gets two fee waivers
$5000 - $10000 - gets three fee waivers
$10000 or more - gets four fee waivers

Fees that cannot be waived unless bank error:
$100 legal fee (when levies etc hit account)
$10 Excess activity fee (for breaking the rules of Regulation D in a savings/money market acct)
$12 Return Deposit Item Fee - because that would mean an RDI within last 90 days.

There is a little-known secret about overdraft fees too. You will only get one if your CURRENT balance goes overdrawn. If you have a deposit hold for example, the account available balance will go overdrawn but your current balance won’t, so any debit card transactions that post will not charge the account unless they take the current balance over too. Now this doesn’t work for checks or electronic debits. If the funds aren't available with the overdraft protection, they WILL get rejected based on the available balance and charge an NSF fee.

The overdraft transfer service can bite you in the ass, because it goes by your AVAILABLE balance, unlike overdraft protection. If your available balance slips the system will kick in and transfer the amount you went overdrawn plus $12 fee from your savings. Because it goes by your available balance, ANYTHING that affects your available balance will ding the service if it goes below zero. If a merchant charges you incorrectly for example, and it pends against your account and takes the account overdrawn, it will activate overdraft transfer, but if the merchant doesn’t carry through with the authorization and debit the account, you’re out $12.

Check Holds

It doesn’t really matter what the check is, it will be placed on hold depending on:
A) The amount (Anything over $5,000 is typically held longer)
B) Recent overdrawn activity
C) Recent return deposit item activity
D) Whether it is in-state or out-of-state
Nice branch managers will call the other bank to verify the check, so that they can release it all for you. It is manager discretion at the branch to release any deposit hold.

Here's some extra tips:

-All US bankers go home by 10PM PST. Supervisors after this point are all in the Philippines, and don't have as much power as US supervisors. When you call during US banker hours ALL supervisors are American.

-We will fedex a replacement debit card free within 2 business days if you say that you are traveling within a week and say your card is lost/stolen.

-If a banker accesses your account, they leave a record of their employee ID and activity. If someone is pissing you off, make sure they at least give you your balance (so they live a mark), then speak to a manager to file a complaint. When we do this, we send an email to their manager.

-Even if a supervisor doesn't resolve your situation, you can go higher. Contact the executive response team. They can bend the rules further than the above fee guidelines also.

-Other banks ATM machines will cause a $2 balance inquiry fee if you use it to check your balance. Don't do it! Just pick up the phone and call instead, it's free.

PREVIOUSLY: 36 Confessions Of A WaMu Banker

1. Prioritize: Are flowers and a gown especially important? Spend your money there, and reign in other expenses.

2. Don't be afraid to haggle. Mention that you're willing to recommend your vendor's services to all your friends and cousins and sisters who, oh my god, like, just got engaged! What a coincidence!

3. June wedding? Real original! Be flexible with your date. April and October are perfectly nice, and far less expensive. For an even better deal, get married in February.

4. Ok, fine, the February wedding may not be the hottest idea, but instead of getting married on Friday or Saturday, consider Thursday or Sunday.

5. Long engagements save money. You've got your whole lives ahead of you. Make your grandmother wait an extra few months and take advantage of seasonal sales that can halve the cost of pricey dresses.

6. Invitations are pretty and all, but people throw them away. Consider printing them yourselves or letting people RSVP online.

7. Understand the business. Flowers and cakes are expensive because they're labor intensive. Simple but elegant cakes taste as good but cost far less. Similarly, exotic flowers are nice, but make the displays less time-intensive.

"All these things add up," [Alicia Rockmore, CEO of Buttoned Up Inc] said. "I think it's just remembering that at the end of the day, people are there to celebrate your wedding. They're not there to see what $500 flower arrangements you have on every table. Just remember that people, your guests, are never going to notice the details that you do … Don't get overwhelmed on every little, tiny thing that you need to spend money on. The most important thing is that they're going to be there to support you."

Bridezillas seriously scare us. Before you get carried away with wedding plans, sit down and read Rebecca Mead's One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding. It'll save your sanity, and the down payment on that house you're going to want in a few years.

Getting Organized Cuts Wedding Bills [WDSU]
(Photo: Getty)

• 1. Why pay anything? Many theaters offer free family film screenings on weekday mornings.
• 2. Keep an eye out for movie ticket coupons at grocery stores.

  Safeway's "Flicks for Free" promotion offers two free movie passes to shoppers who buy $40 worth of products from participating brands such as Coca-Cola and General Mills in one transaction.

  Perfect for that rowdy Soda & Cereal party you've been planning!

• 3. Seek out a drive-in. If you can find one, you'll be rewarded with $6 tickets.
• 4. Ditch the theater chains. Independents may take an extra few weeks to get the summer blockbusters, but the tickets can be 70% cheaper.
• 5. Sign up for reward programs. Unlike frequent flier miles, theaters aren't depreciating their rewards programs.

