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SmartyPig offers Black Friday cash boost

Filed under: Shopping, Technology, Black Friday

Looking to boost your Black Friday budget? SmartyPig is upping its current ante -- offering customers the chance to cash in on a hefty cash bonus this holiday shopping season.

The new bonus offers customers using the on-line piggy bank some extra coin - up to 12% - when they meet their savings goal and shop at one of SmartyPig's retail partners like Macy's, Barnes and Noble and GameStop.

"The holidays can put a financial strain on anybody, and using credit cards for purchases can add to a person's debt 'holiday hangover'," SmartyPig CEO Bob Weinschenk told WalletPop.

The goal-oriented online savings program currently offers a competitive 2.01% (APY). And until Monday, November 17, had also offered the option to add 6% to your savings when shopping at one of SmartyPig's retail partners.

"Now, when customers meet their savings goal, they may be able to earn double the bonus -- 12%," says Weinschenk.

The 12% bonus is applicable to funds withdrawn from accounts that are transferred to retail partner gift cards. "The cards never expire, so they don't have to be spent just on Black Friday or during the holiday season," says Tiffany Spencer, spokeswoman for SmartyPig.

SmartyPig is also rolling out a new added incentive for consumers looking to stash cash for a vacation. Customers can now earn up to a 10% cash bonus when they meet their savings goal and opt to book through one of SmartyPig's retail partners Travelocity or American Airlines.

What's your best coupon tip?

Filed under: Saving Money, Shopping, Bargain Babe

Readers really responded to my couponing video and a lot of them shared some great tips. Among the best...

LM says it is a waiting game:
trick stores use ... the coupons are in the weekend paper -- but if you clip and wait -- those same items go on sale in the stores the following week ... thereby upping the savings ante.

DVD wars come to online retailers

Filed under: Shopping, Technology

First books, now movies, the price wars between the biggest retailers just keep getting hotter. Walmart, Target and Amazon are all slashing pre-order pricing on some hot new releases like "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince."

Walmart said Thursday it would reduce prices for soon to be released DVDs to $10 at Walmart.com. Target and Amazon quickly followed, threw in free shipping and forced Walmart to drop its prices down to $9.98. Keep in mind, the deals are for online pre-orders of movies not yet released.

All this price cuttings seems like a great deal for consumers, but is it really? Highly competitive pricing can't be sustained for long, or extended to the entire category. Retailers simply can't sell things at a financial loss indefinitely. They do it to increase traffic, turn up the marketing machine, get a lot of press and sell other, more profitable items.

Like Netflix for your closet: New way to swap old clothes

Filed under: Bargains, Kids and Money, Technology

Has the passion waned? Lost that loving feeling? Instead of banishing your scorned clothing ("It's not you, it's me...") to the back of the closet, it may be time to 'ThredUP."

Transforming fashion flings into peer-to-peer style "swaportunities," ThredUP, a Cambridge, Mass. start-up plans to pioneer the $2 billion dollars-worth of potential they see in the used clothing market.

Touted as a fashionable blend of Netflix, StubHub and eBay, ThredUP is the brainchild of co-founders and "Chief Knitwits" James Reinhart, Oliver Lubin and Chris Homer. Reed Hastings, founder and chief executive of Netflix is an adviser to the company. Far from being fashionistas, the ivy league grads and former roomies are poised to capitalize on the convergence of trends in "green" recycling, economics and the public's ever increasing comfort with online transactions.

The new online clothing exchange, ThredUP.com has been live for five weeks and is currently in its beta stage with a small community of 6,500 beta members. In an interview with WalletPop, Reinhart says the beta members have been trading for two weeks and satisfaction ratings are posting high. He reports the amount of clothing posted for trade has also reached staggering proportions in only a few weeks.

WalletPop readers are invited to join the early adapters. When registering on the member screen, enter the code "WalletPop" and you can get started.

It's 10 p.m. Do you know where your kid is? Check your GPS

Filed under: Kids and Money, Technology, Relationships

Here's the latest salvo in the battle for ultimate control over our children. Best Buy is selling a GPS device that will tell you where your child is every minute of the day.

In a sign that child-tracking devices have gone mass-market, it's the first store brand with such an offer. Best Buy is marketing it under its house brand name, Insignia.

It is designed to fit into a backpack and will send a text message back to parents whenever the child has moved outside a "designated" area, such as their school, after-school program, or babysitter's backyard.

The device surely is being aimed at parents with school aged and older kids, since they're the ones presumably who can wander out of eyesight. I can't imagine there being much of a concern of babies escaping, although you never know with parents these days.

The price for this false sense of control? Only $99. Cheap, considering some of the other options out there. That's a house brand for you.

Shopaholics get their fix in cyberspace

Filed under: Extracurriculars, Shopping, Technology

there.com avatarItching to spend? Go shopping online -- and we don't mean on an e-commerce site.

The New York Times reports that consumers formerly known as shopaholics are acting out their old retail lust in cyberspace -- outfitting their Second Life, There or IMVU avatars in the latest Jimmy Choo stilettos and Gucci bags.

Avoid the doctor: Diagnose swine flu on the Web

Filed under: Technology, Health

In an effort to cut down on the number of people running to their doctor or emergency room, panicked that they have the swine flu, Microsoft Corp. and Emory University have come up with an interactive Web site to help with a diagnosis.

Released Wednesday, the site doesn't require you to cough into your computer, but taking your temperature before going online will help answer some of the questions to determine how sick you are and if you should seek immediate medical attention.

Rip Ride Rockit: The roller coaster that'll make you lose your lunch as well as your lunch money

Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Technology

Universal Studios in Orlando was supposed to open its new roller coaster, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, back in May. But the effort was so technologically complicated that it couldn't cut the ribbon until around Labor Day.

