BeatMyPrice [Official Site]

Makemetheking

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Mint
Quicken Online
What's the best software for keeping track of your personal finances? [Slate] (Photo: Getty)

We'd love to see Netflix roll out a reminder service, but since that would directly impact their bottom line, we have a feeling it won't be showing up on the official site any time soon.

Here's what the typical data screen looks like, if you're curious:

Holy crap, I kept Michael Clayton for 58 days, and I only watched it once! Maybe I should just cancel Netflix and read more books.

FeedFlix.com

#atlgas [search.twitter] (Thanks to Elizabeth!)

Home Depot slashes prices, seeking to gain share [MarketPlace] (Thanks to Anne!) (Photo: Maulleigh)

It just launched an hour ago, though, so you might want to bookmark it and check it out after the initial spike of traffic has died down.

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]

A number of readers chimed in on the Best Buy-branded wishlist browser add-on post with the alternatives they prefer instead. They were: 1) Amazon's Universal Wishlist, 2) Del.icio.us, 3) Wishlist.com, 4) Wishlistr.com. Got any others? As far as what most Consumerist's thought of the Best Buy add-on, commenter dragonfire81 probably captured it best...

(Photo: heyu1021)

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.

I recently finished law school and accepted a fellowship with the Department of Homeland Security. As part of my compensation package, DHS graciously offered to repay some of my student loans under a federal recruiting program. I was thrilled and immediately set about filling out the required paperwork. The last item I needed to supply was an Electronic Funds Transfer Number and Tax ID for my lender, EdSouth/EdFinancial. That, as it turns out was easier said than done.

I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that I went round and round with EdSouth’s phone goons for more than three weeks, repeatedly explaining my situation and faxing documents which (they said) would make it possible for me to get the information I needed. After a final marathon phone call in which I spoke with three reps and two supervisors of ever-escalating grade, I finally got so frustrated that I threw my phone across the room.

At this point I was shaking with anger. I called three different lenders to try and just move the loans to another servicer that might be more receptive. As I was looking, I came across a webpage for the Federal Student Aid Ombudsman, a kind of Mr.-Fixit for disputes with lenders. I ran down their “Before You Call” list and found that I’d already taken all the steps necessary before contacting the Ombudsman’s office. I sent a brief e-mail explaining my situation and got a receipt a short time later.

Today, less than 24-hours later, I got a response from Thad Bartkowiak, an Ombudsman Specialist. He’d already investigated my situation, spoken with EdSouth, and obtained the federal payment number DHS will need to process my loan payments. The Ombudsman’s Office is a GREAT resource for anyone with student loans. Their website, www.ombudsman.ed.gov, has self-resolution tools as well as the complaint form that I used.

The Office Of The Ombudsman [Official Site]

While their databases are basically the same, I did spot a few differences, so if you try the combo on one site and it doesn't work, check the other's.

Bonus link for iPhone users: check out Dial Zero, a free app pre-programmed with the codes to directly dials human customer service reps at over 600 companies.

Dial-A-Human [Official Site via Wendy's Web Search Blog] (Thanks to Steven!)
Gethuman [Official Site]
DialZero [Download.com]

OpenCarPrice [Official Site]
RealCarTips [Official Site]

RepairPal [Official Site]

Fonolo [Official Site]

[Mint]

ken.d.lewis@bankofamerica.com, colleen.haggerty@bankofamerica.com, britney.w.sheehan@bankofamerica.com, nicole.nastacie@bankofamerica.com, joe.price@bankofamerica.com, keith.banks@bankofamerica.com, michael.jones@bankofamerica.com, liam.e.mcgee@bankofamerica.com, brian.t.moynihan@bankofamerica.com, amy.brinkley@bankofamerica.com, steele.alphin@bankofamerica.com, liam.e.mcgee@bankofamerica.com, bradford.r.dinsmore@bankofamerica.com, michelle.shepherd@bankofamerica.com, maryellen.baker@bankofamerica.com

We have received numerous requests lately for company-specific email lists. At present, we have very few, but that number can be increased if you send in the results of your successful EECBs. Don't be so lazy, here's all the info you need to build your own EECB.

(Photo: Payton Chung)

Using simple and attractive slider bars, you input your current credit card balance and credit risk. BillShrink then you shows what cards on the market will save you the most money. You can narrow the results by saying which bank you want a card with, what kinds of rewards programs you might be interested in, what goods or services you would most use the card for, and what extra card benefits you're interested in receiving. There's even an option to say about how many times a year you might miss a payment.

