In a controversial move, many leading retailers are opening earlier than the traditional 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. time on Friday morning. Many will be opening at midnight, and Wal Mart is going a step further and opening at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. This means that for all the die hards who wait in line to be among the first shoppers making a mad rush into the store to scramble for the very best low priced deals, they will have to now essentially stay up all night. Employees too are having to sacrifice family time, to show up for work in the middle of the night. So, instead of watching a football game with uncles they will have to take a nap to prepare for the all nighter.

Best Buy

Best Buy is offering a free Blu Ray player when you purchase a Sprint smart phone. Or how about this, a 55″ LCD tv for under a thousand bucks. Its top doorbuster sale is a 42-inch 1080p Sharp LCD TV for just $199.99. (Another doorbuster is a Toshiba Blu-ray player for a mere $39.99.) That beats the 40-inch Element LCD that Target is offering for $265.

Wal Mart/h2>

Walmart Kicks-off Three Black Friday Events starting at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Today on Thursday, November 10, 2011 the Walmart Black Friday flier was released on Facebook and Walmart.com. It is supposed to help families with their Christmas shopping and to save them money. There are three special-shopping events. The first one is for toys, home, and apparel starting at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day(November 24th). The second event starts at midnight on Black Friday(November 25th). This second event is for electronics. The third event starts at 8 a.m. on November 25th through the weekend. It is for presents for the entire family and electronics. These events are good while supplies last. You can get the hot new Xbox release Batman, Arkham City for under $30, a 50% discount.

Target

Target seems to have Best Buy and Walmart beat n base models of video game consoles. It’s offering a 4GB Xbox 360 for a mere $139.99 and a 160GB PlayStation 3 for $199. only one other Black Friday TV deal: the 32-inch Samsung LN32D403 for $277.99, which is about $50 less than what Amazon is selling it for now.

Amazon

Amazon knows when you are looking for its Black Friday deals, because when you Google it and hit an Amazon page, it actually lists early Black Friday deals tailor made for you, based on your previous browsing history. Of course, Amazon offers some nice deals in Electronics, such as 30% savings on a Leap Pad Leapster. Or $3.99 for the latest Harry Potter DVD. You can also sign up for the daily deal of the day delivered to you via email.

Black Friday Deals is a post from: MiCash Prepaid MasterCard

Toys R Us had a problem back in 2009, reports the Consumerist, of accidentally double charging some customers for their purchases. However, the store credited everyone who experienced a double charge for the erroneous charge.

Toys R Us accepts Visa and MasterCard debit, prepaid, and credit cards. They do NOT accept personal checks, COD or layaway plans.

Toys-R-Us Debit Cards is a post from: MiCash Prepaid MasterCard

Bank Transfer Day happened Nov. 4, 2011. It was the brainchild of a fed up consumer, Kristen Christian, who set up a Facebook page to encourage people to send big banks like Chase, Citigroup, and Bank of America a message by transferring their accounts to credit unions or smaller banks that presumably would provide more personalized service and not have excessive fees. Even though Bank of America backed down from its plans to charge most of its individual account holders a $5 a month fee for the privilege of accessing their own money via a debit card, and other banks followed suit, consumers are still mistrustful. Will big banks continue to seek ways to recoup their lost profits from the new consumer protection laws that among many changes lowered the swipe fees banks could charge merchants for every debit card transaction.

If one person can set up a Facebook page and get more than 80,000 people to pledge to close their bank accounts with big banks, where does it end? After all, governments have fallen in the Middle East during the Arab Spring, thanks in part to the power of social media to unit people in protest. Now Occupy Wall Street has captures the imagination of Americans fed up with income inequality, and the sense that the levers of power around the world are controlled entirely by the financial elite. When voting doesn’t seem to change anything, more people are captivated by the idea that change can happen when people unite in collective actions such as public demonstrations, boycotts of certain products, or selective transactions.

Can just 80,000 people moving their money into credit unions make a difference? According to Forbes magazine: “If the 80,000 signed up for Bank Transfer Day indeed move their money, they stand to save a combined $4.8 million a year as credit union members save on banking fees, states Bill Cheney, CEO of CUNA. If over 400,000 consumers made the switch, they’d stand to save about $29.8 million just by joining a credit union. When you look at what consumers could gain and not just what banks would lose, it becomes a positive movement with long-standing legs.”

