Update: There is now an opt-in service for Credit Karma credit monitoring as a free additional service.

There are multiple reasons for this line of thinking, but the main one is that credit scores are not free.

Credit scores are not free for you, they are not free for banks, they are not free for car dealers, they are not free for anyone. Credit scores are the “why didn’t I think of that” invention of the century where personal lending is concerned.

A company called Fair Isaacs takes information from the credit reports at any of the three major credit bureaus and then uses a proprietary algorithm to reduce dozens of pages or more into one single number called a credit score. It does not do this for free. Every time someone pulls your credit score, they pay. They may pay a lot or they may pay a little depending upon their agreement with Fair Issac, but they do pay. You can’t give something that costs you money for free unless you have another way to make more money than you are paying out.

Credit Karma Review of Free Credit Score

Since most free credit score scams are actually free trial offers that lead to an automatic recurring charge on your credit card, I figured that Credit Karma would want a credit card number before giving me my credit score. I know how to beat automatic charges on my credit cards, so I thought I would go through the process anyway and find out for sure whether or not Credit Karma was a scam.

The surprising thing was that Credit Karma never asked me to enter a credit card number!

As you may recall, I had generated a limited use credit card number to enter, but I didn’t need it. Credit Karma asked for a lot of personal information, but never asked me to enter a credit card number nor any bank account information. In other words, Credit Karma has no way to charge me for my credit score. It’s tough to scam someone when you don’t get any money from them.

That begs the question, is the credit score from Credit-Karma a real credit score? Another credit score offering out there are calculators that “estimate” your credit score for you. The catch is that they estimate your credit score based upon the information that you provide. Chances are that there is no way you are going to enter all of the information that exists in your credit report, so it is not a very accurate estimate, no matter how good the credit score calculator program itself is.

That didn’t happen with CreditKarma.com either. Instead of asking me for my financial account information, they asked me for the same type of personal information anyone would need to pull a credit report and get a credit score on me. This does include your social security number and there is no way around that, so at a certain level, you have to trust that the Credit Karma website is legit. So far, I haven’t heard of any rumblings that this is all a very elaborate identity theft scam, although that is no guarantee of anything.

Credit Karma Complaints

The number one Credit Karma complaint is that the credit score is not a real FICO score. However, it is based upon your actual credit report data.

As it turns out, I was buying my car off of its expiring lease when I discovered Credit Karma, so I was able to compare the score CreditKarma.com said I had with the one my auto broker pulled in order to do my car loan paper work. The scores were close enough to be considered identical. (Scores actually very depending upon which credit bureau is used and even from day to day depending upon new information being reporting and aging of old information, but in this case they were within 4 points of each other.)

Now what would make Credit Karma the must have personal finance service for financially savvy people is that it does not just offer you your credit score for free once, but says that you can come back and update it as often as you like. I don’t know if there is a limit on how many times you can update, but I updated my free credit score from Credit Karma every month since May with no complaints.

In other words, I have gotten six free credit scores from CreditKarma.com without paying a cent, without buying anything, and without clicking on any advertisements. There are advertisements on the page, but unless they are the kind that pay just for showing up, CreditKarma has earned nothing from me other than thanks and this review.

I recently setup an account for my wife (spouses can have very different credit scores even if “everything” is held jointly) and have started getting her free credit score as well.

I can’t say that I expect Credit Karma to be in business long. I doubt that it can earn enough money on what it is doing to make a profit. It might even get shut down by Fair Issac somehow since they don’t want people thinking of its flagship product as “free”.  If Credit Karma does succeed, then it won’t be long before copycats are all over the Internet. But, no matter how it turns out down the road, for now, Credit Karma is a great deal for people managing their money.

Related posts:

1. Credit Karma Review Free Credit Monitoring
2. Credit Karma Scam or Legit Free Credit Scores?

Credit Karma Review originally published at Finance Gourmet

Unlike earlier versions of Microsoft Money, the newest version of MS Money does not have any online functionality. These kind of automatic Internet links to bank accounts and brokerage accounts require frequent updating and the company doesn’t want to get stuck doing that forever. Instead, Microsoft has released the last version of Microsoft Money called the Sunset edition. This version of Money contains all the functionality of the full-price retail version of the MS Money except for that online connectivity.