Ok, that sounds pretty obvious for a site like this, but here's the real game-changer: the terms and conditions for each card are broken out one by one. In one section, BillShrink translates the entire credit card contract from lawyers-speak into two paragraphs, in plain English.

Most cards have introductory offers, like 0% balance transfers or a higher level of rewards. So a series of bar graphs by each card shows you how much money you save changes over the next three years.If you decide that you want to switch your credit card to one of the ones show, you just click a button next to the card. The site will make money by sending credit card companies these referrals, and remain free for consumers to use.

After you create your credit card profile, BillShrink sends you an email if any of the terms and conditions of your card change (they will). If your card becomes no longer the best value for you, BillShrink suggests what card out on the market is better. The site will also tell you when you're coming towards the end of any of your introductory offer periods, so you know if you'll want to change your usage patterns or switch to another card.

I asked Pham whether when they launched the wireless comparison component, if there was any negative pushback from the providers. I could envision the carriers getting upset about not being able to capitalize on customer confusion as much.

The two wireless companies BillShrink spoke with, Pham said, were excited about the service. Sprint was one of the companies. See, the service essentially filters, educates, and primes the customer for service. For the cellphone or credit card company, it reduces the costs of servicing customers who sign up because a bauble or freebie was dangled in front of them, but don't arrive informed about the particulars of the plan. Those customers end up frustrated and increase churn. But deliver a highly informed and ready customer, and you've got a win-win-win situation.

When we first wrote about BillShrink, readers said they found the service's coverage maps to be inaccurate. Those coverage maps are drawn from the maps on the carrier's websites, extracted down to the pixel, and then overlaid onto GoogleMaps. The inaccuracies are because the cellphone companies purposely don't provide accurate and granular coverage data. The company is looking into buying 3rd party data to beef up their maps, but I wondered whether there was chance of a similar slippage between BillShrink and reality with credit cards. This doesn't seem very likely, as carriers can fudge a coverage map, but credit card companies can't fudge credit card offer's terms without opening themselves up to serious legal repercussions.

BillShrink's credit card comparison service is scheduled to launch at the end of July will 100 cards in its database. Their goal is to get that up to 200, and then 400 within a year's time.

Pham sees it as a "thumb in the eye" to the credit card industry. “The information is out there, consumers are going to get to it eventually," he said.

Next industry on the hitlist? Auto insurance, with cable perhaps not too far behind.

(Photo: Getty)

Those extra airline fees, compared airline by airline [Airfarewatchdog]
Checked bag fees, airline by airline [Airfarewatchdog]

Are you trying to escalate a complaint within a company and want to see if we've posted any inside email addresses or phone numbers? Try replacing "companynamegoeshere" in the following URLs with the company you're looking for. If the company name has multiple words, remember to separate them with hyphens, i.e. washington-mutual

consumerist.com/tag/email-addresses/companynamegoeshere
consumerist.com/tag/executive-customer-service/companynamegoeshere
consumerist.com/tag/phone-numbers/companynamegoeshere

If you can't find what you want, we may not have any contact info for the company, but that's ok! Here's a few way to find a company executive's phone number, and how to figure out someone's email address.

Officially the calculator is part of a for-profit that lets you purchase carbon offset credits, but we remain skeptical of the idea that you can buy your way free from carbon emissions. What it could be useful for, though, is comparing different airlines to see which one comes in with the lowest score, and then factoring that into your next travel booking.

"New emissions calculator reveals true cost of your flight" [Elliott.org]

MissingMoney.com is a free search that's updated monthly and is endorsed by the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.

Make sure you use this site (or your state government's version, if you like,) and avoid the scammy sites out there that will try to get you to pay for this freely available information.

The Associated Press says that state prosecutors in Pennsylvania are cracking down on one such website that charges $24.95 to help people find unclaimed property.

When investigators plugged in the names of cartoon characters such as Batman, Spiderman and Wile E. Coyote at http://www.unclaimedmoney.us.com, it told them they had multiple caches of unclaimed money, the state attorney general's office said.

The catch was that free search provided only vague information, and the Web site charged $24.95 for a membership that would produce details, the office said.

