• unemployment

    Four Ways To Make The Most Of Unemployment

    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. More »

    4:14 PM on Fri Jun 13 2008
    By Alex Chasick
    24,992 views, 42 comments

    Latest by coren: @sir_pantsalot: You don't have lung cancer, do you? Anyway, mini retirements are still an incredibly dumb concept. You "save" money more »

  • frugality

    5 Thrifty Lessons From Post-Apocalyptic Novel "The Road"

    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.

    1. Use what you do have creatively
    You have no shoes. Yet, you have a suit jacket, a box cutter, and the lining in the suit jacket. Combine them and you have serviceable foot coverings. Similarly, a metal pipe fitted with a length of chain makes an excellent truncheon. More »

    3:01 PM on Wed Jun 11 2008
    By Ben Popken
    19,993 views, 82 comments

  • complaint letters

    Professional Complaint Letter Writer Shares His Secrets

    "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 »

    3:05 PM on Tue Jun 3 2008
    By Ben Popken
    38,693 views, 72 comments

    Latest by CruiseMates: For an example of a professional complainer getting her just rewards, do a search on Brenda Moran and Royal Caribbean. more »

  • rewards programs

    7 Tips On Using Credit Card Rewards Programs And Avoiding Rip Offs

    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... More »

    9:44 AM on Tue Jun 3 2008
    By Jay Slatkin
    15,942 views, 44 comments

    Latest by LosersHaveCreditCardDebt: My name sums up your problem. more »

  • scams

    How To Fight The Phone Cram Scam

    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 »

    8:57 AM on Thu May 29 2008
    By Ben Popken
    19,422 views, 44 comments

    Latest by juliem: damn, I just got billed both from "Residential Email ($16.07)" and "Low Cost Billing ($9.06)" in this month's landline AT&T more »

  • nutrition info

    Consumerist's Ultimate Fast Food Nutrition Guide: 2008

    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. More »

    Feature

    8:32 AM on Wed May 28 2008
    By Meg Marco
    21,234 views, 41 comments

    Latest by RosanneAhriman: Chick-fil-a adds msg to their nuggets and as an extra ingredient in their chicken salad. I just ate there and more »

  • fees

    How I Got Commerce To Refund $45 In Cycle Service Charge Fees

    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." More »

    3:51 PM on Wed May 21 2008
    By Ben Popken
    12,813 views, 60 comments

    Latest by HerbertChthonius: I applaud you! And I feel your pain, as Im actually going thru this cycle service charge saga of "TD more »

  • shopping

    Bring A Magnet When You Go Grill Shopping And Other Tips From Consumer Reports

    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. More »

    2:59 PM on Tue May 20 2008
    By Meg Marco
    28,030 views, 73 comments

  • videos

    How Robots Are Killing Customer Service

    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 »

    Feature

    12:01 PM on Tue May 20 2008
    By Ben Popken
    21,712 views, 57 comments

    Most discussed Kajj: @eelmonger: You know what might work? It won't be quite as cheap, obviously, but just throw a line down at more »

  • ticket errors

    5 Common Airline Ticket Errors And How To Avoid Them

    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... More »

    9:38 AM on Tue May 20 2008
    By Jay Slatkin
    16,653 views, 22 comments

    Latest by angrykeyboarder: Another common error is booking to the wrong city with the same name (e.g. Springfield, Illinois instead of Springfield, Missouri more »

  • coupons

    Meet Crissy, The High Priestess Of Coupon Clippers

    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... More »

    8:50 AM on Fri May 16 2008
    By Jay Slatkin
    58,764 views, 204 comments

    Most discussed virgilstar: @jharbert: Agreed! If all you want to do is feed your kids Cap'n Crunch, Hamburger Helper, and other sugar/salt-laden more »

  • taxes

    Where's My Stimulus Payment?

    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.

    Where's My Stimulus Payment? [IRS] (Thanks to Josh!)
    (Photo: Getty)

    9:45 AM on Wed May 7 2008
    By Ben Popken
    75,445 views, 86 comments

    Latest by squishypea: What gets my goat is that the government has decided that I made too little income to qualify for a more »

  • personal finance

    Review Of Mint.com's New Investment-Tracking Features

    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... More »

    12:36 PM on Mon May 5 2008
    By Ben Popken
    9,308 views, 18 comments

    Latest by facted: @dalejo: From the way I understand it, Mint originally takes your username and password and sends it to Yoodle the more »

  • credit cards

    Credit Card Class Action: Get More Money Back Using Your Digital Camera

    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.

    Easy Hack for Getting a Refund from your Credit Card [DeliciousBaby]

    2:31 PM on Thu May 1 2008
    By Ben Popken
    15,802 views, 42 comments

    Latest by chalpin: @jimforcy I, too, was living abroad for those 10 years (with several weeks of vacation back in the states) but I more »

  • nature's call

    You Shouldn't Go Without The Online Bathroom Finder

    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!

    Bathroom Finder [Imodium](Thanks to Carl!)
    (Photo: Getty Images)

    10:30 AM on Tue Apr 29 2008
    By Jay Slatkin
    7,153 views, 41 comments

    Latest by guspaz: I was watching an episode of Lonely Planet about Singapore. In it, they featured a group of people who went more »

  • money

    10 Ways To Save Real Money

    The champagne is dry and crusty, and all the hundred-dollar bills used to light cigars have crumbled into ash. It's time to tighten our belts and get real about spending less and saving more. Here's 10 ways to save some serious cash... More »

    Feature

    10:34 AM on Fri Apr 25 2008
    By Ben Popken
    41,454 views, 70 comments

    Latest by mexmexmex2000: I tried the cable thing on Saturday morning. I pointed out to Comcast that DirectTV was offering me a more »

  • shop hacks

    Avoid Eating Stale Candy By Learning The Secret Candy Codes

    Reader Leo writes in with some helpful information that will allow you to avoid stale candy:
    I work at a small-volume store in the midwest, and the other day my supervisor asked us to check all of the candy in the checkout lanes to see if it had expired. M&M Mars and Hershey brand candy both had different, indecipherable codes on the back which tell the expiration date. After calling the 1-800 number and finding out what the codes meant, we discovered that most of our candy stock was expired by a year or more. We even found candy that went bad from 2004. I figured I should share the codes, so people won't buy expired candy, because it's out there.
    More »

    8:34 AM on Wed Apr 9 2008
    By Meg Marco
    49,220 views, 99 comments

    Latest by HiramIshan: The code on Mars wrappers is the date of manufacture, not expiration. They have a shelf life of 1 more »

  • how to

    How To Research An Unknown Online Retailer

    So you just spotted that gizmo you've been lusting for at unbeatable price, but the only problem is it's for sale at an online retailer you've never heard of. How do you know if they're trustworthy? Consumerist reader "Gigantic Robotic Penguin" (don't let the name turn you off) has put together a comprehensive guide to evaluating unknown online retailers. Get started snooping, inside... More »

    Feature

    6:56 PM on Mon Apr 7 2008
    By Ben Popken
    55,898 views, 40 comments

    Latest by YancyKablamy: In response to where to buy a digital camra online, I've been using Amazon.com with the very best results. Their return more »