The sunset edition is stand-alone software, meaning that it no longer links to anything. For some users this might be a drawback, but for small business owners and entrepreneurs looking for a way to manage their finances and handle basic business accounting, this is great news.

Microsoft has released sunset versions of all MS Money editions including Microsoft Money Home and Business. That means that small business owners can download and install Microsoft’s full small business edition of Money and use it forever for free. Keeping track of business expenses, invoices, and even small business tax deductions is all a snap with MS Money Home and Business.

The only reason I haven’t used something like it for a long time in order to handle my freelance writing business‘s finances is because I did not want to pay for full version software, mostly because both Money and Quicken require you to keep paying for the software in order to keep getting the required updates. It would be one thing if not updating the software left you with only your current functionality (after all, there is no such thing as a free lunch), but these financial management software packages come with time bombs that eventually render them useless even if you don’t use the new functionality or features.

Of course, the excuse for this Quicken and QuickBooks scam is that it is for our own good because they don’t want us relying on out of date information. They have a point, but if you are savvy about money management, you don’t really rely on the generic advice provided by your computer software anyway, so it stinks for us.

That is what makes this once in a lifetime opportunity to get financial software free from a major vendor such a great deal. While Microsoft Money will never be updated again, it will also never be expired either. That means that once you get all of your MS Money accounts setup and working the way you want to, you can keep using them as long as you would like.

Even if you don’t have a small business, if you are even considering ever starting up a business you should download the MS Money Home and Business Sunset Edition. It has all the same functionality and features as Microsoft Money Sunset Edition Home edition plus the features needed for small business owners. If you don’t have a small business yet, just don’t create a business account with Microsoft Money and it will work just like the regular personal version. Just keeping track of equipment and taking the Section 179 Deduction for business will make it worth your effort.

It’s free, so get the best edition you can. You might need it some day, because this simple small business accounting software could last you a long time.

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Free Small Business Accounting Software Microsoft Money Home and Business originally published at Finance Gourmet

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.

Related posts:

1. Free TurboTax Software Online – Deals on Tax Programs
2. Top Deals Websites to Save Money Shopping

Online Bargains Aren't Always Great Deals Check The Details First originally published at Finance Gourmet

A real hot deals website will have deals from all over, not just certain stores and shopping sites. Coupon codes and free shipping codes will be included for free on deal postings without having to register or being directed to another site.

Also, most of the best deals websites have a forum where users can post comments and discuss the deals. The forums are a great way to see just how good a deal is, whether you find it on that site or somewhere else. Deal site users are savage and they will quickly point out the flaws in any deal that looks good, but has a catch.

As an added bonus, some of the most honest, hard hitting reviews on the Internet can be found in these forums. Don’t look for reviews, just look for commentary on the deals. If there is a great price on a TV, you can be sure that there are plenty of users weighing in on whether or not it is worth the money, even at the discounted price.

Here are some great deals websites that I’ve been using over the last few years that always seem to come through with the best hot deals out there.

Top 4 Hot Deals Websites

1. Slickdeals.net – Only the best deals make the front page, but there are hundreds posted each day in the forums. Users can vote thumbs up or down to help rank deals.
2. Gottadeal.com
3. DealNews.com
4. Woot.com – Woot only offers one deal a day, so it can be hit or miss whether there is anything you want. But, for the 2 seconds it takes to check every day, you will find some of the best deals online. They do offer a lot of refurbished products, though, so make sure you read the whole description and decide is refurbished worth it.

Do you have other hot deal websites that you use to save money?

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Top Deals Websites to Save Money Shopping originally published at Finance Gourmet

The best part is that it is really easy and you don’t really have to do anything once you set it up.

Basically, you go to Mileage Rewards Dining website and create a Dining Rewards password to go with your United frequent flyer miles number.  Then, you register your credit cards with the dining miles rewards program by entering the credit card number, expiration date, and so on.

