WalletPop

Ask the Dolans: Should I pay for a credit monitoring service?

Ken and Daria Dolan — 2008-05-09T10:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Banks, Cards, Insurance, The Dolans, Fraud

Ken and Daria Dolan, America's First Family of Personal Finance, answer your money questions every Friday.

Dear Ken and Daria,

I realize it's important to stay up-to-date on your credit score, but is it necessary to pay for a credit monitoring service?

Jeff

Want to learn more about protecting and improving your credit score? Visit our Credit Center at Dolans.com.

Click here to ask Ken and Daria your question.

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Train your brain, And gain as you age

Randy Burnham — 2008-05-09T09:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Retire, Technology, Health

What fun is retiring well-off if you're not all there to enjoy the ride?

Anyone unfortunate to have witnessed the ravages of Alzheimer's certainly understands. But almost all of us have experienced some kind of preview of diminished capacity to come -- glasses "lost" perched right atop our brows; forgetting whether or not you just took that vitamin; mentally misplacing long-burned-in info, like your mom's birthday. It starts earlier than most of us want to admit.

There's good news, in the form of research showing the brain has more plasticity than previously thought. In laymen's terms, our aging brains can likely benefit from regular exercise, to help stave off what was previously written off as inevitable, age-induced, mental atrophy.

Continue reading Train your brain, And gain as you age

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Economic Stimulus sales

Tom Barlow — 2008-05-09T08:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Bargains, Saving

Did you receive your economic stimulus check yet? These companies are offering you something extra if you will spend those bonuses with them.

SUPERVALU, nationwide chain of 2,500 grocery stores.
The deal: For every $300 gift card purchase purchased with a stimulus check, Supervalu will add an additional $30.
The catch: Good 5/2/08 thorugh 7/31/08

Staples, nationwide office supply chain.
The deal: $150 off $1,000 of furniture: $40 off purchase of $300 or more (except computers).
The catch: Expires 5/18/08

Sears, KMart and Land's End, retailers of fashion and home goods.
The deal: Convert your check to a Sears, K-Mart, or Land's End gift card and they'll give you another gift card worth 10% of that value. For those receiving a full $600, that's a free $60.
The catch: The offer begins May 14th and expires 7/18/08, and is only good for in-store purchases.

Home Depot, retailer of construction and home supplies.
The deal: discounts on environmentally-friendly items.
The catch: None noted.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer of home, fashion and food products.
The deal: Will cash checks free, no purchase required.
The catch: None noted.

Sam's Club, Wal-Mart's bulk sales membership-required retailer.
The deal: Free membership for non-members or a $40 gift card for existing members with purchase of selected items. Free cashing of the stimulus check.
The catch: May 18-31.

Lowe's, retailer of construction and home supplies.
The deal: Will cash checks for free, no purchase required.
The catch: None noted.

Meijer, retailer of home goods, clothes, and groceries.
The deal: $30 gift coupon for every $300 Meijer gift card purchased with rebate
The catch: Valid 5/2/08 to 5/31/08

RadioShack, nationwide vendor of electronics.
The deal: 10% off purchases over $50, with the balance of the check put on a Mastercard gift card.
The catch: Valid May 4- July 12, 2008.

Kroger, national grocery chain.
The deal: $30 bonus on every $300 purchase of store gift cards.
The catch: May 2 through July 31, 2008.

Shop 'N Save, Cub Foods, Albertsons, Acme, Farm Fresh, Jewel-Osco, groceries owned by SuperValu Co., grocers.
The deal: $30 bonus on every $300 purchase of store gift cards.
The catch: May 2 through July 31, 2008.

CVS/pharmacy, pharmacies.
The deal: For loyalty club members, $5 off a $30 purchase.
The catch: None noted.

Food Lion grocers.
The deal: $30 bonus on every $300 purchase of store gift cards.
The catch: None noted

Safeway grocers.
The deal: shoppers that cash their check at Safeway will receive a coupon good for 10% off groceries purchased within two days.
The catch: Good May 14- July 19th.

Menards, construction and home supplies, in the Midwest.
The deal: 5% bonus tacked onto store credit when you cash your check at Menards.
The catch: None noted.

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Fantastic Freebies: One-year subscription to Bridal Guide Magazine

Zac Bissonnette — 2008-05-09T00:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Fantastic Freebies

Every day, WalletPop will be bringing you information about a fantastic freebie. Like what you see? Check back tomorrow for more!

If you or someone you know is planning to get married soon -- or just likes reading about weddings -- this is great Fantastic Freebie.

