Consumerist
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snowball method
Use Snowball Method Spreadsheet To Pay Off Debts
Do you have so many credit cards that you could sew a pair of pants from them? Confused as how to get rid of them? Try this handy Excel spreadsheet to generate a custom strategy for becoming debt-free. More » -
appliances
8 Tips That Will Keep Your Refrigerator Healthy And Your Bills Low
Consumer Reports has some tips for keeping your refrigerator happy and your utility bills low. Keeping the door shut as much as possible is apparently very important. As mom always said, "We're not trying to refrigerate the entire State of Illinois, are we?" More » -
fonolo
Fonolo.com Slash And Burns Dread Phone Trees
Fonolo.com promises to be an industrial-powered buzzsaw for hacking down phone trees. They've spidered companies' entire customer service phone trees and you just click on a chart online where you want to go. Fonolo calls the company for you, navigates to that point, and calls you on your phone when the call is ready. Boom, you're transferred right in without waiting or wanting to kill yourself. It's also free. Good news for Vincent Ferrari wannabes, a forthcoming feature will let you record calls and publish them online at the click of a button. Currently in closed beta, you can enter your email address on their front page and they'll let you know when it's ready. Screenshots inside... More »
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summer camp
Screw Basket-Weaving, I'm Going To Personal Finance Summer Camp
Here's four summer camps where kids will learn something really useful: how to manage their money. What a cool idea. I wish I had gone to one in my youth. More » -
frugality
7 Ways Your Public Library Can Help You During A Bad Economy
Reader MG is a fan of the site and a public librarian and has written a list of 7 ways that your library can help you during a bad economy. Libraries are an excellent resource and they're pretty easy to use. Don't worry if you're not a big reader, there's lots more stuff to do at the library besides just checking out books. More » -
jobs
7 Steps To Developing A Strong Network In Case You Get Fired
What's the first thing you would do if you were fired? Punch your boss? Cry like a baby? Throw a party? More » -
credit cards
10 Credit Card Company Tricks To Beware
Are you smarter than a credit card company? They've got billions riding on their belief that you're not. Check out these 10 methods, via the Americans for Fairness in Lending, credit card companies use to make extra money off you that you may not even be aware of, knowledge that could save you hundreds in extra fees. More » -
credit cards
10 Things You Might Not Know About Your Credit Card
As you might imagine, we get a lot of questions about using credit cards. Based on those piles of emails we've put together a list of 10 things a lot of people don't know about credit cards. Enjoy!
1) Unsigned Cards Are Not Valid And Merchants Can And Will Refuse Them
You might think that everyone knows that you have to sign your credit card in order for it to be valid — after all — there's a panel on the back that says "Not Valid Unless Signed," but you'd be shocked at the number of angry emails we get from people who have tried to use an unsigned credit card with "SEE ID" or "CHECK ID" written on it and were turned away when they refused to sign their card. More »
8:45 AM on Thu Jul 10 2008
By Meg Marco
164,139 views, 233 commentsLatest by SargentHapiloons: I have a business gold American Express card that I put company related expenses on. There is suppose to not more »
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self-help
Shame Yourself Into Spending Less With A Hello Kitty Debit Card
Reader MervinGleasner has Hello Kitty to thank for his unique method of curbing personal spending. In a comment on our "Succeed Through Self-Undermining!" post, he writes: More » -
iphone
With The New iPhone On The Horizon, Now Is The Time To Threaten Your Cellphone Company
With the debut of that new super iPhone thing only a few short days away, now is the time to threaten your current cellphone company. What's that? You have no intention of switching cellphone companies for the iPhone? Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon's retention reps don't know that. Do they? More » -
self-help
Succeed Through Self-Undermining!
Our post on freezing your credit cards in a block of ice got me thinking. Anything that slows, stops, or impedes making transactions can be used as a technique for limiting your spending. Whatever it may be, cutting up your credit cards, locking up most of your money in an account it takes 3 days to transfer from, giving yourself an allowance, it will be a variation on a single principle: It's easier to put a hard limit on the future then to make the right decision in the impulsive moment. Installing some kind of an automatic hiccup can help break you out of your desire-driven action and give you the breathing room to step back and make the right choice. So if you have trouble with overspending (or overeating or any kind of bad habit) and your sheer willpower is sometimes lacking, aka, you're human, try brainstorming ways you can trip yourself up. The world is full of obstacles, it shouldn't be too hard to find one. -
early termination fees
Graph: Which Cellphone Company Has The Best Early Termination Fee Policy?
Discounting or pro-rating the early termination fees that cellphone companies love to tack on to their contracts is becoming more common, so we thought we'd make some graphs that show the strengths and weaknesses of the different policies. As you can see, T-Mobile 2-year ETF doesn't make any discounts until fairly late in the contract period — and their ETF of $200 is higher than either of the other two companies that offer discounts. (Sprint does not pro-rate or discount its ETF.) T-Mobile's ETF does, however, reach a point where their discounts are steeper than Verizon and AT&T's pro-rating. More »
3:05 PM on Fri Jun 27 2008
By Meg Marco
20,186 views, 44 commentsMost discussed othersomethings: I just spoke with an AT&T rep two weeks ago, and was told that their ETF was $150 per phone more »
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cheap generic drugs
11 Cheap Generic Drug Programs That Will Save You Money
Here at the Consumerist we'd like you to save money. That's why we've put together a handy list of those $4 generic drug programs that you've been hearing about. We hope this list will make it easier for you to locate the store that has the best deal on all your medications. If your local grocery store is doing a similar program and we missed it, please add a link to the comments. If you need help researching the medicines, we recommend Consumer Reports' excellent site Best Buy Drugs. Enjoy! More » -
tsa id policy
Privacy: What It's Like To Fly With No ID Under The TSA's New Regulations
David becomes our first reader to fly under the TSA's new ID policy. Formerly, if you refused or were unable to show ID you could still fly — but were required to undergo secondary screening by the TSA. Now they've altered their position slightly— fliers who willingly refuse to show ID are now barred from flying. The new rule went into effect over the weekend, and David says that in order to board the plane after forgetting his driver's license he had to answer questions about his political party affiliation and previous addresses. More » -
equifax
5 No BS Ways To Get A Credit Score For Free
Here are 5 ways to get your credit score for free. Note, all of them are the credit scores developed by the credit bureaus themselves, Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax, and are not your actual FICO scores. Only the FICO score is used by lenders to determine your credit worthiness. However, you can at least use these credit bureau scores to get a general sense of how good your credit is. More »
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billshrink
Sneak Peek Of BillShrink.com's New Credit Card Comparison Tool
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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4:21 PM on Wed Jun 18 2008
By Ben Popken
15,890 views, 24 commentsLatest by avniassa: I've been using [www.creditcards.com] and it's been really helpful so far. more »
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personal finance
Five Sites That Will Help You Recession-Proof Your Life
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. More » -
impulse spending
Stop Spending By Freezing Your Credit Card In Ice
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.
Sometimes creating self-imposed barriers can be just what we need to curb bad habits. The same person inside us who has the willpower to put the credit card in the freezer is different from the person inside us who doesn't have the willpower to resist picking up the plastic and hitting the shops.
(Photo: Getty)
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