San Jose Mercury News columnist Mike Cassidy writes about his own (and others) recent experience with a gift card purchase where the card was not recognized as valid when his wife attempted to redeem it.

Google has introduced Google Checkout Trends, a tool that allows anyone to get some insight into what Google Checkout merchants are selling - by item - online. According to Google, "Google Checkout Trends aggregates the sales data of Google Checkout merchants and charts it in a matter of seconds. (Of course, all the data is anonymized first.)"

Wachovia has announced a new program, Way2Save, that is says will help American consumers by making it easy and automatic to save money. According to the bank, "Way2Save encourages customers to save by transferring $1 from their checking account into a new special savings account each time they make a Check Card purchase or an electronic payment."   » Continue Reading

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