With the recent reports of Toyota’s suddenly accelerating, Consumers Report released a video of how to stop your car if it suddenly accelerates.  Very good advice given in the video.

Lexington Law is offering a free eBook titled, “Credit Revolution- Path of the Smart Consumer“.  The eBook offers numerous tips for dealing with creditors with real life stories and free consultation.

The eBook is written by three heavy-hitters in the Credit Repair field with over 40 years of combined experience. The eBook pulls back the curtain on the inner workings of the credit reporting world and outlines what you can do to make it work for you.

This eBook is an exclusive offer and is available for a limited time only.

Some of what’s inside of the 151 page book includes:

• Page 10 – The truth behind statements like “Only time can cure bad credit”
• Page 41 – Six real-life stories prove credit reporting is not black-and-white
• Page 73 – Four tips for dealing with creditors while you repair your credit
• Page 94 – The real reason why bad credit can stay on your reports 7 years
• Page 104 – Three things you think would raise your credit score but do not
• Page 111 – Five life events that can unfairly destroy your credit rating

Download your free ebook.

Credit cards are easy to abuse, but if used correctly, you can use them to your advantage.  I try to use my credit card for everything possible for cashback and rewards.  Over the years I’ve received thousands of dollars in cashback and free airline tickets.  I never worry about the interest rate, because I always pay off the balance.  So far this year I’ve gotten back almost $1,600 in cashback from American Express thanks to personal and business spending.

However, credit cards are not only a convenient way of paying for things, they can also protect you.  Depending on your credit card, services may include fraud and identity theft protection, purchase protection, travel assistance, rental car insurance and credit protection.  Some of these services maybe free with your credit card or cost a small fee.  Check with your credit card company to determine what type of protection you can receive, especially the free ones.

Credit Card Security
U.S. law limits your liability for unauthorized purchases on your credit card to only $50; however, many credit card companies will waive this amount.

Purchase Protection
According to The federal Fair Credit Billing Act, you are allowed to withhold payment for damaged or low quality goods or services purchased with your credit card, as long as you first try to resolve the problem with the merchant. This is subject to certain limitations; however, many credit card issuers have gone far beyond the legal requirements.

Many credit cards offer extended protection against theft or damage, or may reimburse you the difference if you find the same item for a lower price.  Again, you will have to check with your credit card company to determine if this is offered.

Travel Assistance
Many credit cards also offer many different services for travelers that may include roadside assistance, flight insurance and baggage protection. The major credit card companies may also offer emergency assistance to travelers, via a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week hotline.

Rental Car Insurance
Most credit cards companies offer rental car loss and damage insurance if the rental car is paid for with their card. Even if you have car insurance, your credit card company may cover the deductible.

Credit Protection
If you are concerned about your ability to make card payments when times get hard, most credit card companies offer optional plans that will cancel or suspend your monthly minimum credit card payment during certain protected events. Credit Protection products come with a fee, but can be helpful in case of an emergency.

Get paid completing online surveys.  One of the better online survey companies is Pinecone Research which pays $3 (by check or PayPal) for each 15 minutes survey.  Getting accepted into Pinecone maybe difficult because at times they stop taking new members.  However, you are in luck, Pinecone is currently taking new members.

Five other survey companies that are good are SurveySawy, MySurvey, Opinion Outpost, BzzAgent, and GlobalTestMarket.  These companies will consistently send you paid opportunities.

Remember to never pay to do online surveys.  There are many companies charging one time fees or membership fees to give access to online surveys.  They may also promise that you can make a lot of money completing online surveys.  This simply isn’t true.  These companies are scams.  

Completing online surveys can’t replace your income and you will never get rich doing them.  However, if you want an extra $30 to $50 per month, then you may want to complete online surveys.  Of course the more online survey companies you apply to, the more opportunities you will have.  So if you have time and don’t mind completing surveys apply to as many as possible.

Debit cards have taken over credit cards.  So when should you use your credit card vs. your debit card.  Like most things in life, it depends.

When to Use a Credit Card
You want to use a credit card when making big ticket purchases such as a HD TV or computer, especially if you are making the purchase online.  If there is a problem with your purchase, you can contact your credit card company to withhold payment. With a debit card, the money is deducted from your checking account immediately and it may take days or weeks to resolve the issue with the merchant.

Credit card companies such as American Express add up to 1 year to the manufacturer’s warranty on products you buy using their credit card.  You may also get additional protection from theft, damage and identity protection.  Many credit card companies also offer 24 hours roadside emergency assistance, travel insurance, car rental loss and damage insurance.

