When it comes to protecting your privacy online, nothing is more important than a good browser data clearing tool. Deleting your cookies through a web browser’s interface hasn’t been good enough for a long time.

Fortunately, utilities like CCleaner and Glary Utilities as well as Firefox add-ons and Chrome extensions fill the need to completely clear your private data from browser cache, flash cookies, and so on.

What we need now is a way to manually and selectively protect certain cookies from cleaning.

A lot of banks and financial institutions are requiring users to take an extra step when accessing their account information from a new computer that has never accessed the site before. For example, Chase Bank, which handles the Amazon Rewards Visa Card, requires users to get an authentication code via text message or email to one of the numbers or addresses on record with the account in order to log in from a new computer.

Bank Login Register Computer First

Online banking customers at ING have to answer one or more of their extra security questions in order to access their high-interest online savings account or online checking account.

This extra layer of security helps prevent hackers from gaining access to your account even if they have your username and password. That makes this extra security precaution a welcome addition for most users.

However, neither banking customers nor credit card companies are interested in making it harder to manage your finances online. After successfully completing the extra security checks, users can "register" the computer that they are using so that they do not have to go through the additional security levels the next time they access the website. This registration occurs by the website placing a cookie on the computer that is used to validate the machine during future login attempts.

Unfortunately, these cookies, like all others, are wiped clean by the best privacy tools resulting in the user having to go through the whole process again.

There are ways around the issue. Everything from creating a separate profile or using a different browser to access financial data can work, but they represent an unnecessary extra step when all you want to do is check your checking balance to ensure that you don’t end up with any high overdraft protection fees from your debit card.

A better solution would be for developers to incorporate a vault or protect option in their products whereby a user could manually protect specific cookies through the program interface. To protect abuse, cookies should not be allowed to be added programmatically, or via API, or clicking on a web-based button or JavaScript.

The first solid privacy utility available with a cookie protection feature will be my new top choice for protecting private data online.

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Online Banking Security Internet Privacy originally published at Personal Finance Blog - FinanceGourmet.com

Credit cards that offer rewards, points and miles for every dollar you spend shopping are a great way to maximize your rate of return on your every day spending expenditures. However, in order to make credit card rewards pay off it is very important to get the right rewards credit card.

Finding out which reward credit card program is best takes a little bit of research. One of the most important factors in choosing the right rewards card is picking one that you will actually use both for spending and for redeeming points and miles for rewards. There is no sense in getting a Capital One Rewards credit card for free travel if you never really fly anywhere.

A top credit card rewards offer for people who don’t travel a lot is the Amazon.com Rewards Card which offers cardholders points for every dollar spent on a wide variety of purchases. Instead of redeeming points for free plane tickets, Amazon credit card users get free gift certificates to Amazon.com

Amazon.com Rewards Visa Card from Chase

The Amazon credit card rewards program comes with a lot of advantages for card holders with good credit scores. New customers looking for a credit card for people with bad credit or credit cards for people with recent bankruptcy might have to look elsewhere though.

New Amazon rewards card holders get $30 cash back with their first purchase on the Amazon Visa card.

Amazon rewards members earn points for every dollar spent on the card.

The big earnings come from shopping at Amazon.com which is not surprising. Cardholders earn 3 points for every dollar spent on amazon.com. In addition, credit card holders earn double points, or 2 points for every dollar spent at gas stations, restaurants and drug stores. All other places like grocery stores, bookstores, and clothing stores earn 1 point for every dollar spent.

Is Amazon Reward Card Worth It?

The best credit card reviews include not just the credit cards interest rate and whether or not the card has an annual fee, but also the value of the rewards offers and what is included in the credit card rewards catalog.

The Amazon.com Visa card is a great credit card to review because it is so easy to examine the card’s overall value.

The top value of Amazon Rewards Visa comes when you use the card a lot on Amazon.com.

The main item in the Amazon rewards catalog is a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate for 2,500 points. Other rewards in the rewards point chart are $50 cash back for 5,000 points. That makes the Amazon Visa a top value in credit cards issued by U.S. Banks.

If you spent all of our money on the Amazon credit card, earning 2,500 points would take spending just $833.33. That makes a best cash back value reward of $25 cash back for every $833 of purchases. The cash back percentage on the Amazon.com Visa card at this level equals 3% cash back on purchases made at Amazon.com. That is one of the highest cash back offers of any credit card. It is higher than cash back from Fidelity credit card and higher than the cash back rewards in the Citibank rewards catalog.

Of course, the cash back value declines with each dollar spent somewhere other than Amazon, but for heavy shoppers at Amazon this card is a great value.

