Billshrink.com is going to bring a never-before-seen level of transparency to consumers looking for the best credit card offer. Think of it as a turbocharged dashboard for navigating the credit card market. The site launched earlier this year as wireless plan comparison service, but with personal debt at record highs and personal savings rates at record lows, the credit card vector is potentially even more important and useful tool. I sat down with CEO Peter Pham yesterday as he showed me the actual website in action.
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Five Sites That Will Help You Recession-Proof Your Life
By 6.16.08
Although we are not technically in a recession, it’s starting to feel like one. As gas prices and unemployment continue to rise, we’ve rounded up a collection of useful advice for the current period of economic austerity.
Stop Spending By Freezing Your Credit Card In Ice
By 6.16.08
If you have trouble controlling the amount and frequency of your credit card purchases, try putting your credit card in a glass of water and putting it in the freezer. This makes it so every time you want to use your credit card, you’ll have to wait for the credit card to melt. By the time the ice has thawed, your desire to impulsively purchase may have evaporated as well. I read about this in Predictably Irrational; Dan Ariely called it, “The Ice Glass Method.” Apparently, it doesn’t ruin the credit card, although it will if you try to microwave-defrost it. This method is probably only good for people who do their shopping sprees in-person. Online shopaholics would just look through the ice.
Four Ways To Make The Most Of Unemployment
By 6.13.08
With unemployment rising to 5.5%, more Americans are finding themselves with more time to catch up on their daytime TV or put in some serious time on World of Warcraft. Others see unemployment as an opportunity to begin a new career, take a mini retirement, invest in yourself, or find other sources of income. Their perspectives, inside.
5 Thrifty Lessons From Post-Apocalyptic Novel "The Road"
By 6.11.08
I’m in the middle of reading The Road, and couldn’t help draw 5 lessons about frugality from Cormac McCarthy’s tale of a father and son scrapping out their survival in the middle of post-Apocalyptic America.
Professional Complaint Letter Writer Shares His Secrets
By 6.3.08
“Praise with faint damn” is the underlying secret to how professional complaint letter writer Bruce Silverman is able to be so successful in getting companies to give him free stuff. First class upgrades, Room upgrades with views of frolicking whales, Checks for hundreds of dollars… all these and more are the fruits of Bruce’s calculated typewriter clacking. Now Bruce has come out with a small book with a big promise: to teach you How To Complaint For Fun And Profit. Here’s a chapter from it, exclusively on The Consumerist, detailing how he was able to turn a disappointing experience at the Ritz-Carlton in Hawaii into a long-term stream of room upgrades, comped meals, and decidedly above and beyond customer service… [More]
7 Tips On Using Credit Card Rewards Programs And Avoiding Rip Offs
By 6.3.08
Whether it’s because of frequent flier miles that are impossible to redeem, overly complicated terms and conditions or reward credit cards with high APR’s, credit card reward programs are usually a rip off, according to CNN Money. Consumer Reports says that about 85% of American households participate in at least one rewards program which encourage consumers to spend more money but often turn out to be more trouble than they’re worth. To help you wade through the confusion, Consumer Reports has assembled 7 tips to help you make postive use of credit card reward programs. The list, inside…
How To Fight Phone Bill Cramming
By 5.29.08
ArsTechnica writer Nate Anderson was a recent “cramming” victim, and he wrote about his experience tracking down who was behind it. Cramming is a scam where third-party groups tell your phone company to bill you for “services,” services you never signed up for, and the phone company happily obliges, taking a cut of the fee. The phone company does no verification and all the scammer needs is your phone number. In Nate’s case, he was signed up for three different voicemail services and email-forwarding service, three at $14.95 per month, and one at $12.95, doubling his telephone bill. Snooping around, he found the companies behind it were ILD and ESBI, and scores of cramming complaints about these “companies” littered the internet. Luckily he was able to get refunds without difficulty (crammers often make it easy to cancel so you don’t go complaining to any law enforcement bodies) only providing just as much information as these con-artists used to flimflam him in the first place: his phone number. So how can you fight a crammer? [More]
Consumerist's Ultimate Fast Food Nutrition Guide: 2008
By 5.28.08
Back in January of 2007, we took a look at fast food and chain restaurant websites to see who was hiding their nutritional information and who was making it easy for consumers to find out what was in their favorite menu items. We found that some chains were offering a veritable buffet of information, while others either ignored the subject altogether or hid links to PDFs in the depths of their fine print. Because of this, inside, we’ve got a nutritional info report card of about 50 top fast food joints. We tell you whether they have the info online at all, provide nutritional info for all items, if it’s easy to locate, and whether they have allergen info. We also give an overall rating to the overall quality of the nutritional info, and provide direct links to the nutrition page or PDF.