When using a debit card for some hotels, restaurants, car rental companies and gas stations, a hold maybe placed on money in your checking account until the debit transaction is processed.  This may take up to several days for signature-based payments.  The amount that’s held may be much more than the amount of your purchase.  The money held can prevent you from accessing the money in your account and could result in bounced checks, declined transactions or overdraft charges.

Earning Rewards
Very few debit cards offer reward programs and if they do, the reward programs are not as good as credit cards.  Using debit cards will not maximize your cash back or points you can earn.  However, credit card rewards tend to have the highest interest rates, so if you don’t payoff your balance in full each month, don’t use a reward credit card.

Your Liability
Per federal law, liability for fraudulent charges on debit cards can be greater than it is for credit cards.  You are responsible for up to $50 for fraudulent purchases on your credit card, however, for your debit card, you can lose up to $500 if you don’t report the loss or theft of your card or PIN with 2 business days of finding the problem.  Additionally, if you do not report the fraudulent charge within 60 days of the date of the statement that lists them, you maybe held liable for any unauthorized withdrawals after that date.

MasterCard and Visa offer “zero liability” policies that is beyond federal law by exempting debit cardholders from liability in most cases when a bank investigation confirms a transaction is fraudulent.  However, there are loopholes in those policies that may allow people who create fake ATM or debit cards by stealing your PIN and other account data to simply pull cash from your bank account. By using a scheme called “skimming”, they use equipment to capture the magnetic-stripe and keypad information when you enter your PIN at ATMs, gas pumps, restaurants, and retailers.

Betterment.com (a new startup) wants to replace your bank’s saving account, which pays almost nothing; to an investment account that promises to pays more.  (See video below).

Savings accounts are simple and low risk with low interest rates.  Investment account may promise higher returns, however, they can often be complex and confusing.  Betterment has created a new category that offers the returns of investing with less complexity or hassle.

When customers deposit money in their Betterment account, the money is invested in their chosen blend of diverse stocks or a portfolio of US Treasury bonds.   Customers can allocate funds between these two investment options, setting the level of risk they’re comfortable with. Opening an account takes about 5 minutes, there’s no minimum balance, and transfers are free.

When customers deposit money with Betterment, their money is transferred to Betterment Securities (their broker-dealer), with instructions to buy ETFs (exchange-traded funds, similar to mutual funds) based on their desired allocation between stocks and bonds. Customers own shares in the ETFs, while Betterment recommends and manages buying and selling.

Betterment charges an annual fee of 0.9%, based on a customer’s average balance which is a quarter percent lower than the average mutual fund fee and much less than the average amount banks make off of customer deposits.

Betterment is a Registered Investment Advisor and Betterment Securities is a broker-dealer regulated by FINRA and the SEC. Betterment’s SIPC coverage means that the securities in user accounts are protected up to $500,000 (for more information, visit www.sipc.org).

Since Betterment invests customer’s money in the stock market, they can lose money if the market goes down.  Balances will fluctuate based on market conditions.  Over the long term customers should get a much better return that their savings account.

Betterment currently only operates in the United States.

Betterment.com is currently offering $25 when you open a new account. For more information visit Betterment.com. 

If you use many of Google’s services like I do, be aware that Google stores a ton of information about you and your Internet activities which includes visited sites, search terms used, maps displayed, email contacts, calendar data, emails, chat history, phone records (via Google Voice), Google/YouTube videos, Picasa photos, documents you store online (via Google Documents), Google Checkout to buy and sell products/services, Google Buzz updates (similar to Twitter) and advertising (via Google Adwords).   If you use an Android handset, Google also stores your cell phone data.  

If the authorities want to know what you have been up to, they can subpoena Google to hand over a mountain of information about you.  Google also retains data for many years.  So information about you can be obtained from many years ago.

Additionally, identity thieves are a huge threat!  Getting access to your Gmail account will unlock every other Google service.  Last October, it was reported that thousands of Gmail, AOL, MSN, Hotmail and Yahoo accounts were accessed via a phishing scheme.

So be extremely careful the information you give Google.  You may want to consider using other services to spread the risk.  You can visit www.google.com/dashboard to find out what information you are sharing and adjust your security settings.  It’s always a good idea to use passwords that are hard to guess by using symbols and upper/lower case letters.  If your Google account is ever stolen or hacked, you can use Google’s account-recovery page at https://www.google.com/support/accounts/.