If you fill out this form -- and agree to receiver emails about "special offers" from WeddingStand.com -- they'll give you a 1-year, 6-issue subscription to Bridal Guide magazine.

That subscription has a cover price of of $29.70, and the same subscription would set you back $9.97 on Amazon.

That's a heck of a deal and win-win for everyone. WeddingStand gets to add a lot of email addresses to its files and Bridal Guide gets a hefty increase in circulation, driving up ad rates.

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Take a vacation, on the government

Anne Gelhaus — 2008-05-08T19:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Extracurriculars, Travel, Recession

Wanna get away? With all apologies to Southwest Airlines, it's not looking like the travel industry is going to get a boost from Bush's economic stimulus package: Only one in five of approximately 1,000 respondents to a recent USA Today/Gallup Poll said they were likely to use part or all of their rebates for vacation or travel, and 64% said they were not at all likely to do so.

That's not stopping hotels across the country from trying to tempt Americans to stimulate the economy by indulging their wanderlust. Until May 13, travelers who book a vacation package to cities like New Orleans, New York, Vegas and Nashville through Expedia's Explore America can save up to 30% on hotel stays. But you've gotta go between May 23 and Sept. 5.

If you're looking for lodgings by the beach, a slew of Virginia Beach hotels are offering their own economic stimulus packages. Among these are a "Romantic Weekend Getaway" at the Cavalier Hotel, where for $159-$319 per night through June 19, couples can get a room and indulge in complimentary champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries, then take a free one-hour bike ride to work it all off.

If your vacation is more of a family affair, get thee to the Clarion Resort Beach Quarters Resort for its "Virginia Beach Break-Away Package": two nights' stay, tickets to the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center, tickets to the Virginia Zoo and dinner at Pi-zzeria for $399 through June.

If you are among the lucky few who can take advantage of these deals, I enviously wish you bon voyage. I'll be thinking of you as I'm using my rebate to pay for past credit indiscretions and thumbing hungrily through old vacation photos from my boom years.

Mortgage Confidential: Credit report mistakes: Fixing them the easy way

David Reed — 2008-05-08T18:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Mortgage Confidential

Mortgage expert David Reed invites Walletpop readers to ask him questions about real estate financing. leave your questions in the comment section of this post.

Credit reporting involves a massive database. A credit repository is a library full of information about the payment histories of consumers nationwide. Each time someone makes a charge on a credit card or makes a payment each month, that individual act is recorded and sent to the database for other businesses to research credit histories of potential customers to determine their creditworthiness, or lack thereof. There are three main repositories that store such consumer information; Equifax, Experian and Trans Union. It's the job of these three organizations to store credit data sent to them by merchants who in turn use those same three to research credit histories of other potential credit customers. As you might imagine, keeping this database current and accurate is a challenge. And there are plenty of mistakes going around.

Is your name Joe Smith? Then you might imagine you're not the only Joe Smith who lives in Detroit. It's possible that at some point another "Joe Smith's" credit data could be accidentally "dumped" into your credit profile without your knowing about it. When you applied for credit, did you apply as "Joseph" instead of "Joe?" Or later in life did you drop the "Joseph" altogether and just went straight for the "Joe" moniker? "Smitty" maybe? Or perhaps your name was misspelled at some point by someone else and your name appears incorrectly at the credit bureau.

Did you pay that collection account but the credit report says you didn't? That bankruptcy is not yours? Who is that other Joe Smith, anyway?!?

Continue reading Mortgage Confidential: Credit report mistakes: Fixing them the easy way

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Click here to protect your computer

Tracy Coenen — 2008-05-08T18:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Technology

Have you ever been surfing the internet, when suddenly a box pops up, suggesting your computer might be infected with a virus and you should "click here to protect your computer"?

The absolute worst thing you can do is click there. At best, these are shady advertising tactics that mislead consumers and scare them into buying software or services they may not even need. At worst, they're the product of malicious criminals who want to infect your computer with a Trojan horse and corrupt your data and/or spy on you.

These Trojan horses are often set up to log your keystrokes (keep track of everything you're typing) so that the criminals can steal your logins and passwords. With so much online banking and online bill paying, you can imagine what might happen if someone had access to all your passwords. Consider your bank account emptied, and credit cards maxed out.

So what do you do if one of these mysterious boxes pops up? Whatever you do, don't click on the box. Try to close it, and make sure that nothing is being installed on your computer. When in doubt, shut off your internet connection until you can close out the box and restart your computer if necessary. Install popup blocking software and a firewall (legitimate stuff) that will help protect your computer in the future.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

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Crime doesn't pay: dumb crook stories

Geoff Williams — 2008-05-08T17:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Extracurriculars

Crime really doesn't pay.