How I Got Commerce To Refund $45 In Cycle Service Charge Fees
By 5.21.08
Yesterday I walked away from Commerce Bank victorious: my entire balance in my wallet, my fees reversed, and my account closed. I had an account there that I just sort of kept as a “money in a book” account. You know, you hide money in a book on your shelf so you forget about it and one day when you really need some extra scratch you realize, hey wait, I’ve got that money in a book. Except this way I wouldn’t run the risk of forgetting which book it was. In retrospect I realize that was kind of a half-stupid, half-smart idea. That’s how I roll. Another way I roll is a little policy called, “You don’t get to steal my money.”
Bring A Magnet When You Go Grill Shopping And Other Tips From Consumer Reports
By 5.20.08
Consumer Reports has some tips for those of you who are grill shopping this week. Our favorite? Bring a magnet! CR says some grills are made of crappy stainless steel that magnets will stick to.
How Robots Are Killing Customer Service
By 5.20.08
Here is the live audio and powerpoint from a recent presentation I gave called, “The 5 Things Your Customers Aren’t Telling You.” This is number 3, “Stop Hiding Behind Walls Of Robots.” It’s all about how companies think they’re saving money by replacing humans with machines but sometimes machines can’t do jobs as well as humans, especially when it comes to customer service. I brought the point to life with a funny little story about eBay and their wonderfully inept automated email response system. I hope you enjoy the video, including the intro and outro ditties I worked up on my girlfriend’s old Yamaha synth. [More]
5 Common Airline Ticket Errors And How To Avoid Them
By 5.20.08
Despite security headaches and rising fuel costs, air travel is still a popular way to get to your destination. But because of heightened security, a simple error on your ticket can result in extra fees or even leave you grounded. To help you avoid some common ticket-buying pitfalls, CNN Travel has complied 5 common ticketing errors and how tells us how to avoid them. Check them out, inside…
Meet Crissy, The High Priestess Of Coupon Clippers
By 5.16.08
Crissy Thompson (pictured left) is among the coupon clipping elite. 11Alive News followed her around one day to learn some of her secrets. At a local Publix, Crissy managed to get two-thirds off her grocery bill and at CVS picked up $140 worth of goods for $5. Often, she spends only $10 a week on groceries and that’s with 3 kids and a husband. Check out some of her techniques and her favorite coupon web sites, inside…
Where's My Stimulus Payment?
By 5.7.08
The IRS has a tool that lets you find out when your Stimulus Payment will arrive. Just punch in your social, filing status, and number of exemptions on your 2007 taxes. Its usefulness is limited, though, as it can’t tell you when your payment arrive until about a week before they send out the check.
Review Of Mint.com's New Investment-Tracking Features
By 5.5.08
I got to check out personal finance management site Mint.com’s new investment-tracking component before the private beta launches tomorrow. You can now add Brokerage, IRA, 401k and 529 assets. The two biggest things it offers are line graphs, and a way to see all the fees, dividends, deposits and withdrawals in one, clear, organized window. Unlike with the credit card tracking, they don’t seem to be making any suggestions about how you might save money by switching to a different investment firm. You also can’t yet push assets between accounts through Mint. As before, you will have to give up your username and password to your various financial services to let Mint scrape the data. The new brokerage features are hardly mind-blowing, but by having investment-tracking now Mint can basically be your entire financial dashboard, you just can’t touch all the levers yet. Sexy screenshots, inside…
Credit Card Class Action: Get More Money Back Using Your Digital Camera
By 5.1.08
If you traveled abroad anytime between February 1, 1996 and November 8, 2006, your credit card company probably owes you money, but how much? Under a class action suing credit card companies for double-dipping on foreign transaction fees, the best bet for getting your the money, if you don’t have detailed records of all your foreign transactions, is making an estimate based on how many days you were out of the country. One good way for shutterbugs to figure this out, says Delicious Baby, is to look through your vacation/travel photos on your computer. Most likely, they have digital timestamps you can use to figure out how long you were away. Now figuring out your refund is as easy and fun as going through your old photos. The due date for filing claims at ccfsettlement.com is May 30th.
You Shouldn't Go Without The Online Bathroom Finder
By 4.29.08
Thanks to the good folks at Imodium, you can plan your potty stops with this online bathroom finder. Their site says, “To put your mind at ease, it’s good to know where the bathrooms are — even if your diarrhea is under control. So plan ahead. Enter the ZIP code or city and state where you’ll be, and find out where the bathrooms are.” Once you enter the information the site produces a local map with small, aptly-colored light brown squares to show you each bathroom’s location. Combine this with an iPhone or similar mobile device and you will be the Rand McNally of restrooms. Thanks, Imodium!