Once your credit cards are registered, then you earn miles whenever you eat at a participating United Mileage Plus Dining restaurant if you pay with any of the credit cards you registered.  That’s it!  It couldn’t be any simpler.

You don’t have to remember a coupon, you don’t have to remember to tell the waiter, or give someone your Mileage Rewards number or anything.  It’s all electronic behind the scenes.  You pay like normal, and voila, free points in your account. As a double bonus, this has nothing to do with the regular credit card rewards points you are earning.  So, for example, if you buy dinner with your Capital One Rewards Credit Card, you still earn Capital One No Hassle Miles for the dinner PLUS the United Miles.

For each dollar you spend, you get one free United frequent flyer mile.  But, from now until June 30th, you get double points on the Dining Rewards program so that is 2 free miles per dollar spent eating out at restaurants.  Depending on the kind of person you are, this can add up to big points.  Eat out twice a week at $40 each and that is 160 miles earned per week without flying anywhere!

If you take clients out for meals, try and setup your meetings at restaurants in the program and you can earn points for those meals too.  Pretty soon, you’ll be setting up your free vacation.

There is no cost and no charge to register your credit cards, so I registered every credit card I have.  I never even look at the list of participating restaurants.  I just go out to eat where I want to eat and just by coincidence hit rewards restaurants all the time.

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Related posts:

1. United Dining Rewards Earn Airline Miles for Dining Out
2. Southwest Airlines Rewards Credit Card Review

United Rewards – Mileage Plus Dining from United Airlines originally published at Finance Gourmet

Every year, everyone from Best Buy to Office Depot to Staples offers great deals when you buy your tax prep software at their store.  The deal isn’t necessarily on the price of the software, and if it is, it is usually on the basic version that may not handle everything.

Although, just a quick tip about TurboTax.  I got a free offer to use TurboTax basic online.  I own my house, and I run my own business and everything I needed was in the TurboTax basic version even though it kept asking me to upgrade to TurboTax Deluxe to make sure I didn’t miss out on any deductions.  Folks, the “hidden” or hard to find tax deductions usually are not going to apply to you unless you have very special circumstance.  In that case, you probably already know about them.  So, try the Basic version and if it doesn’t work out, you can go to Deluxe.  Or, even better, if it is just one extra piece, you can fill that form out manually.

Back to business.

Free Anti-Virus, Free Security, Free Internet Protection, and More

Back to the deals.  The biggest deals you will usually see come in the form of other software packages and programs you can get for dirt cheap, or totally free when you buy your tax program.  Usually TurboTax and TaxACT are the ones that get this treatment.

Almost always, an antivirus program is one of the programs you can get, along with Internet security applications, and things like clip-art, business programs, print shop like publishing programs and so on.  If you get TurboTax the deal can also include a deep discount on Quicken and QuickBooks.  That way, you can get your budgeting and business bookkeeping software at a big discount.

This is how I get my anti-virus subscription for free every year.  I check the ads in the Sunday paper each week and when they have a free McAfee or Norton, or whatever, I buy my copy of TurboTax and uninstall my anti-virus software and then re-install it with the new CD and key, and voilla, free brand name anti-virus software, and it is totally legal.

Check out this Sunday’s paper and see what you can find.

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Free or Big Discount Software When You Buy TurboTax TaxACT or other Tax Software originally published at Finance Gourmet

Without further ado, Finance Gourmet presents the Real Deal Guide to Saving Money on Holiday Shopping With the Internet series.

“Hi.  My name is Brian, and I’m a dealaholic.”

Dealaholic

A person who is addicted to great deals.

There, I’ve admitted it.  Don’t worry, I won’t be moving on to any of the other steps, because I love deals and I don’t want to stop.  I’ve developed some tips and tricks that anyone can use to find great deals, even if you aren’t super Internet savvy or a high-end computer geek.  (We are purposely ignoring any of the complex or time consuming methods.  These are the methods that are worthwhile for event the casual deal hunter.)