If you ever need reminding of that beloved chestnut, it can be good to go to a place like DumbCrooks.com or to grab a book like World's Dumbest Crooks by Allan Zullo. Or do what I do, and occasionally look for stories on the web of true tales of dumb crooks.

Here are just a sampling of some stories that have happened in the last month.

Carjacker stops to ask for directions to the bank. That was the headline of an Associated Press story in April. In Cleveland, the 19-year-old carjacker took a father and two kids hostage in their SUV and then the youthful gunman began driving around the city, looking for a U.S. Bank, apparently to drain his victim's bank.

Continue reading Crime doesn't pay: dumb crook stories

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Bike to Work Week starts Monday!

Josh Smith — 2008-05-08T17:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Transportation, Health

This coming week May 12 through 16 is Bike-to-Work Week with Friday the 16 being Bike-to-Work day. The event is sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists and has many events nationwide. The league has also provided a listing of 50 ways to enjoy the bike related festivities during May, national Bike Month. If you have organized an event in your local community as part of the celebration you can get it added to the official page of events.

Biking to work is a great way to save money on gas as it approaches the $4 mark in many areas of the country. Biking to work has many other benefits including being environmentally friendly. The exercise gained from biking to and from work even a short distance is good for your body. The savings over time for being healthy and in good shape throughout your life is worth more than most people can tally up.

If I was more of a morning person or if I lived closer to work I would definitely take advantage of Bike-to-Work week. Unfortunately I live about 20 miles one way from work and I don't have the desire to get up early enough nor do I have the physical prowess to bike 20 miles and then put in a full day's work. If my employer provided a good shower facility I might attempt to bike every now and then, so long as I had a safety net to pick me up when I fell behind.

Do any readers bike to work? How far do you go? Does your employer provide areas to benefit bikers or incentives to bike?

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Roadkill Toys: Cuddly, European-style gore!

Bruce Watson — 2008-05-08T16:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Travel

A few years back, in the hazy, mythical days of 2004, my wife and I took a trip to Eastern Europe. The dollar was strong then, and an underpaid English instructor and his bookstore-staffer girlfriend could travel like royalty on the other side of the former Iron curtain.

We wandered all over, reveling in the grotesque history of the area and its rich, potato-based cuisine. Finally, we drifted into Brno, eager to see the city's famed freeze-dried Capuchin monks. Unfortunately, the monastery was closed for the winter, but we vowed that someday, somehow, we would venture back and revel in the wonder of dead, shriveled monks.

About a year after we came back to the U.S., Gelitin, a Vienna-based art collective, unveiled what may be the coolest public art project since England's Cerne Abbas chalk sculpture. Gelitin's "Rabbit" is a 200-foot long pink bunny that is sprawled across a hill in Italy's Piedmont region. Filled with straw, the stuffed animal is made of soft cloth and features "guts" that are artfully strewn around it. Visitors are encouraged to crawl all over the bunny, reveling in its weird texture and grotesque design.

Continue reading Roadkill Toys: Cuddly, European-style gore!

Twenty great uses for your old newspaper

Josh Smith — 2008-05-08T16:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Do you still subscribe to your local newspaper? If you do, you likely have a stack of papers somewhere in the house or garage waiting to be recycled. Apartment Therapy has come up with 20 ways to recycle or reuse newspaper around your house. It turns out leftover newsprint is suited for a myriad of uses but it is especially useful for soaking up odors in many places.

If you have a smelly container, fridge or shoe stuffing some newspaper in it is likely to pull the odor and moisture out. This method of odor fighting is no doubt much cheaper than air sprays and baking soda. Other uses include keeping weeds out of your garden and as an additive to your compost pile. The uses for newspaper around your house or community abound. You can even use the newspaper to prevent icing on your car windows during the winter.

We don't get the paper at home anymore, since the idea of on time delivery eluded the local delivery boy. At work we get 3-4 papers daily which get recycled by an employee but I don't think any of the papers enjoy any of the varied recycling activities mentioned by Apartment Therapy. I enjoy using newspaper and Windex to clean my car windows as it does a great job of preventing streaking, but that is my extent of paper reuse.

Do you still get a hard copy paper? If so, what do you re-use your newspaper for?

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Make $17K for spending 90 days in bed: No sex required

Geoff Williams — 2008-05-08T15:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Extracurriculars, Wealth

There are days when I'd just like to lie in bed. All day.