The resulting thrill ride may be behind schedule, but it's ahead of the times. It's the first one that's equipped to capture your every move as you ride it -- cameras at every row, plus more on the tracks -- and combine that feature with the ability to choose the song you want to hear while you ride it using a personal touch-screen that you program before you leave the station.

Not on my Wi-Fi: anti-wi-fi paint helps keep your connection to yourself

Filed under: Technology

This is news a lot of cheapskates aren't going to like, especially the kind of cheapskates who routinely poach on other people's wireless connection. There's now a paint you can use that will block Wi-fi from going through walls and into the arms of another, unauthorized, computer user.

According to this tech blog, The University of Tokyo has developed a paint that is allegedly able to block radio frequency in higher spectra, where Wi-Fi and other, higher-bandwidth communications take place. Most Wi-Fi technologies operate at 2.4GHz; the Tokyo pain can reportedly block frequencies all the way up to 100GHz. A 200GHz-blocking pain is also in the works, according to this report.

Grumpy Wi-Fi owners might be rejoicing (presuming this stuff ever gets to the market, and isn't $100 a gallon). Likewise theater owners, who will surely be interested in squelching that pesky cell-phone problem once and for all (the paint also blocks in the lower frequencies that cell phones use.)

But I wonder what this does to the dream of free and unfettered Wi-Fi for all?


BillShrink adds savings accounts, CDs

Filed under: Banks, Saving Money, Investing, Banking-savings-account

Along with cell phone plans, credit cards and gas prices, BillShrink.com is now helping consumers find deals on something many people don't shop around for -- savings accounts and certificates of deposits, or CDs.

Starting Tuesday, Sept. 29, BillShrink will find in seconds what it could take hours to do with a "painful calculation" by creating a spreadsheet to find banks offering the best rates, said Schwark Satyavolu, the company's president and co-founder.

"It is not something you can't do," Satyavolu said in a telephone interview. "It's just something ... most people don't have the time to do."

Should college hopefuls friend admissions officers on Facebook?

Filed under: College, Technology

Lynn O'Shaughnessy of MoneyWatch reports on a vaguely creepy trend emerging among the ranks of high school students seeking admission to selective colleges: using Facebook to curry favor with admissions officers.

A new survey conducted by Kaplan Inc. found that 71% of admission officers had received -- or knew colleagues who had received -- social networking friend requests from prospective students.

In this era of hyper-competitive admissions at top colleges, it seems like students and their pathetic parents will do just about anything to try to get into college. But is adding admissions officers on Facebook a good idea? I'm going to say no, it most certainly isn't, and for a bunch of reasons.

First, you run the risk of offending the admissions officer and making him think that you have no sense of boundaries.

Second, what if the admissions officer sees sketchy stuff on your Facebook page? Pictures of crack-smoking and Girls Gone Wild tributes do not good admissions portfolios make. What about setting your photos and other obscene material as off limits for the admissions officer. Sure, you could do that. But doesn't that raise a whole bunch of questions too? "Welcome to my home and you're not allowed to go in that room, that room, or that room."

But even if the admissions officer is cool and you don't have anything creepy on your page, I still don't think you should add admissions officers on Facebook. It's just way too transparent and cynical, not to mention groveling and pathetic. Pandering can be an effective means of building relationships, but it can't be too obvious. Adding an admissions office on Facebook is an obvious effort to get into college.

Here's an idea: Instead of spending your time on Facebook adding admissions officers, do your homework. They'll be much more impressed by a high GPA than pictures of you and your friends at a keg party.

WalletPop is now available for free at the iTunes Store!

Filed under: Technology, Travel, Celebs & Money, Special Reports

You like us! You really like us! The demand for our videos and podcasts has been so strong that we've decided to make them available to you anytime, anyplace. Starting now, you can find many of our productions for free through Apple's iTunes Store.

You'll find some of our greatest video podcast hits there, downloadable to your computer or your iPod or video mobile device. You can even subscribe to our videos and podcasts so you'll receive them to enjoy in the car, at the gym, while you stand in line at the supermarket checkout, or preferably, while you read our daily blog.

Fade to black: Blockbuster's demise may be just a matter of time

Filed under: Technology

Blockbuster is considering closing 960 stores as it tries to compete with new media formats and retail models, that's 20% of its store base potentially gone. Even with more rental kiosks planned, it's getting more difficult for traditional physical stores to compete.

Massive store closures have been rumored before and dismissed by Blockbuster's media relations department. But where there's smoke there's usually fire, and these documents filed with the FCC today are confirmation.

Movie rental locations used to be as common as convenience stores. But with the rise of streaming video, fewer people are renting discs. Even fewer still trek to the store. Netflix has taken hold with movie lovers and vending machines from the likes of Redbox are quickly taking market share.

Get the most out of your laptop with repairs, upgrades

Filed under: College, Technology, School

When an electronic gadget such as a digital camera cellphone suddenly dies, it's usually a no-brainer on whether to get it repaired -- don't bother. In this disposable world, repairs can cost almost as much as buying a new gadget, if not more, so recycling it and buying a new one makes sense.

But with laptop computers, a repair can make sense, and small upgrades can extend the life of laptops.

Gazelle.com, a Web site familiar to WalletPop readers, buys used computers, cameras and other gadgets for 10% to 30% of their original value even after a few years of use.

Top 5 Inexpensive Gadgets

Filed under: Extracurriculars, Saving Money, Technology

It's easy to succumb to the lure of a shiny new gadget, replete with cutting-edge bells and whistles. But odds are that gadget you paid top price for probably has more power and features than you'll actually use.
Click through our feature.

Headlines from WalletPop Partners