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Amazon Rewards Visa Credit Cards originally published at Personal Finance Blog - FinanceGourmet.com

Black Friday has come and gone. Cyber Monday is history. Yet, online shopping continues in full force. Various reports suggest that online shopping has increased dramatically this year, likely due to the increasing usage of broadband connections in the home, and the draw of huge savings secretly located on the Internet if you can just find the right combination of coupon codes, discount websites, and wholesalers online. However, as always, when it comes to personal finance what you don’t know can hurt you. Make sure you understand all of the details regarding online shopping for bargains. Otherwise, you may get burned.

Amazon Makes Online Shopping OK

Not long ago, online shopping was the exclusive providence of very specific people, typically techies, and ultra-bargain shoppers who linked together in electronic discount finding groups reminiscent of the old coupon clubs. A few appearances on Oprah by folks like "Coupon Mom" helped drive online shopping and deal finding to the forefront of the American consciousness. But, what finally pushed online shopping over the edge from the wary, angst filled, activity it used to be to a common shopping method used by teenagers, little old ladies, and the technological inept alike was the legitimizing factor of Amazon.com.

When Amazon burst onto the scene a decade ago, it was a revolutionary idea. Selling books online meant that not only could Amazon offer deep discounts on books, but it could also stock many more titles than local booksellers could on their shelves. Even the big national chains like Barnes & Noble and Borders couldn’t compete with how many books Amazon sold. The offer to order a book for you began to pale by comparison. Instead of waiting for the bookstore’s regular shipment of books to include the book title you were looking for, you could order the same book from Amazon and have it delivered directly to your house right away.

For a while, books, were one of the things that was OK to purchase online. There were many things that made them safe. First, any book Amazon.com sells is exactly the same as the books on the shelves at Barnes and Noble. In other words, there is no concern about quality or some sort of bait and switch scam. Secondly, shipping costs were relatively low. The savings offered on the price of the book was larger than the cost of sending it in the mail, which meant a good deal, was still a good deal even with shipping. This was no small factor as online pet supply websites found out when it turned out no one was interested in buy 50 lb. bags of dog food online due to the ridiculous shipping costs. Finally, Amazon had good customer service. Products could be returned, and exchanged, and over time, the company became a household name, erasing the fear of giving out your credit card number online.

Once Amazon started selling products beyond books, the barriers were officially broken, and online shopping was a common thing among all groups of people.

Not All Shopping Websites Are Like Amazon

Unfortunately, this familiarization with online shopping via a retailer like Amazon has made many Americans let their guard down when it comes to buying online. It is important to remember that not all merchants are Amazon.com. In fact, precious few are. That means that you need to find out all the facts about who you are buying from FIRST before placing an order, no matter how great of deal it is.

Top Things To Know About Online Shopping Websites

1. Return Policy – Not just that they accept returns, but the details as well. Who pays for shipping? How long is the return period? If it is also a brick and mortar store, can you return items to the store? Is there a restocking fee? Most importantly, under what conditions can something be returned? Many sites allow returns, but only for defective items. That means if you don’t like it, or it isn’t what you thought it would be, then that is just too bad.
2. Shipping and Handling Charges – Even on Amazon.com you have to be careful of this one. Amazon lets anyone sell on their website. Unfortunately, it sorts prices based on the cost without shipping. That means that the vendor who sells for $9.99 plus $8.95 shipping is listed as cheaper than the vendor who sells for $12.99 plus $2.99 shipping.
3. Is It Really Amazon – Speaking of Amazon. The website doesn’t always make it easy to tell if you are buying a product from Amazon, or from some third-party using Amazon as a store front. It matters because they have very different return policies and shipping time frames.
4. Who Is It?  – Amazon isn’t the only website that makes it harder to see who you are actually doing business with. Don’t check out the main website to see if they are legitimate, check out the actual seller. There is a big difference between how legitimate eBay.com is and how legitimate one of its storefront sellers is.
5. Privacy Policy – Will your name and address be sold on lists as a sucker who buys stuff online from unknown websites? You can never know for sure, but make sure you check the privacy policy to ensure that the vendor at least cares enough about their customers to make it look like they care.

Lastly, never forget that identity theft and credit card numbers are tasty targets for scammers. Protect them as much as you can by not signing up or registering for websites with your real name and address until you are actually ready to make a purchase. Whenever possible, use a temporary credit card number for all online transactions to avoid nasty surprises later.

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Online Bargains Aren't Always Great Deals Check The Details First originally published at Personal Finance Blog - FinanceGourmet.com