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So much for a locals discount. With action at the 2011 Rugby World Cup just weeks from starting in host country New Zealand, sporting goods giant Adidas decided to charge 220 Kiwi dollars (about US$182) for a jersey of New Zealand’s national team, the hugely popular All Blacks. What makes this qualify as an extraordinary [...]
Remember “Cash for Clunkers” — that stimulus program that got Americans to buy, by one estimate, 125,000 new cars? It cost $3 billion. Any guesses as to how much money is set aside for housing stimulus that remains unspent? According to an article about mortgage refinancing in The New York Times, a little more than $20 billion.
The ninth circle of customer service hell usually begins with a phone call looped through a maddeningly automated system known as IVR (Interactive Voice Response)—you know, the one in which you “Press 1 to continue in English” and “Listen closely to our list of options, as they may have changed.” Turns out, not all Internet [...]
Like the rest of the market, bank stocks have taken a beating in August, led by Bank of America, which is down 40% over the past four weeks. But investors waded back into the sector Wednesday, propelled by a surprisingly upbeat assessment of BofA that pushed its shares up almost 11% for the day.
Frozen dinner … again. But maybe that’s not such a bad thing. For busy families hoping to save time and money, a favorite new meal-preparing strategy involves setting aside one day a month to cook—and then freeze—an entire month’s worth of dinners. Once everything’s squared away in the freezer, “cooking” supper consists of nothing more [...]
The past few years have been rough on real-estate values and employment figures, which translates to a third category that’s been trampled in the aftermath of the Great Recession: consumer credit scores. According to research from Credit Karma, the average credit score nationwide dropped to 665 this year compared with 2009, when the average was [...]
A car dealership service manager confesses that maintenance bills are routinely inflated with unnecessary fluid flushes and replacements, nickel-and-dime charges for regularly used “shop supplies” like rags and lubricants, and parts that the car owner could buy for 30% less at a store like AutoZone.
— MATTHEW GILBERT, in a column bashing the shortcomings of 3-D TV, particularly the lack of quality programs [via the Boston Globe]
Among the current top offers from national restaurant chains are buy one, get one free breakfasts and dinners, kids eat free promos, and a straightup free steak dinner—no strings attached, no purchase required—from Outback Steakhouse.
Hey, kids! Start saving your lawn-mowing or babysitting money. As the cost of higher education skyrockets, the amount parents are contributing has shrunk significantly since the pre-recession years. According to Fidelity Investments’ fifth annual College Savings Indicator, today’s parents are on track to cover only 16 percent of their kids’ college costs, down from 24 percent when [...]
We hear a lot of economy-related questions lately along the lines of, “How do I know who to believe?” It’s a good question, and relevant not just in personal finance. But the problem is that we tend to follow the most sure-minded among us, regardless of how reliable we know their views to be.