  AMC MovieWatcher Rewards offers coupons for a free small popcorn each week, plus two points per ticket purchased. After you've earned 30, you'll get a free ticket. The Regal Crown Club awards one point per $1 spent. Rack up 120 points and redeem them for a free ticket.

• 6. Buy in bulk with your friends. AMC sells blocks of 50 tickets at $6 apiece. The tickets don't expire, but they can't be redeemed until two weeks after a film debuts.
• 7. Don't go on Friday or Saturday night. Instantly halve the cost of tickets by checking out a matinee.
• 8. Skip online reservation sites. Save the $1.50 and spend a few minutes waiting on line.
• 9. Be careful with the concessions. Theaters make their profits on popcorn, so if you need to buy, buy big and share with your friends. Even better, buy your snacks at a convenience store for a fraction of the price.

• 9 Ways to Save on Movie Tickets [Smart Money]

  (Photo: Getty)

After several depressing months of steadily declining rates, the yields on a few online savings accounts rates rose a tad. With .45 percentage points, HSBC Direct had the biggest jump and at 3.5% reclaims the title as the highest yielding online savings account from a big-name bank with no minimum balance. However, this is only a promotional rate through August 15. Tricky like a rock rhythm. (I found the big red "DEPOSIT MORE NOW" button in the announcement email HSBC sent out especially amusing). You might instead want to look at the online savings account offered by Provident Bank at 3.5%. That's down from 3.75 but the cut was tracked to the decrease in the federal interest rates. So with the Feds saying we're done with cuts for the near future, it's probably decent bet the Provident Bank rate will hold. Here's a good number of the rates that have gone up, and those that have stayed the same or decreased since the last time we posted this info.

For the most up-to-date information on these rates, Bankrate.com's dynamically updated rate charts is where you want to go.

Increased Rates

HSBC Direct: 3.5% APY (no min) (+.45)
Umbrella Bank: 3.4% APY (min of $100) (+.15)
Etade: 3.15% (no min) (+.1)

—-
Unchanged or Decreased

OneUnited: 3.6% APY (min of $1000)
Provident Direct: 3.5% (no min) (-.25)
Washington Mutual: 3.30% APY
iGoBanking: 3.28% (no min)
FNBO Direct: 3.25% (no min)
M&T e-Money Market: 3.25% (no min)
GCFBank.com: 3.14% (only for 90 days) (-.2)
WT Direct: 3.16% (min of $10k) (-.15)
Savings Square: 3.05% (no min) (-.2)
E-Loan: 3.01% APY (no min)
ING Direct: 3.0% APY (no min)
Capital One: 3.0% (no min) (-.5)
GMAC: 3.0% (no min)
Emigrant Direct: 2.75% APY (no min)
Citibank e-Savings: 2.65% APY (no min) (-.5)

(Photo: Getty)

1. Be an Amazon member
2. Log in
3. Locate similar, companion or accessory items to the one you want to buy and click "I own this item." For instance, if you want a Sony PSP, claim ownership of a PSP 2GB Memory Stick
4. Wait a day
5. Go to Today's Deals
6. At bottom it says "(Your Name)'s Quick Picks"
7. The item you really want to buy might show up there with 5-15% discount

The Quick Picks are normally based on your previous purchases. But by using the "I own this item" on related items, you may be able to get a deal on a pricey item. It won't work on everything, we're guessing it works best on things where the accessory can only be used for just one item, the item you want.

Tricking Amazon into an extra 5% off [ProBargainHunter]

Other tips are a little more traditional, like have your kid write down everything he spends money on, or save his allowance for a special purchase, or—and this is probably the biggest stumbling block—lead by example:

Parents can help with the basics, but a lot of them also lack financial education, Levine said. She added that where parents can be very helpful is in giving their kids their first lesson about money.
 
There are concerns that parents aren't setting a good example for kids. The national savings rate has declined since 2001.
 
"Today's kids, just like their parents, are coming up in a spending culture," Levine said.
 
The most important thing for a parent is to make sure that their child's first savings experience is a successful one, she said. Too many people try to get their kids to save for things that are too far into the future or too big. For a young child, saving for next year is an eternity, she said. If the goal is intangible, the money will seem lost to the child.

5. Timing is everything. The largest expense incurred by a car rental company is depreciation. Basically, these companies are leasing all the cars in their fleet. They're charged different rates for different types of cars. "It is very important for car rental companies to have as many cars on the road as possible, as any cars that are sitting are not making money, and are actually costing the company money in depreciation fees." A customer who shows up after a busy holiday weekend can more or less name the price for a rental car. "They should be begging for you to take cars off their lot," he adds.

6 secrets car rental companies don't want you to know [Elliot]
(Photo: oliliqui)