Think about the environmental movement and the countless concessions big businesses have made to “go green.” Grocery stores now all offer reusable grocery bags as an option at check out, for example. Trucking companies are switching to bio-diesel fuels.

People are outraged at other fees such as overdraft fees and transfer fees. And small business owners are frustrated that banks have tightened up their lending policies to the point that it is very difficult for them to get loan to expand their business. While banks have not signalled any concern about individuals closing their accounts, since each account does not represent a large deposit, they have discussed concerns about business closing business accounts. If enough small businesses closed their accounts, it would likely result in banks pivoting to create new programs to try and lure them back, or keep them from leaving in the first place. In the end, the power of the purse is the best lever individuals have, because when they band together in collective action such as Bank Transfer Day, it gets the attention of the media, and in turn, attention of big business, politicians, and big finance.

Is Bank Transfer Day a Trend? is a post from: MiCash Prepaid MasterCard

The background image on the face of the card is the Washington DC metro, itself a classic design. Since we are headquartered in historic Georgetown, we felt the image was appropriate. However, it is subtle. More of a texture behind the blackness of the card. A few years ago, credit card companies came out with solid black cards, dark blue cards, and platinum cards, all to try and stand out from the average card. Some prepaid cars stand out by being gaudy, with lots of bright colors, and lots of words. Our card isn’t like that.

You’ll be proud to pull out the MiCash Prepaid Mastercard card when dining out, or making purchases in a store. It lets everyone know that you have the power to control your finances.

Beautiful Debit Card is a post from: MiCash Prepaid MasterCard

According to NPR, “The National Consumer Law Center, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, confirms deficiency judgments appear to be going up across the country. How that plays out depends on state law. Geoff Walsh is a staff attorney with the organization. He says approximately 40 states, including Idaho, allow lenders to sue former homeowners for the amount of the mortgage that remains after a foreclosure.”

Anti Deficiency Laws

As a form of relief from some aspects of foreclosure, some states have “anti-deficiency” laws, which protect purchasers of residential real property used as primary residence.Anti-deficiency laws typically provide no protection for second mortgages or home equity lines. Also, there is no protection when the property is not used as the primary residence of the purchaser.

In a typical foreclosure, if the purchaser fails to make the mortgage payment the property is foreclosed and title is obtained by the lender through a legal procedure. The property is then typically sold to pay the mortgage, and a deficiency between the sale price and the outstanding balance of the mortgage usually exists. Under anti-deficiency laws, if the mortgage is for the purchase of a dwelling occupied by the purchaser, the purchaser will not be held responsible for any deficiency. The lender can only recover the property and the proceeds of a subsequent sale. The purchaser does not pay any deficit between the sale proceeds and the outstanding loan balance. This allows the purchaser to walk away from a property without owing a deficiency judgment amount.

States that have statutes in place to prevent banks from going after a deficiency include:

Alaska
Arizona
California
Connecticut
Florida
Idaho
Minnesota
North Carolina
North Dakota
Texas
Utah
Washington

In some states, banks are only allowed to file a single lawsuit to collect a mortgage debt. How this plays out varies by state. In New York, for example, a lender must choose between the actions of foreclosing on the property or suing to collect the debt. The following states have some type of one action statute:

California
Idaho
Montana
Nevada
New York
Utah

How to Avoid a Deficiency

It pays to contact your bank as soon as you can’t make a mortgage payment. Try to get a loan modification, or a reduction in the principle. As long as you continue to make payments, you may qualify for the new federal program propose d by the Obama administration to make it easier to refinance a mortgage, provided you have stayed current on payments for more than six months. Talking to the bank can be painful, and the bank will continue to call you for status updates, but it’s better to try to do a short sale (selling your home for less than you paid for it) with the bank’s approval, than simply walking away and letting the foreclosure go through. You may be able to work out a deed in lieu of foreclosure. This type of mortgage default requires the cooperation of both the lender and the borrower. It is fast and inexpensive because both parties agree to transfer the property to lender, avoiding the time and expense of foreclosure. Another way to avoid a deficiency is to declare bankruptcy. Even the threat of declaring bankruptcy can get the bank to cave in and reach some sort of settlement, as in the case of the Jensens. The earlier you settle, the lower the settlement is likely to be.

