New, interesting products

Suze Orman came out with her own debit card this week, called the Approved Card. It's received a lot of attention -- not all of it positive. Some people are aghast that a personal finance expert would push her own product to her loyal following. I have no problem with that. I don't even mind her making lots of money on it. But it had better be a good deal at the same time.

You may have heard about "Credit Educator," a new service from credit bureau Experian that offers one-on-one credit education by phone. For a cost of $29.95, consumers can speak with a specially trained Experian representative who can answer questions about the consumer's credit score and report.

I've written about the topic before for CreditCards.com (check out "Experian gets personal to teach about credit, but it'll cost you"), but more recently discussed the topic for U.S. News & World Report's "My Money" blog.

Last week's blog about a local discount gas purchase program that doesn't offer reloadable gift cards was selected for the Carnival of Personal Finance's 326th blog carnival.

Canadian Dream, the blog host, recognized the Taking Charge blog for its savings message. Although a Texas grocery store chain is sponsoring a promotion to sell gas for 11 cents less than the market price, the store doesn't provide reloadable gift cards to use for the purchase. Instead, customers must obtain new cards -- and throw the old ones away -- each time they exhaust the funds loaded on to a card. We wonder why the cards aren't reloadable to save the environment.

When I filled my car up with gas recently, I saved 11 cents per gallon off the current market price by using a retail store gift card.

That's a good deal.

Several retailers around the country are offering similar deals to drive traffic to their stores. It's apparently working as family budgets are being stretched more and more with the bad economy.

I applaud them. But can they make them reloadable for it's easier on the environment?

Bankruptcy and mortgage studies, plus wildfires

I thought I'd try something new I hope you find useful: Today's reading list. It's headlines and other reports on credit, debt and payments systems that I found newsworthy, interesting or odd enough to be worth passing along.

Imagine if your neighborhood pharmacy could only accept cash because it wasn't allowed to open a checking account and had to pay exorbitant fees on credit card transactions. Same with your favorite spa or local health food store.

All perfectly legitimate businesses. All coping with an unendling string of banking bad dreams.

That's what medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado have repeatedly faced. Colorado voters legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes in 2000, and since that time, dispensaries have flourished.

For a long time, I've been a fan of the cartoons in "The New Yorker" magazine.

One caught my eye back in 2000, when I was new to writing and editing personal finance stories.

In the cartoon, Dad's sitting on the couch with his son, as Mom stands in the background, fear in her eyes. A computer is in the other room. "It's very important that you try very, very hard," Dad says to his son, "to remember where you electronically transferred Mommy and Daddy's assets."

Eleven years of electronic progress later, many of us are carrying around smartphones and tablet devices. With them come new and even easier ways for our children to drain our bank accounts -- accidentally, through games aimed at children who lack a firm grasp on the difference between real and imaginary money.

I've never applied for a cash back credit card, but I suddenly have one -- at least for the next few weeks.

My Bank of America airline rewards card has unexpectedly morphed into a cash back credit card through the end of June. During that time I'll receive 3 percent cash back on purchases made at gas stations, grocery stores, drug stores and restaurants.

It's an interesting tactic to try to entice more spending on a card I usually only use a couple times a month, when I hit those rare locations where American Express cards aren't accepted.

Seems like an intriguing way to drum up business at a time when credit card usage across society is in decline.

Millions of people have made purchases at Starbucks using just their smartphones, the coffee mega-retailer said.

That announcement on March 23 -- perhaps our strong indication yet of people's appetites for using mobile payments to buy everyday items -- made headlines, but it's just the latest example of the continued mainstreaming of mobile payments.

Today and tomorrow, and for the first time in history, Girl Scout cookie buyers in Point Loma, Calif., and in northeast Ohio will be able to use their credit cards to get those treasured Thin Mints or savory Samoas.

Sure, credit cards enable all kinds of fun activities -- such as buying more stuff you don't really need and paying bills online. Super awesome! But until now, payment cards have failed to help with some of the most basic tasks, such as shaving, picking locks and holding people at knifepoint. Thanks to the latest collection of card-sized gadgets, however, credit cards finally are becoming the everyday tools they were always meant to be.

Take a gander at this latest assortment of credit card gadgets, and I'm sure you'll agree.