If you've thought the same thing, then, boy, have I got a deal for you. Wired reports that NASA is offering a study that will pay people $17,000 to stay in bed for 90 straight days.

Of course, there's a catch or two.

Continue reading Make $17K for spending 90 days in bed: No sex required

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Cheap digs: The United Nations follows Wal-Mart's architectural lead

Bruce Watson — 2008-05-08T14:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Extracurriculars, Real Estate, Travel

Last weekend, my wife and I went to Roosevelt Island, which we had never visited before. While checking out the ruins of a former smallpox hospital and the gorgeous cherry blossoms that line the shore, we also happened to look over at the U.N. headquarters. We were horrified to discover just how dingy and nasty the structures were. While the U.N. has always been a little strange looking, it was starting to get downright grubby. The beautiful blue Secretariat tower looked grayish, and the General Assembly building, which was once gleaming white, now resembled a scuffed sneaker.

Apparently, the interior is also showing its age. Constructed in the early 1950's, the buildings have exposed asbestos insulation, dripping pipes, leaks, and lead paint. Although the U.N. is on international territory, and is thus not required to comply with New York City safety codes, it racked up an amazing 866 violations during a courtesy inspection last year. After years of spirited debate, the headquarters has finally been scheduled to undergo a massive, $1.9 billion renovation, which is expected to take five years.

Rather than find short-term housing elsewhere, the United Nations has decided to construct a gargantuan pre-fab building on the North Lawn of the complex. Ultimately, the U.N. hopes to return the North Lawn to its current, empty, state, so the new home has been designed to be "intentionally ugly," in the same style as "a Costco or a Wal-Mart." The cost of dismantling the eyesore has been factored into the overall project budget. Hopefully, this will ensure that the temporary building will be just that: temporary.

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. Having spent much of his childhood in "temporary" classrooms constructed from trailers, he hails the U.N.'s decision.

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Diabetes danger: Back away from the Burger King!

Bruce Watson — 2008-05-08T13:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Food, Home, Health

My wife and I are thinking about moving. As we've been looking at various apartments, we've had to consider the standard questions: how close is it to the subway, what is the nearest hospital, do the drug dealers seem friendly, what's the homicide rate, how many pairs of shoes are dangling from the nearby power lines...

You know, the standard Bronx questions.

One issue that we've never considered is the distance between our home and the nearest McDonald's. However, a recent study has revealed that our proximity to fast-food restaurants and convenience stores might be among the most important considerations when we choose our next home.

Continue reading Diabetes danger: Back away from the Burger King!

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High gas prices benefit some businesses beyond the fuel industry

Geoff Williams — 2008-05-08T12:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Shopping, Recession

Years ago, I was reading an Archie comic... yes, you can now either nod in appreciation or start mocking me... and earlier today, one gag that has long stuck in my head flashed back to me. Archie Andrews is going to the movies, and he sees a sign at the theater advertising something along the words of: Attractive Prices.

He goes right up to the ticket booth and discovers that the price is something shocking (given this was the 1970s, it was probably $3). Archie is indignant, asking how they could possibly advertise these prices as attractive.

And the woman at the booth smiles and says, "Well, we like it."

I thought of that when I was reading about a Harris Interactive study that was released earlier this week by iCongo, a business to business web e-commerce company. One third of American adults say that they are more likely to shop on the Internet, as opposed to going into a store, because of high gas prices.

And seeing the survey and thinking of the Archie comic is when it hit me -- not for the first time -- that what's bad for one person's wallet is usually good for another. Online retailers probably are making out better than usual right about now due to some folks thinking twice before driving out to a book or toy store. In fact, maybe some of the public are giving online grocery stores a second look. And crummy as the economy may seem, I'm betting that certain industries and niche markets are growing very nicely right now. Especially companies that conduct surveys about the shaky economy -- they must be making a killing.

Geoff Williams is a business journalist and the author of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (Rodale).

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Consumer Complaints: None at Home Depot!

Tracy Coenen — 2008-05-08T11:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Shopping, Consumer Complaints

I'm a firm believer in using the power of the internet to keep retailers and service providers honest. And I think consumers owe it to each other to report those companies that provide poor or dishonest service to their customers. But it's equally important to let the world know what you've have a great experience. Let's reward the good companies with our business!

How do I love Home Depot? Let me count the ways... I cannot remember ever going into a Home Depot and getting anything less than superb customer service. Even when they've been very busy and clearly shorthanded, I was still treated with kindness and the sales people made sure I had everything I needed (without feeling rushed).

