Deals

Safe Online Holiday Shopping

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Shopping online hasn’t really gotten any safer in the last few years. Most reputable online retailers use secure transfers to encrypt your credit card information when checking out. However, as an increasing number of high-profile corporate hackings have shown, just because your credit card number was safe when you entered it, doesn’t mean it stayed safe. The other issue with online retailers is knowing when the retailer themselves might not be safe. Sure, company’s like Amazon, Walmart, and Barnes & Noble aren’t out there to steal your credit card data, but there are a tons of little retailers you haven’t heard of, and they are the ones with hard to find items, unique gifts, and occasionally, deep discounts. Giving your financial information to them can be dicey. So, just how do you manage to have safe online holiday shopping this year? Limited Use Credit Card Numbers There are some tricks you can use to stay safe while shopping online. Many credit cards, or credit card companies, offer limited use numbers. These virtual numbers can usually be generated online. They link to your actual account, but the number you enter is a one-time use number, or limited to a certain amount. …

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Credit Sesame Safe, Scam or Legit?

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Credit Sesame is another online financial utility that lets you check “your credit score for free.” Of course, there are always more than a few caveats with these kinds of websites. So, let’s take a look at CreditSesame.com and see how it stands up. Credit Sesame Review Any reviews of Credit Sesame need to start with how much does Credit Sesame cost, and is Credit Sesame legit, or is it an online scam? One catch comes during the signup process where you are asked to “do more” with your credit score by adding “goals”. Some clicks there and you’ll get targeted ads, and maybe more. There isn’t a way to skip this step, so choose something you don’t mind hearing about, and as always use your “store email” or “email list” email address. (You should have a separate email address that you never use for anything “real” that helps avoid hacking attempts and keeps your real inbox clean. If you don’t have one, get a free email from Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, or other service before signing up.) I chose rewards cards when I signed up and the first thing at the very top of my screen every time I log in is …

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Can Car2Go Save You Money?

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I recently wrote a review of Car2Go Denver and someone asked if they could save money using Car2Go. The answer, as always, depends on your own personal finances and circumstances, but let’s take a look at how you might save money using Car2Go or another car sharing service. Car Sharing or Auto Sharing Keep in mind the difference between ride sharing and car sharing. With ride sharing, you ride in a car with someone else. With car sharing, you “share a car” with other people. While this is technically true, in reality what you are doing is renting a car by the minute. So, can a car sharing membership save you money? To find out, we need to know about the costs. Car2Go in Denver charges 38 cents per minute. This doesn’t sound like a lot, but it can add up quickly, especially if you end up driving during heavy traffic. For a quick 10 minute drive to the grocery store, a Car2Go rental costs you $3.80. Of course, you’ll have to get back home too, so we’ll call it $7.60, round trip. Not bad. Whether or not that will save you money is going to depend on your current …

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Amazon and TurboTax Refund Special

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So, I haven’t had a chance to dig through all the details yet (I will soon), but there is a new wrinkle in the tax software refund game. Consider this your, “Wait, there might be a good option here before you buy,” post, not your go for it post. For several years, there have been various offers about what to do with your tax refund. For example, H&R Block got into trouble a few years ago by directing refunds into IRA accounts that had fees and charges that made them a bad deal. This year, TurboTax has an interesting new twist for Amazon shoppers. Amazon Gift Card Bonus from TurboTax TurboTax is one of the most popular tax software packages. (Look for full details and review of TurboTax and Tax Cut coming soon on Finance Gourmet.) There are tons of ways to buy TurboTax including online, via direct download, and of course, via boxes of software in stores. The first rule of buying TurboTax is never pay full price. There are always sales, and deals, and bundles of software that make buying TurboTax cheaper. The most common offer bundles Quicken, which is also an Intuit product with the tax software, …

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Is Extreme Couponing Worth It?

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The extreme couponing fad hit its high water mark a few years ago. That doesn’t mean it’s gone away, and every time someone shows up on TV or a magazine article is published, the race is on again to figure out how to do extreme couponing. If you’re wondering how using coupons can get extreme, consider this hypothetical example. You see a coupon in the newspaper for $1 off of something. For our sake, let’s say it’s $2 off of a bag of cookies. Now, let’s say that the grocery store is having a sale where those cookies are 2 for $4. Bam! You’ve got yourself some free cookies. That’s not really extreme, yet. Now, imagine that you go through the recycle bin at your office building and find eight of those coupons and you get eight bags of free cookies. That’s a little more extreme. Now, imagine that you build your entire shopping list around this sort of deal and you roll home with $300 worth of groceries for just $23. Now, that’s extreme. Is Extreme Couponing Right for Me? Coupons can save you money, there is no doubt about that. If you have a coupon for something you …

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Legit Free Trial Offers

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There are a lot of ways that businesses squeak through the door of legally sufficient, while staying far outside the realm of generally fair. One of the areas that comes up repeatedly as a source of customer discontent is the free trial offer tricks companies pull on unsuspecting consumers. Free Trial Offer Scam The free trial offer scam generally relies on a disconnect between what the legally agreed upon terms in the fine print state, and the general understanding that a reasonable person has about what a free trial is. For most people, a free trial means that you get to try something out for free. Everyone knows that there is no such thing as a free lunch, however. Most people understand that the point of the free trial is to get you to sign up for the paid version going forward. What most people don’t notice, is that they actually already signed up for the paid version when they agreed to the free trial. In other words, you aren’t really getting a free trial. What you are really doing is signing up for a full subscription with the first month free, and a limited free cancellation period. That doesn’t …

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Online Bargains Aren’t Always Great Deals Check The Details First

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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 …

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Is Refurbished or Remanufactured a Good Deal?

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Sometimes people ask me questions that aren’t exactly my area of specialty.  While saving money by buying a refurbished or remanufactured product is technically about spending and personal finance, there is a lot of information that goes into such a decision that I have no way of knowing any better than you. With that being said, there are some common issues and concerns to watch out for when purchasing refurbished or remanufactured goods. Is It Really A Good Price? The promise of refurbished goods, particularly electronics, is getting a “good as new” product for a much lower price.  The devil, of course, is in the details.  The major concerns fall into two categories. The first is whether or not the refurbished product really IS as good as new.  And the second, is in what way the service and support of the product will be different because it is refurbished. Many refurbished products come with a much shorter warranty than their new counterparts.  This begs the question, “If the product is as good as new, then why won’t you stand behind it with a warranty that is as good as the new one?” The answer is, of course, that refurbished is …

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