If and when consumers begin receiving credit cards with embedded chips en masse from their banks, it’ll mark a significant change in the way Americans pay for things. Visa’s Chief Risk Officer, Ellen Richey, told me in an exclusive interview recently that for many consumers, the only change will be [Keep reading]
I talked to a friend recently who was surprised how popular get-out-of-debt stories are. He pays all his bills every month on time and can’t imagine not doing that. Lucky is he. And perhaps a bit naive. Not only do roughly half of credit card carry a balance, but plenty [Keep reading]
As you are racing to fill out your tournament brackets today (and remember, don’t fall for the Quicken/Buffett ploy!), I have one piece of iron-clad, scientific advice to give you: Pick Duke to under-perform its tournament seeding. Duke is much more likely to bow out of the tournament early than [Keep reading]
(Kevin Hurley, Global Brand Ambassador for Teeling Whiskey, stopped by Peter Dillon’s in NYC last night to help me explain why the history of whiskey is the history of Ireland. Teeling, a new entrant, is meant to be sipped, not gulped, like Jameson. But it’s not quite as expensive as [Keep reading]
How often do I get to combine my favorite topics — consumer behavior, beer, hockey, and ripoffs — in the same story! Hockey fans (of course, hockey fans) in Idaho have sued a minor league team for using differently-shaped but equal volume plastic cups for their small ($4) and large [Keep reading]
Amazon Prime can be a pretty good deal for users. Heck, if all you do is stream a Ken Burns documentary series rather than buy it, you’ll come out ahead, even at the new $99 price point. So the usual consumer reporter “how dare they” response to Amazon’s price hike [Keep reading]
The single best thing that could happen for American families, waistlines, sanity, and even worker productivity would be an update to American overtime pay rules. President Obama is planning to expand the number of workers entitled to overtime pay by several million, perhaps through administrative order. The step is sure [Keep reading]
In the technology arms race between parents and children, kids have a new weapon: Yik Yak. A simple app for mobile devices, Yik Yak sets up temporary, anonymous chats among users who are near each other, based on GPS location. It’s less than four months old, but already, it’s causing [Keep reading]
Privacy is a funny thing. A lot of people are perfectly willing to take it away from other people, but get really angry when you take their privacy away. Like Sen. Diane Feinstein. She unleashed a torrent of criticism today against the CIA, accusing the agency of hacking computers than [Keep reading]
We blame Facebook for everything nowadays. Should we blame Facebook for eating disorders, too? A new study says, probably. Let’s back up. The easiest way to make yourself unhappy is to compare yourself to other people. Like this: Her house is bigger! His girlfriend is prettier! She has an easy [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan