3 tips to optimize your holiday spending

By Justin Boyle

Black Friday gets its name from the huge volume of retail sales that takes place on the day after Thanksgiving. That is, retailers can count on a massive influx of business to put their ledgers back into the black. To add even more income to the pile, retailers throw big sales and offer great deals to bring larger numbers of people through the doors.

Some of the deals available on Black Friday sound so good that you might be willing to put yourself in the red to make sure you catch them. This quick guide to managing your money throughout the holiday season can help keep your credit safe from the Black Friday rush, as well as leave you sitting pretty when January rolls around...

By Justin Boyle

Can you make money off of your credit card? For years, I didn't realize that you could.

When I was first introduced to personal banking products such as credit cards and savings accounts decades ago, I spent some idle time wondering if the seemingly tiny percentages called "interest rates" could amount to any kind of real money. I was sort of a math kid, so I worked out that the 1.59 percent APY on the $50 I'd just deposited with my neighborhood bank branch would earn me 79-1/2 cents if I let it sit unspent in my account for a full year. Oh well, I thought, maybe they'll round up that half-penny and I'll get a cool $0.80.

It was a surprise to me to learn, much later, that sharp-eyed, enterprising customers have figured out how to use credit cards to turn earned interest into significant supplemental income...

By Joshua Wong

I bought my son a Leapster Explorer last Christmas (actually, Santa delivered it) and while the upfront cost was expected, the ancillary costs of this toy started to add up fast.

We bought two games to go with it from the start, but soon enough our son's interest in those waned, so we agreed to buy him two more. At $25 each, the hidden costs of owning a game system for my son's little hands were increasing. That's where we stopped, but there are many other toys with accessories that can get parents wishing that Santa had left the toy at the North Pole...

By Justin Boyle

We've all heard "the customer is always right." You might go as far as to say that we live in the age of the customer. Customer service is emphasized as a driver of business success in several industries in the U.S., and companies tend to take that to heart. I spent a few years in the customer service trade, myself, helping put a pleasant face and voice on computer support, sandwiches and Cadillacs.

Nearly every worker in a commercial environment, from butchers to bakers to BLT makers, is trained to consider the customer first. With this being the case, why are members of the online community crying out about poor customer service from the best banks? I got a hold of an expert in the field of customer service, as well as a banking executive, to try and sort it out...

By Justin Boyle

When I moved to Texas, I needed a new checking account. I had previously lived in Phoenix, Arizona, and had almost exclusively used a local credit union to store and borrow money. Wells Fargo was the only option I could find that offered a no-fee account (at the time, in 2004, they did), so I entered the world of the national bank customer.

I harbor no regrets about opening that account, especially since it served to establish in-state residency and made it possible for me to afford to go back to school the following year. Now, though, some Wells Fargo customers might begin to have second thoughts about their choice of banking institution. Let's take a look at why.

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...