In the end, losing one’s home is perhaps one of the most stressful things that can happen in life. On top of this stress, the last thing anyone needs is to have the threat of the bank that gave you the mortgage come after you, even years later.

Bad Trend: Banks Squeezing People After Foreclosing on Them is a post from: MiCash Prepaid MasterCard

These “Pop Up” stores are a phenomenon of the past decade or so, and the trend continues. In this down economy there is no shortage of empty retail space. Holiday themed store can generate a lot of traffic in a short period of time, as just about every family with kids will be in the market for Halloween costumes and decorations. The trend of adults wearing costumes to costume parties only fuel the trend. And next month you can be sure to see similar stores for Christmas. These stores sell Christmas trees, Christmas tree ornaments, wreaths, lights and other Christmas-related items.

It is a fact of retail life that 80 percent of sales happen in the last two months of the year. So, for certain retailers like Halloween stores and Christmas stores, it makes sense to only be open these few weeks during the holiday season, and save on the expenses of rent and employee salaries the remainder of the year. .

What does this mean for you, the consumer? In short, some good deals. Pop up stores still have to compete against established chains such as Target and Wal Mart. Since most of the employees of these stores are temporary part time workers without the overhead costs of healthcare that come with full time workers, labor costs are low. Rents are low, because the building landlords stuck with an otherwise empty building would rather collect a low rent than no rent at all. These savings are then passe don to the consumer. Thirdly, these pop up stores get merchandise in bulk, sometimes from Chinese manufacturers and off brands, for more savings.

The trend of pop up retailing is also hot right now in clothing manufacturing. Hot young designers trying to make a name for themselves may pitch a tent in street beside a well known shopping district, and sell their clothes at a steep discount. These tent locations (and at times truck locations) can offer exceptional deals.

You can do a Google search for “pop up” retailer based on your zip code to see what’s available in your area.

Happy Halloween!

Pop Up Halloween Stores is a post from: MiCash Prepaid MasterCard

The problem is that people seldom borrow the money for one month and pay it all back the next month. Typically, they roll over the loan, and try to keep up with the high interest rate. What happens is a harsh cycle of constant payment of interest owed, and taking out a new loan to get you through to the next pay period. After a year of this, you wind up having paid far more in interest than your original first payday loan.

Because payday loan places are considered predatory lenders, taking advantage of low income people, many states have banned them outright or severely restricted what they can do. Thus, many payday loan companies with physical locations have closed up shop and went online instead. They have also gotten around new laws, by rebranding themselves and “micro loan” companies along the lines of quite legitimate nonprofits such as Kiva.org. They also try to get through a loophole in the law to say that their loan is an “auto loan” when in reality, they aren’t selling you a car directly, and aren’t requiring proof that you are actually using the loan to by a car.

Now, apparently, the FTC is going after the worst offenders. A recent post on the FTC’s web page describes a District Court case brought by the FTC against Payday Financial, LLC, doing business as Lakota Cash and Big Sky Cash, who allegedly send documents to their borrowers’ employers that mimic a garnishment by the Federal government. The FTC alleges that these lenders illegally revealed consumers’ unproven debts to their employers and deprived consumers of their right to dispute the debts or make payment arrangements. The complaint further alleges that lender “…misrepresented to employers that the defendants are legally authorized to garnish an employee’s wages, without first obtaining a court order.”

While not as bad as payday lenders, banks are also getting in on sucking in high profits on the backs of people who are tempted to get quick cash for short term needs at high interest. One typical method is to offer a payday loan if you keep a minimum deposit of say $200 with the bank. Of course, if you don’t pay it back right away, the interest compounds so that the annual interest is quite high. Similarly, credit card holders are no doubt used to getting something that looks like blank checks from their credit card company. The credit card company encourages you to “use the checks” like cash, hoping that you do not read the fine print about the interest rate being the “cash advance” rate, which is usually much higher than the interest rate for purchases. For example, your purchases interest rate might be 12% but your cash advance rate 24%!