Chalk up one more gold star for Home Depot this week. Over the weekend I found a cool refrigerator for my office. I don't need a full size refrigerator, but I wanted something a little more substantial than the typical "dorm room" model compact refrigerator. The only problem with this medium-sized refrigerator that I found at Home Depot? It doesn't fit in my car.

Continue reading Consumer Complaints: None at Home Depot!

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Last minute gifts for Mother's Day

Michele Turk — 2008-05-08T11:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Bargains, Shopping

Not only is my mother is really hard to buy for, she's a bit ungrateful to boot. She told my sister yesterday not to get her a gift for Mother's Day because she was probably going to have to return it anyway. Nonetheless, I can't show up at her house empty-handed, so I began to look though my emails for ideas for last minute Mother's Day gifts that might pass muster. Here's a roundup of what I found:

Flowers: I recommend 1800flowers, where you can opt for fresh flowers or plants. I'm considering the gardenia (mom's favorite flower) in a green planter for $29.99. If you order-and have them delivered today-there's free shipping although some products are not eligible. Also, you can save money by ordering bouquets without a vase, which most moms have plenty of.

Continue reading Last minute gifts for Mother's Day

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Home owner's insurance tip of the day

Geoff Williams — 2008-05-08T10:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Home, Insurance

About seven years ago, shortly after my wife and I moved into our house, it started raining, and the roof began leaking. We hadn't been in the house a year, and so naturally we wondered if the previous owners of our home knew anything about this. But I hardly had time to dwell on the dampness of our new dwelling. About two months after filing a claim to have some roofers make some repairs, a lightning strike took out our sump pump in the basement in the middle of the night, and when I came downstairs in the morning, I was stepping onto a wet, mushy carpet underneath about two inches of water.

Before the water even receded, we filed another claim, foolishly thinking that that's what a home owner should do. What can I say? We were young and stupid. Almost needless to say, we were told that our policy wouldn't replace the soon-to-be-molding carpet and received a check for a few hundred dollars to replace my damaged fax machine and other random items in my home office. Then, as anyone experienced in this sort of thing can predict -- our insurance dropped us. Our crime? Filing too many claims. Two in about six months, in fact. I still sometimes lie awake at night, feverish and guilt-ridden for having the temerity to use my home owner's insurance.

Continue reading Home owner's insurance tip of the day

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Rushing to save one cent per envelope

Tracy Coenen — 2008-05-08T09:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Bargains

First class postage is going from 41 cents to 42 cents for a regular sized envelope on Monday. And the U.S. Postal Service is selling tons of "Forever stamps" to people who want to save a penny. I'm all for being frugal, but rushing out to buy special stamps that will save me a penny per envelope isn't high on my priority list. (Especially since I use so few stamps these days thanks to online bill pay.)

Since the Forever stamp was created, the USPS has sold about 6 billion of them. The stamps are sold at the current postage rate, but can be used at any time in the future. So you can buy them today for 41 cents each and still use them when the rate goes up to 42 cents or higher. And there are lots of people doing just that this week.

I guess it makes sense. That penny you save is 2.4% of the current postage rate. Depending on when you use a Forever stamp, that could be considered quite an investment. But I'm not impressed enough to go buy any. I probably mail about 5 envelopes a month. I'm not wasting my time going to the post office to buy special stamps just so I can save 5 cents a month. I'll leave the Forever stamps for the other postal customers who are excited about them.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

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Fantastic Freebies! Tree seeds

Zac Bissonnette — 2008-05-08T00:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Fantastic Freebies

Every day, WalletPop will be bringing you information about a fantastic freebie. Like what you see? Check back tomorrow for more!

Here's one that will make the green-lovers feel all warm and fuzzy: Planting America will mail you the seeds to plant your very own tree. They currently have Colorado Blue Spruce, Englemann Spruce, River Birch, Paper Birch, and Red Spruce. They have all the information you need to figure out which tree will work in your climate. From the site:

Why do we give away free seeds? In an effort to plant as many trees in as many places around the country as possible, we are offering a variety of free tree seeds. Look at the list below and find a tree that suits your area and your needs. Please refer to the sowing instructions we have supplied for the best chances of success. Fill out our order form and you will receive a minimum of 250 seeds in a few days for free!* If you do not plan to plant your seeds immediately upon arrival, please refrigerate them, but they do not have an immense shelf-life and would most likely survive if planted in the spring. Thanks for helping out the Planting America cause and making your community a bit greener. We ship our seeds on Fridays.

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