Best Great Deal Sites On The Internet for Finding Good Deals

The TV news will send you to SmartBargains.com and maybe Overstock.com.  Then, of course (yawn), you can find good deals on eBay.  They might also mention a coupon site, or shopping.com, or my personal favorite, “Hey, did you know that you can use Google to search for products and pricing?”   Nooooo.  Really?

Don’t get me wrong, all of those sites can be very useful, but they are the no brainers of online deals.  If you want real deals, you want sites that are dedicated to deals.  Sites that have large, vocal, online communities who won’t stand for a “deal” that was posted because someone bought some advertising or wants to move some slow merchandise.  In other words, you want sites that have real deals all the time.  These are those sites.

Top 10 Best Christmas Holiday Deal Websites

1. Slickdeals.net  – Simple clean front page with only the best deals of the day.  Search the “Hot Deals” forum for great deals on specific items.  (Note that it is DOT NET not DOT COM).
2. Dealnews.com – A full page of deals every day, each one the best price they could find.
3. GottaDeal.com – Another page jammed full of deals from around the Internet
4. DealLocker.com – Looks like just a coupon site (it has good ones), but look for the Secret Amazon Discount Tool which allows you to search Amazon by category, keyword, and discount range (10% to 90% off).  Most importantly, it allows you to limit your results to items eligible for Amazon Prime which means they are also eligible for free shipping and the Amazon return policy.  No more “great deals” from some affiliated merchant with $9.99 shipping on a $2.14 item.
5. FatWallet.com – Slightly irritating for making you register, but you can find some good deals and if you want to put in the effort, get some cash back too.
6. DealCoupon.com – Run by the DealNews.com people, it lists online coupon codes.  Use it to find free shipping for your deals!
7. XPBargains.com – Mostly just technology stuff, but if that’s what you want, these guys come through.
8. DealCatcher.com – Deals sorted by site.  So, if you need a deal at a certain store to use that gift card, go here.
9. BFAds.net – The website that started all the lawsuits.  They post the sales for the day after Thanksgiving before they come out so you know whether or not that great deal you found today will be a great deal later, or if you should wait for the holiday sales to start.
10. BeatMyPrice.com – So, you think you’ve found the best deal out there?  Check and find out!  At BeatMyPrice.com you input the item and the page you found it on.  If they find a better price, they’ll tell you.  If not, your price becomes the new “best” price and those who come after you will find it.  See, buying gifts and helping others, now that is what Christmas is all about!

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Related posts:

1. Top Deals Websites to Save Money Shopping
2. How to Save Money

Save Money On Christmas Holiday Shopping originally published at Finance Gourmet

SooperCard

For those of you not from one of the mountain states, King Soopers is a grocery store.  The chain is owned by Kroger whom you may know better.  Anyway, way back in the day, just like all the other grocery stores, King Soopers started a shopper card program where you got savings by using your card.  The card is called a SooperCard.  Now, like a lot of other people, I gave them fake information when I signed up because I was suspicious and didn’t want them selling my name or tracking how many Pop-Tarts I buy.

Several years later, I’m a financial professional and much more astute on how the world of business works, and I now know that at best I was being naive.  After all, the three credit bureaus gladly sell not only your name and address, but your credit score (not the exact score, but you can buy a list of people with over a 700, for example) and how you use credit which is way more invasive than anything the grocery store can ever figure out about you.  I mean, yes it is embarrassing to buy Pepto Bismol, but everyone does it, so not a big deal.

Anyway, I’m in the store the other day and I hear over the intercom that I can go online and download special coupons and offers onto my SooperCard that you can’t get in the store.  Now, I’ve never been much of a coupon guy.  I know what all the news stories say, but it never really worked out to more than a buck or two on my total bill.  The problem is that I can choose between buying the one can of black beans that I need, or I can buy 3 cans of black beans to save 25 cents.  When you factor in that I can probably get a better deal by just buying whichever brand of black beans is on sale, the coupon thing starts to look pretty worthless.  (I even went to the website of that mom who goes on TV shows and says she saves 50%.  I’ve never seen a site so packed with ads in my life.  I think you send your name and address to fifty advertisers just by thinking about the site.)