So, the bottom line is if you feel you need quick cash, start budgeting like a mad man. If your car breaks down, take the bus for a while until you can save enough for another car.

Beware of Payday Lenders that Rebrand as Micro Loan Lenders is a post from: MiCash Prepaid MasterCard

According to the Washington Post:

Perhaps the bank’s decision simply reminded us all over again that we are living increasingly in a fee-littered world, where companies continually seek out new ways to nibble away at our wallets by charging for the smallest of once-free services, leaving many customers feeling nickel-and-dimed.

“The proliferation of a la carte fees has inundated the economy,” said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Companies “are inventing new fees; they are making it harder to avoid fees; they are increasing the fees. . . . It’s much more complicated to be a consumer”

Banks like Bank of America got used to racking up big profits from the debit card swipe fees, and rather than accept less (some would argue reasonable) profits, they are looking for ways to profit through customer fees.

Many people are fed up with fees for everything. They especially hate sudden large price increases like Netflix announced. And people notice when something was once free, like luggage on airlines, are suddenly seen by businesses as new areas for profits.

After announcing the debit card fees, Bank of America saw its stock drop 9%. It is threatening to lay off thousands of its employees. It calculated that some of its customers would leave the bank and find a new bank that does not charge a monthly fee for debit card use. However, prepaid cards are a good alternative for them.

Prepaid Cards Offer an Alternative

While prepaid cards have always had monthly fees, those fees are straightforward and perceived as necessary to cover the business costs of the prepaid card companies. They are not on top of other fees, like minimum balance fees on checking accounts, or overdraft fees.

More and more people are getting rid of their checking accounts, to avoid annual fees, and minimum balances, and the risk of overdrafts, and the costs of printed checks. These people like prepaid cards, because they can still pay with plastic, manage their finances without going into credit card debt, and get cash when they need it from ATMs, or cash back on purchases.

Bank Debit Card Fees Make Prepaid Cards More Attractive is a post from: MiCash Prepaid MasterCard

Some retailers are fighting back by pushing for legislation requiring Amazon to collect sales tax. They have successfully had laws passed in Illinois and New York State that online retailers must collect sales tax on purchases for customers who live in those states. Walmart’s executive vice president of global e-commerce said in the Wall Street Journal: “The rules today don’t allow brick-and-mortar retailers to compete evenly with online retailers, and that needs to be addressed.” Historically Amazon hasn’t had to collect sales tax unless it had physical operations in the state trying to collect the tax. California recently passed a law to collect sales tax from Amazon due to the thousands of bloggers who get a small percentage of every sale that they pass via a link onto Amazon. Amazon decided to end its affiliate program in California rather than pay the tax.

Walmart and other large retailers such as Target, Best Buy, Home Depot and Sears are backing the Alliance for Main Street Fairness, a Virginia-based organization that is helping to lobby in all states for the collection of sales tax by online retailers.

Big Box stores if they want to survive can’t continue to do business as they have always done and expect to compete against Amazon. Amazon can stock far many more items than any physical retailer. Thus, big box stores have to make sure they have the right products at the right time and at the right price. They have to get better at managing their supply chains, to reduce inventory so that they do not get stuck with obsolete product. They also have to make sure their price is close to Amazon’s price.

Chains like Target have long understood the value of having a pleasant shopping environment, with spacious aisles. Target is also fighting back by pushing its own store brands like Archer Farms. Sears for years benefited from having a strong brand in Craftsman tools. People would come to Sears just to get a Craftsman wrench. Similarly, Best Buy, Barnes and Noble, and other Big Box stores will have exclusive deals with manufacturers to have a ton of low priced hot products from a brand that is not the top tier but perhaps second tier. Think Vizio LCD tvs, not Sony, stacked up in the front of the store.

It still pays to visit your Big Box store for your holiday shopping, to get a sense of the trends, and price points. Then you can either buy while you are at the store, or whip out your smart phone and price check Amazon. There are bar code scanning apps that make it effortless to check the price of any product with a bar code on Amazon. Just take a photo of the bar code with your phone, and let the app call up the Amazon price.

