Archive for October 2011

By Jeffrey Steele

World Series of Credit Cards: Game 7

There are few sports events more thrilling or dramatic than the winner-takes-all seventh game of the Major League Baseball World Series. The same can be said for this Game 7 of the Money Blue Book World Series of Credit Cards. Winner takes all in this climactic locking of horns between two highly competitive low APR credit cards, the Chase Freedom and the Simmons First Visa Platinum.

As we've done throughout this series, let's go strength by strength through each of these competitors' lineups, to determine which has the edge. And we'll begin, of course, with the low interest rates offered by each of these standout credit cards...

By Angela Spires

Join the "Extreme Couponing" TweetChat on Wed. Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. Eastern / 4 p.m. Pacific. Hosted by GetRichSlowly.org. #moolah

With tough economic times, the rise of the electronic coupon has now become viral and is spreading through the Internet at an unprecedented rate. According to eMarketer.com, 88.2 million U.S. consumers plan on using online coupons in 2011. From groceries to gifts to vacations, electronic coupons are just a click away to putting more money in your online savings account and more products in your hands.

My sister had always wanted flying lessons, which often run $200 to $300. Last year on Groupon I found a first flight lesson for $100, saving me $150 off the regular price and giving my sister a memory that she will have for life.

Today, having Internet access means having the ability to cut your grocery bills down, buy holiday gifts at half price, and save money on vacations for your family...

By Jeffrey Steele

World Series of Credit Cards: Game 6

Editor's Note:  These offers have expired and are no longer available.

In this installment of the Money Blue Book World Series of Credit Cards and Charge Cards, we've got two competitors intent on really getting down to business. On the field of battle, they're invariably all business, because theirs is the business of business credit cards.

Let's run down the biggest business attributes of these two arch-rivals, the Ink Cash Business Credit Card from Chase and The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN, and see which is likely to have business travelers on their side.

By Jeffrey Steele

World Series of Credit Cards: Game 5

Having made it past the halfway mark of the Money Blue Book World Series of Credit Cards, we now look forward to Game 5, a dogfight involving airline credit cards. Pitting the Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card against the Chase Sapphire Card, this promises to be a high-flying duel.

Let's look at the pitches in the repertoires of both teams.

By Megg Mueller

The sub sandwich chain will accept the one-tap payments in its stores by early next year.

By Richard Barrington

If you are looking to save a few dollars this Halloween, you can get your chills without springing for a haunted hayride in a dark cornfield or a creature feature at your local movie theater. All you need to be truly frightened is to read the latest economic news.

In fact, the U.S. economy lately has resembled something out of a zombie movie - shuffling along, somewhere between life and death. Here are the five scariest things about this economy right now:

1. Gruesome employment numbers. Have you ever had a nightmare where you are running and running but can't seem to get anywhere? That's what this job market feels like. After all, we are supposedly more than two years into an economic recovery, yet unemployment remains stubbornly high.

   Worse, what job growth there is seems to be slowing. In the past five months, the U.S. economy has added a net total of just 360,000 jobs; in the prior five months, this figure had been 866,000. Overall, the U.S. lost more than 8.6 million jobs in 2008 and 2009, and has since replaced barely 2 million of those jobs.

2. Threatening levels of consumer debt. Some people focus on consumer confidence--the economy would get moving again if people would just buck up and start spending. Underlying the lack of consumer confidence, however, is a more fundamental problem - heavy debt burdens...