But, a special offer that I can get online (I’m there all the time) and just automatically put on my card so that if I happen to buy the right stuff I save money, well, that is something I can get behind. 

Coupons and Deals

Since I have never used the website, I had to register my card.  Since I gave them a phony name and address, I had no idea what to enter to register my card.  So, I updated everything with my current information.  (I gave them a GrandCentral phone number, but otherwise, all legit.)  I did it because not long ago, a salesperson at Borders caught me in a good mood and I gave them my email address after signing up for their Borders Rewards program which, unlike the Barnes & Noble program, is free.  Now, they send me too many emails, but the address I gave them long ago succumbed to numerous email offers, so no biggie.  But, on the bright side, every four to six weeks I get an email coupon for 40% off of ANYTHING, online or in store.  That my friends is worth some spam to a bookstore resident like me.

So, I updated my SooperCard information, then forgot all about it and never downloaded any offers, but today I get mail.  The mail is coupons from King Soopers, not lame coupons, good coupons.  For example, my wife drinks Diet Dr. Pepper.  One coupon is for a free refrigerator 12-pack of Diet Dr. Pepper.  That’s it!  No, “buy one get one free”, no “when you spend over $50”, just free, pure and simple. Also included were $3.00 off in Health and Beauty Department (toothbrushes, shampoo, etc…)  $1.50 off of 2 12-packs of Coke (we both drink that) $1.00 off of All (it starts at like $4.00 on sale and works just fine, so whoo hoo!) and so on.

The coupons are obviously printed on the fly, and every one of them is for something we have bought before, so I assume they are targeted at us and our habits.  How great is that? Instead of digging through the 300 coupons I’ll never use in the Sunday paper for $4.00 worth of savings, I get 20 coupons in the mail for stuff I actually buy that will save me $20 or more depending on how many I actually use.  Heck, I went ahead and put them in my wallet.  That way I’m sure to have them when I end up at the grocery store.

Other Companies

If you know of other opportunities like this, let me know.  I’ll get a list going and post it so we can all benefit.  But, I only want good ones.  Nobody needs another source of nickel and dime savings.

Well, I’m off to Safeway’s website to give them my real information.  Maybe I’ll get some good ones from them too

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How to Save Money originally published at Finance Gourmet

Most reward programs sound the same. Earn 1 point for every $1 you spend with some specials here and there thrown in to maybe give you more points at grocery stores, gas stations or elsewhere. The catch though is that it doesn’t matter how many points you earn, what matters is what you can get with those points. Remember Chuck e Cheese and Showbiz Pizza? 10,000 tickets gets you an 8″ stuffed animal. What do 10,000 points get you from your credit card?

Less than two years ago I used 40,000 points on my Capital One Miles Reward card to get $400 worth of gift certificates to Baby’s R Us. I pretty much furnished the nursery for free. It was a great deal. I logged in at Christmas time this year (2007) looking to do the same for a pregnant friend. Imagine my shock when I found out that the rate was now 18,000 points for a $100 gift card, not 10,000. That is nowhere near as sweet of a deal. In fact, I’m looking for a new card to replace this one. But, look at the big splashy front page and all the comparison sites out there and all you’ll see is that $1 gives you 1 point.

So, in hopes of helping everyone, I am collecting rewards point catalogs from all credit card companies. I’ll try and get as many as I can, but I just explained how they can be hard to get, so I’m asking for your help. Download your rewards catalog, or scan the one they sent you in the mail and email it to me at thegourmet@financegourmet .com I’ll turn them into pdf files and we’ll get a catalog going here that anyone can use. Don’t worry, if there is any identifiable information on it, I’ll black it out before it gets posted.

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1. Credit Card Rewards Catalog Update
2. Credit Card Rewards Programs – Are New Laws Making Them More Stingy?

Credit Card Rewards Catalog originally published at Finance Gourmet