Some day, we may buy everything on Amazon, but then, what will happen to all those retailing jobs?

Amazon vs. Big Box Retailers is a post from: MiCash Prepaid MasterCard

#1 Avoid the specials

Have you noticed that when wait staff tell you the day’s specials they fail to mention their price. That’s because specials are usually priced higher than the menu items. Often, they are 50% higher. The wait staff is encouraged to “push the specials.” They are meant to entice you with special ingredients–”reduction of this” and “compote of that.” The wait staff is counting on the natural response of not wanting to sound like a cheapskate by asking about the price.

#2 Ask for extra bread

Most restaurants try to fill you up with baskets of bread before your first course arrives. Don’t be shy about asking the wait staff to bring you more bread so you can eat copious quantities of it while eating your soup or salad or main entree. Sometime restaurants can be stingy about the complimentary bread.

#3 Go easy on the appetizers

Some waiters trick you into ordering too many appetizers by prompting you to order more than one appetizer. You might order one appetizer, and they raise their eyebrow and ask, “Is that all?” Or they say that another appetizer is also good, implying that each person at the table should eat their own appetizer. Some restaurants also offer appetizer samplers which combine two or more appetizers on the menu, but these samplers inevitably are priced higher, sometimes three times higher than any one appetizer. Unless you are making a meal of just appetizers, save room for the main course.

#4 Or make it a meal of appetizers

It’s perfectly acceptable to just order from the soup, salad, and appetizer sections of a menu and not get a main entree. Don’t let the wait staff make you feel bad. It’s your meal, not theirs. Spanish tapas restaurants, which give you a bunch of small appetizer plates by design, are paving the way for this trend.

#5 Split plates with a friend

Again, don’t be shy about asking to split a salad before the main course, or to split a main course. Just tell the waiter with a straight face, “we’re grazing.”

#6 Skip dessert

Do you really need that $7 piece of pie or scoop of ice cream on a brownie? Hold off on desert until you get home, where if you want to splurge, split a pint of Ben and Jerry’s with your date.

#7 Drink water

Drinks are pure profit for restaurants. Often, you can be perfectly content having a fine meal, and washing everything down with ice water, instead of iced tea. Ordering a bottle of wine or beer can increase your restaurant tab by 30%-40%, so don’t do it unless you want to. Waiters hate it when everyone around a table orders water instead of iced tea, cokes, or beer, because they just see a lower bill and a smaller tip.

#8 Order the cheapest bottle of wine

OK, let’s say you see five bottles of white wine starting at $18 and ending up at $60. Somewhere in the mix is a $27 bottle of wine which is the most popular seller, because the restaurant knows that you won’t splurge on the $60 bottle unless you are trying to impress someone, and you won’t order the $18 for not wanting to look cheap. Don’t worry about it. Get the $18, because it’s really a $9 if you were to get it at the grocery store.

#9 Eat at a restaurant that lets you bring your own bottle of wine

Often, new ethnic restaurants that don’t have a liquor license, like that cute Vietnamese place off the main drag, encourage you to bring your own bottle of wine. Find those places and frequent those places.

#10 Wash dishes

As crazy as this sounds, sometimes you can set up a deal ahead of time with a restaurant owner to trade a meal for a service. If you literally don’t want to wash dishes, and you have a skill like marketing, you might offer to design a flyer for the restaurant or set up a Facebook page in exchange for a meal.

#11 Complain about anything that was wrong with the meal.

Meal too salty? Let the waiter know and odds are the chef will want to make you happy so you will come back. Sometimes you can get a complimentary dessert out of it.

#12 Ask for a take out box for any leftovers

If you can’t finish your meal, sometimes you can eat the leftovers for lunch, saving money by not buying that lunch.

So there are 12 money saving tips to consider the next time you eat out. Know that MiCash MaserCard is accepted at any restaurant that accepts MasterCard debit cards. Just look for the MasterCard logo.

If you really want to save money, try to recreate your favorite restaurant meal at home.

Save Money When Eating Out is a post from: MiCash Prepaid MasterCard