Just a quick note to let the personal finance bloggers in the audience know that Taking Charge has been selected to host next Monday's version of the Carnival of Personal Finance. It will be the 295th edition of the weekly carnival, making it one of the oldest and certainly the most widely known in its genre. We've hosted four previous editions.

Less than a month after its debut, the Kardashian Kard may be kaput. Kanned, Kanceled. Klipped. Kremated.

The prepaid debit card featured high upfront fees ($59.95 for six months or $99.95 for a year-long membership) and was heavily marketed to teens and young professionals. Consumer groups warned teens, their parents and young adults not to be swayed by the card's hip promoters, celebrity sisters Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian.

Consumers Union, the nonprofit owners of Consumer Reports magazine, even started a campaign asking consumers to sign e-cards urging the Kardashians to take their names off the prepaid card.

It looks like they've done just that.

Our blog about the potential pitfalls of the new Kardashian Kard prepaid card was selected for this week's Carnival of Personal Finance.

Hosted by Sweating The Big Stuff, the 284th edition of the personal finance carnival featured a Thanksgiving theme.Categories included The Turkey, Football, Family, Shopping and the Wishbone.

The Kardashian blog reports the growing concerns, expressed by Consumers Union and others, about the prepaid card. Critics say they worry that impressionable young people will sign up for the card, which is marketed by celebrity sisters Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian to teens and young professionals.

It's one thing to be hip and cool, but don't let the cool thing of the moment lead you to make bad money decisions.

That's the message behind a warning issued today by a leading consumer advocacy group about the Kardashian Kard, a new prepaid debit card being marketed to teens and young adults. As its name implies, the card is backed by the Kardashian sisters, Kim, Kourtney and Khloe, the stars of the E! cable network reality series about their lavish lifestyles, "Keeping up with the Kardashians."

Last week, when the Kardashian trio announced they were lending their names and celebrity to a new prepaid debit card, the general reaction from smart money watchers was: Keep away.

Last week's blog about getting your annual flu shot at a pharmacy rather than going to your primary care physician was selected for the weekly Carnival of Personal Finance.

Flu season is upon us and you or a loved one might be rolling up your sleeves to get the annual vaccination against the influenza virus.

Here's my question for you: How are you paying for it?

If you have health insurance coverage through your employer, you might think you're doing the right thing if you go to your doctor's office for the shot. But are you?

Just in time for the start of the 2010 regular football season, the National Football League and Visa Inc. have teamed up to release a new educational video game: Financial Football 2.0.

Designed to help young and old test their knowledge of credit and debt, student loans and retirement accounts, the game is a step in the right direction for helping us all increase our financial literacy.

The staff at CreditCards.com wanted to see how challenging and educational the new game actually was, so we played it -- lots of times. Here's what we found...

Big ups to Jeff over at the Sustainable Life Blog for including my post, "Brother, can you spare a swipe? Contactless card reading guitar unveiled," in this week's Carnival of Personal Finance.

My post, which details a wireless, touchless credit card accepting guitar by Barclays, is nuzzled into the ever-popular theme of Labor Day. Because what says Labor Day more than a raggedy bum asking for change and strumming "Like A Rolling Stone" in the corner of a busy intersection? Well ... maybe that's not the best example.

The holiday, according to the carnival, is "dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers." So congratulate yourself, kick up your feet and head on over to the carnival for a short history of Labor day and loads of great personal finance articles. At least I think he was talking about the item, not me.

Have you ever had the strong urge to give your hard-earned money to someone strumming "Dust in the Wind" out of key at a vacant intersection? Well, neither have I. But London-based issuer Barclays hopes our apprehension will disappear with its new approach to street charity: a wireless, touchless, credit card accepting guitar.

The financial institution unveiled the instrument Thursday, Aug. 26, in London during a publicity stunt promoting its "contactless technology." People passing by a street musician -- known as a "busker" in the UK -- were handed prepaid cards loaded with £5 and were instructed to wave it near the head of the guitar. The money was then taken off the card and donated to the Help a London Child charity.

Contactless cards aren't exclusive to Barclays's, but they all work the same: By using radio-frequency identification, or RFID. The card data is stored in a chip inside the plastic and is transmitted using short-range electromagnetic waves emitted by the contactless-card reader. Tollbooths, garage door openers and workplace ID fobs are a few devices that use RFID technology today.