The service is similar to other offered by outfits like Lending Tree, but the quotes are written without having to disclose your contact information to a bunch of lenders. Zillow explains:

"Your name, address, phone number or Social Security number is not required. However, you need to be accurate in providing other background information — such as the type of mortgage loan you want, your income level and an assessment of your credit rating — through Zillow's secure system"

Zillow says the quotes you'll get aren't computer generated, and you can choose to contact only the lenders who appeal to you.

You will not receive "insta-quotes" done by a computer; these are hand-written mortgage quotes personalized to fit your loan request by confirmed mortgage lenders. Each lender that participates in the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace is required to divulge all quotes, rates, and fees in the mortgage quote that is returned to you. You compare the information provided — including rates, and lender ratings — and then you choose the mortgage lenders to contact.

Zillow Mortgage Marketplace

"The Z Report on BPA In Children's Feeding Products, Third Edition" [Z Recommends]

For a few years I worked as an "Information Specialist" at the FDIC's call center (877-275-3342). Despite being the lone point of contact between the agency and the public (not to mention being one of the few federal agencies that employs a live call center staff), the minimal call volume only requires a small crew. But it's a tremendously helpful place to get basic referral information if you're having trouble with your bank, lender, or finance company.

Now, the call center's main function is to explain deposit insurance and transfer certain calls to regional offices. They don't know the ins-and-outs of bank regulations or what your bank is or is not allowed to do. However, they have a ton of phone numbers & addresses that they can give you, specifically for the agencies that regulate banks & credit unions (Federal Reserve Board, Office of Thrift Supervision, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the National Credit Union Association).

They can also give you contact info for the different credit bureaus if you're trying to clean up a case of identity theft or are working to patch up your credit. If your issue is with a lender or a finance company that is not part of a bank, they can give you contact info for the state agency that might handle such complaints.

FYI, be prepared to articulate your issue in writing. Bank regulators, credit bureaus, and State AG offices won't even begin to think about addressing an issue unless they have a request in writing, be it via online inquiry (if available) or snail mail. While the FDIC call center won't accept complaints and can't really tell you how to go about resolving an issue, they can point you in the right direction and get you started.

Also, while a little dense, the FDIC's website (fdic.gov) has a wealth of searchable info and a pretty cool database where you can trace the succession of failed/merged banks, if you're trying to track down an old, forgotten savings account.

Hope this helps. Love the site. Keep fightin' the good fight!

Yours,
Anon.

First, figure out what is going to come after the @ symbol. Often this is the same as their main company website. But just to be sure, I like to go to the investor relations section of the website and look for a sample email address.
With that in hand, type *@companywebsite.com into your Google searchbox. The * is a "wildcard" that tells Google to return all results with anything before @companywebsite.com. Google should present you with several pages showing all sorts of company email addresses. From those, you should be able to figure out the email address format, or formats.

Now you can combine the format with the company executive roster, which you can find by looking under "Management" in Google Finance or by looking under the "About Us" or "Company Profile" or some other similar section on the company website, and start launching those EECBs! If there's multiple formats, you'll want to make a version of each person's name using each format. Many of the emails may bounce, but some can get through, bringing you closer to customer satisfaction.

(Photo: Getty)

(Thanks to Bob!)

In a related article, CSO talks to a data breach disclosure law expert about what's going on at the federal level, where there are at least eight different proposed laws bouncing around D.C.

Forsheit: I really can't tell you why it's taking so long. There was a sense with the new Congress that there was a greater likelihood something would pass. It's just not clear why it hasn't. Clearly people are concerned with ID theft. It's mostly a bipartisan issue, so you see a lot of consensus. There are some disputed aspects, like whether notification should be mandated—as it is in many states—with any unauthorized acquisition [of data], as opposed to there being a higher threshold trigger. But those can be worked out.

SO: What about the 11 states that don't yet have laws? Are they waiting for a federal bill?

Forsheit: In some of those states, there have been proposals that just haven't made their way through. If we don't see federal legislation soon, those remaining states will likely enact some law

RELATED
"CSO Disclosure Series | What's Next with Disclosure Legislation?" [CSOonline]

The website has a lot of other useful resources as well, like how to detect and avoid phishing scams, what to do if you suspect your identity has been stolen, and a printable ID theft affidavit (PDF) to send to creditors.

"Deter, Detect, Defend" Brochure (PDF) [FTC]
Text-only version of brochure [FTC]

RELATED
www.ftc.gov/idtheft