Josh Smith
Findlay, OH - http://www.imjosh.com
Josh Smith 
Nov 19th 2009
Filed under: Bargains, Shopping, Technology, Black Friday

The
Walmart Black Friday ad leaked out to many deal collecting sites earlier this week, but until yesterday they kept it offline under threat of legal action by the mega retailer. After the OK was finally given, the entire Walmart Black Friday ad has been posted and it contains a lot of deals. Best of all, you won't have to wait outside for any of the savings since Walmart will be
open all night over Thanksgiving -- although you will have to wait until 5 a.m. to make your purchases.
Walmart's biggest Black Friday deals:
Josh Smith 
Nov 19th 2009
Filed under: Shopping, Technology, Black Friday

If you are spending less on shopping this Black Friday you're not alone. A recent survey performed by Dealnews.com found that a quarter of shoppers are planning to
spend less on Black Friday.
The survey further found that fewer people will be shopping on Black Friday as a whole and that women shop for other people on Black Friday, whereas men shop for themselves.
It's no shocker that men do more shopping on themselves on Black Friday, since I know few fellows who would brave a Black Friday crowded for anyone other than themselves.
Josh Smith 
Nov 19th 2009
Filed under: Shopping, Technology, Black Friday

With
Black Friday almost here and Cyber Monday just around the corner, there's no denying that the holiday season is upon us; and for many people that means online shopping. For Identity Thieves and scammers, though, this is the time of year to roll out new ways of going after your identity, your money and your credit.
WalletPop has already warned you about the numerous ways that online scam artists are
trying to dupe you with fakes, but we wanted to make sure that you are as educated as you can be when it comes to safeguarding your information and money. We went to three industry experts to find out how to stay safe on Cyber Monday and through the rest of your holiday shopping.
To get a better idea of just how much phishing and identity theft scams will increase in the next month, we spoke to Lyn Oakes, Chief Marketing Officer of
Trusted ID.
"We do expect that there will be more traffic being generated by identity thieves because of the holiday season than has been in the last several months," Oakes said in a phone interview. "We think phishing emails are going to rise."
Josh Smith 
Nov 18th 2009
Filed under: Technology, Black Friday

Popular and boisterous tech blog Boy Genius Report this week ran what one of their contacts claimed to be
Apple's Black Friday ad. The ad claimed that Apple would be going against tradition and offering huge cuts across the Apple lineup.
Just how big were the claimed discounts? The ad claims that Apple will offer up to 30% off of all iPods, up to 25% off of all Macs and up to 15% off of accessories, software and other Mac hardware. Needless to say, these would be big, and I mean BIG, discounts for Apple to pull out on Black Friday. If they were true, that is.
Josh Smith 
Nov 17th 2009
Filed under: Credit, Technology, Credit Reports

According to a data mining company, the old adage of being judged by the friends you keep translates easily into the digital friends you keep.
Rapleaf, a social media monitoring company, claims that by analyzing public information such as the friends you have on Twitter it can assess
how creditworthy you are and how likely you are to respond to advertising.
Rapleaf monitors public digital conversations and stores away your Twitter and Facebook status updates, restaurant reviews, Amazon book reviews and plenty of other online public information in its database of 378 million profiles to profile you.
Josh Smith 
Nov 17th 2009
Filed under: Bargains, Black Friday

For the longest time leaked Black Friday ads have been a part of the bargain hunting game.
Sure you can wait until Thanksgiving to look at the ads, but who wants to fight off
tryptophan to look for the best deal?
The practice of posting ads online has long been a thorn in retailers' sides, and some of them even continue to fight the leaks, but others are embracing the Internet and releasing their ads for all to see.
Just like
Staples did last week,
Meijer officially released its Black Friday ad for all to see.
The Midwest retailer has several deals that might actually be worth standing in line for, especially since the limited quantities are high compared to what we normally see.
Josh Smith 
Nov 17th 2009
Filed under: Credit cards

It used to be that you only had to worry about extraneous foreign usage fees from your credit card company when you set foot in a foreign country but; thanks to the Internet, you can waste money on foreign transaction fees from the comfort of your own home.
Last month I found out just how easy it is to tally up yet another fee on a credit card by purchasing a new part for our Kenmore dryer. After dealing with the cruel and unusual punishment that is Sears' customer support, which simply bounced me from automated menu to automated menu, I decided to take things into my own hands and find a replacement heater online.
Josh Smith 
Nov 13th 2009
Filed under: Bargains, Shopping, Technology, Black Friday

More good news leaked out today for anyone looking for a Black Friday laptop deal. Both the
Office Depot Black Friday ad and the
Dell Black Friday ad have appeared online and show a selection of cheap laptops, digital cameras, monitors and other electronics.
If you are looking to stay warm and toasty on Black Friday you can hit up Dell where there are deals to be found on netbooks, notebooks and desktops as well as a few decently priced accessories.
Josh Smith 
Nov 13th 2009
Filed under: Shopping, Technology, Black Friday

The
Best Buy Black Friday ad has leaked out and offers price cuts on many items including appliances (sorry no
$3 toasters) and other electronics like video games, HDTVs and laptops.
Most often, when searching for Black Friday deals, you don't think to look at major appliances. But this year Best Buy has 20-50% off many appliances, including a new Samsung washer and dryer set at half price. Other appliance discounts include refrigerators, Dyson vacuums and more.
Another Black Friday bargain at Best Buy is video games, specifically just released games and console bundles.
Josh Smith 
Nov 12th 2009
Filed under: Banks, Budgets, Technology

When Intuit, the makers of popular personal finance software Quicken, purchased Mint.com for $170 million, users of both services expressed concerns about the future of their favorite financial tool.
After it became clear that both
Mint and Quicken Online would remain free, the only real question left was, "Which service would remain standing after the purchase was complete?"
Last week TechCrunch broke the news that Aaron Patzer, the new vice president and general manager of Intuit's Personal Finance Group at Intuit, would be
closing down Quicken Online within six to nine months and migrating users to
Mint.com.