Consumer's Edge Special Consumer Alert: LivingSocial Hacked

To my readers, I just read a news report that LivingSocial, purveyor of daily deals, has been hacked.  You can read the story here.  As a precaution, the CEO has reset all passwords and is recommending customers change theirs on other sites which use the same password.  For example, if you use the same password for credit card accounts, bills, banks, etc. change immediately.

Like many, we have multiples of accounts for e-mail at work, home, banking, credit cards, etc.  It can be tempting to use the same passwords for each, but it is not advisable.  For some tips on creating, and remembering passwords, I consulted this article, which among other tips, suggests using pass phrases: thecatatemylunchwhileiwatched, for example, is not one that would be easily guessed.

Stay safe.

--The Edge

Your consumer questions answered..

To supplement blog posts this week, I am opening up the floor to your pressing consumer questions about what you can do to save money and get that Edge.  Do you have a question on how to maximize your grocery dollar?  Wonder how you can lower your cable bill?  The sky is the limit.

Feel free to write me @ theconsumersedge@gmail.com.  I will do my best to answer them and post the questions and responses on the blog.  Fire away.

Track your spending with these free and low-cost tools

Now that we are into the New Year, it's a good idea to look back at your expenses from 2009 and see where you spent your money.  If you don't use one already, popular, easy-to-use budgeting software can greatly aid in tracking your financial life. After some initial set up, you can typically automatically download your transactions, reducing the need for manual entry, which can cause mistakes.  Basic editions of these programs retail for about $30. More advanced features, such as investment advice, are in pricier versions.

Alternatively, using credit/debit cards to the extent possible (responsibly, now) is another method to account for your spending, albeit quick and dirty.  Every time you make a purchase, your transactions should be grouped into major categories on your statements.  They might not always be 100% accurate, but with some deduction, any incorrectly categorized purchases should be easily spotted.  And, you might be able to reassign the category right on your credit/debit card’s website.  By early January, or your next billing cycle, there should also be a summary provided to you of your 2009 purchases, which is a handy, at-a-glance way of seeing where you spent your money.

Another tracking option is to take advantage of personal finance management tools, such as Mint, Wesabe, and Yodlee. The benefit of these is that they are free, available on-line, and can track more than just banking transactions. If you are so inclined, you can track your entire financial existence to include mortgages, credit cards, retirement, bill pay, and rewards programs accounts.  Look for a handy snapshot feature that shows the balances of all of these accounts on one page. In a second, and without cumbersome calculations, you can see your entire net worth.

Regardless of which one of three methods you use, traditional software, credit/debit card statements, or the websites mentioned, there’s little excuse left for not being able to see where your money is going in 2010.

A day in the life of saving money, earning rewards points and discounts

While it’s very easy to discuss strategies in saving money, it might be more useful to demonstrate how one can do it. This advice is best meant for people who are already planning on doing the following, rather than advocating that it be done just for the sake of doing so.  Here goes:

Wake up, head down to your local Mc Donald's (or other major coffee purveyor), and take advantage of free wi-fi, and grab a coffee. Starting in January, Mc Donald's will offer customers free wi-fi.  As wi-fi becomes more of a necessity (or commodity) paying for it might become a thing of the past one day.  If you are there long enough, grab yourself a free refill just for the asking.

If it’s the weekend, you might just mill around a while until lunch time happens in which case be sure to take advantage of last minute discounts on lunch delivery/take out from Allmenus online ordering service.  Register with them and be sure to sign up for their emails.

Later, if you are feeling a bit sluggish, take your pre-tax, subsidized fare card to Metro and ride it to your local Gold’s Gym and take advantage of the reduced rate membership you got with your employer. You did remember to sign up, right?

After a recharge, you might start thinking about the evening’s activities which could include making a point-earning reservation with Open Table. It’s free, guarantees you a seat, and you earn points towards dining discounts.  Before you made your reservation, did you check to see if you can earn frequent flyer miles, too? Your favorite restaurant may participate in the Idine program as well which will give set miles/dollar spent in their network of restaurants. That $100 dinner just yielded you 300 or more miles—and you didn’t even leave your table.  That program is free, you just need to register a credit/debit card.

So your favorite restaurant doesn’t participate in Idine? Don’t worry, you can still save with a Restaurant.com dining certificate. These certificates, which hover around $25, normally cost $10 a piece, with a minimum spending/tip requirement, but with a promotion code, which is easily found via Google, you can bring your dining certificate cost down to about $3.  That’s about an 88% return on your $3 spent on the certificate,  not bad.

But be sure you do your math before you purchase it. The minimum spending requirement may be more than you would have normally, especially since the certificate might not be eligible for alcoholic drinks with your food.  More than likely, you will walk away ahead on the deal, though.  Those certs make great gifts, too.
Also check to see if the restaurant for which you are buying a certificate participates in Idine as well.  A recent check indicated that there definitely are ones that participate in at least two of these programs. Thus, aim to eat out where you can take advantage of them simultaneously.

The day is over, time to think about how you will save tomorrow.  So, look for more strategies such as these in future posts.