Credit cards come with a lot of fine print. But the scene isn’t just complicated for cardholders; it’s complicated for the retailers that accept them, too. What needs signing, and what doesn’t? When can a store ask for ID? Are they allowed to charge different prices for cash and credit? [More]
Search results for: cheat sheet
More Mystical Secrets Of Retail Price Codes
By 6.6.14
Last fall, we posted a handy cheat sheet to price tag codes that can tell you whether an item is on its first or last markdown, or even whether it’s on clearance or just plain on sale. Want to learn some more codes? Of course you do! [More]
15 Things You Need To Know About Life Insurance
By 4.1.14
This is the third post in a multipart “How To Not Suck…” series on insurance. Previous installments looked at auto insurance and homeowner’s coverage. Future posts will look at long-term care, and disability insurance.
If you make it through your house burning down and that car accident, you might think you’ve got a the nine lives of a cat. But those nine lives will run out eventually, so you had better learn how to not suck… at picking a life insurance policy. [More]
Here Are Some Dubious Sales At Walmart, Petsmart, And Toys ‘R’ Us
By 2.25.14
How much of a discount should a store place on an item for it to really matter? One cent? One dollar? Does the branding of a “stock up” sale matter when the item on sale is something that you shouldn’t really keep stockpiled in the first place? These are the questions that we ponder here at Consumerist HQ when we read your submissions. [More]
Carry This Secret Price Code Cheat Sheet To Hunt Down Sales Everywhere
By 10.31.13
We’ve previously shared with you Costco’s price tag code, but they’re not the only store that encodes not-so-secret sale information in the last two digits of an item’s price. Other stores do it too, including Target, Home Depot, Gap/Old Navy, and Sears. Want to crack the code and know when things are on their very lowest markdown? Here are the secrets. Update: this post’s info is out of date. Some newer info is here. [More]
I Tried Online Car Shopping With TrueCar, Got Same Old Hardball Crap From Dealership
By 7.16.13
The new site TrueCar is a great concept: you can figure out a price for your car and trade-in online, without any of the frustrating negotiations, or even changing out of your pajamas. Reader Alex used the site to get a price for a new Jeep, and his eight hours of trouble began when he and the dealership valued his trade-in differently. [More]
Worst Company In America Final Death Match: Bank Of America Vs. EA, Part II
April 8, 2013
This is it. Make no mistake where you are. After weeks of gouged eyeballs, pulverized ribs, countless bruised egos, and one dislocated thumb, the battered bodies of 30 bad businesses are licking their wounds and vowing to fight another year, while your votes have set up an epic rematch of the 2012 Final Death Match. [More]
Feds Now Letting Big Banks Review Their Own Foreclosures For Errors
By 2.13.13
Pre-recession banks turned a blind eye to problems with the mortgages they handed out, bundled, sold and securitized. When that bubble burst, these same banks put the foreclosure process on auto-pilot, allowing anyone with a pulse to sign legal documents. So who better to review all those foreclosures for errors than the institutions that didn’t care in the first place? [More]
Bank Of America Provided Cheat Sheet To ‘Independent’ Foreclosure Reviewers
By 12.17.12
Imagine you’re sitting down for an exam and you find that your friend has already filled in the answers with what he believes are the correct answers. Sure, you can change whatever you want but it would also be so much easier to just let your friend’s answers go, so long as you’re generally in agreement. [More]
16 Tips On How To Be A Better Hotel Guest
By 11.29.11
While most of the travel horror stories we cover on Consumerist involve airlines, the hotels, bed and breakfasts, inns and flophouses of the world are no stranger to regular readers. But one reader writes in to explain that the best way to get good service from hotel staff is to just be a decent human being. [More]
What Wall Street Did To Earn The Ire Of Those Occupying It
By 10.27.11
If you need a catchup-slash-refresher on why those folks down at Occupy Wall Street are so mad at the street they’re occupying, ProPublica has put together a nice juicy primer. [More]
China's Hypergrowth Fueled By Building Giant Cities No One Lives In
By 7.15.11
Chin up, America. China ain’t so great. That 10% GDP growth they’ve been having? A lot of it is fake. Take this investigate report that looks at the big trend over there of Chinese ghost cities and ghost malls. China is building ten of these cities a year, cities that can serve millions, with rows of apartment complexes, shopping malls, and universities. But almost no one lives in them. By pouring materials and resources and labor in, the government can keep national GDP at its state-mandated levels, even if its not meeting any real demand. It’s like someone is playing SimCity with all cheat codes, but this is a game China is going to lose. [More]
White Castle Offers Test To See If She Really Loves You
By 1.19.11
If your love is true — I’m talking love as deep as what you’ll find in Before Sunset or the hearts of Buffalo Bills fans — it can survive absolutely anything, including the complete forgetting of Valentine’s Day or its utter degradation, which would encompass dinner reservations at White Castle. [More]
Handy Guide To Major Airlines' Voucher Policies
By 12.1.10
Airlines might give you a travel voucher when if you’re bumped from a flight or there was a fare reduction, but not all vouchers are created equal. The fine print can vary from airline to airline, with different expiration dates and fees. Airfarewatchdog has a got a cheat-sheet table for you breaking down all the vouchers so you can save your eyes from bleeding. [More]
Gift Card Error In Your Favor: When Do You Tell The Hotel?
By 8.3.10
A reader emailed us to ask what he should do about an accounting mistake he discovered with some gift cards. He suspects the different parts of the hotel don’t update the card balance in real time, but it could also be that the hotel’s employees aren’t processing the card correctly. Now he’s wondering whether he should have said something. [More]
Report Says The Poor Subsidize Credit Card Reward Programs
By 7.27.10
A new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston says that credit card reward programs have a sneaky hidden cost that the card holder doesn’t have to bear. This occurs because the fee that a retailer pays to run a credit card varies with every card, and reward cards cost more to process–in other words, the card issuer passes the cost of the rewards program on to the retailer. The retailer adapts by raising prices across the board, which distributes the cost of the reward program among all shoppers. [More]
What's In The Financial Reform Bill?
By 5.21.10
Now that the Senate has passed the financial reform bill, it’s off to non-smoke-filled rooms, where it will go into a Blendtec with the version passed by the House last year. CNNMoney.com sifted through all 1,600 pages of the bill and came up with a handy cheat sheet explaining what’s actually likely to change when this thing becomes a law. [More]
"Dirty Dozen" Cheat Sheet Reminds You Which Foods To Always Buy Organic
By 4.22.10
To help you remember the “Dirty Dozen” foods to always buy organic, Heidi Kenney has designed this fun free cheat sheet to keep in your moneypurse (organic farming doesn’t use synthetic pesticides). Flip it over and you’ve got the “Clean 15,” which had the lowest pesticide count.. One time I was eating lots of fruits and vegetables and I ate a not-organic pear and my lip swelled up like a monkey’s for a few days… maybe I should start using this list! [More]
