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Simply put, you get a special credit card when you buy a new Dodge (not every new Dodge, but most). You can use this credit card to buy fuel for $2.99 a gallon at any service station for three years following your date of purchase, regardless of the actual market price. Sounds great right?

Well it's not. Check out this article explaining why it's actually WORSE to take advantage of this deal than to buy a car normally.

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South Carolina's Governor just signed into law a bill that gives SC residents the ability to freeze their credit for free!

And of course there's always this:

The credit reporting industry has opposed such legislation relating to credit report freezes. One concern is that too many states will have different regulations, which would make it difficult for credit reporting bureaus to comply. That's a good argument, and it's why this issue needs to be addressed at the federal level. In the meantime, South Carolina was right to take action on the state level.

Imagine that! Different states have different laws! Oh wah wah, cry me a freaking river! If they wanted to do business in Mexico or Canada, do you think there might be some different laws? It's not as if there aren't companies who do business in tons of different countries in the world successfully despite all the different laws and customs.

This is such a bogus argument, I'm going to have to try to remember not to even bother getting worked up about it anymore.

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A few important links: Mystery Shoppers Find Deceit, Incompetence Among Tax Preparers Tax Scams Proliferate In April

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Though the credit reporting companies scrambled to allow freezes in all states most likely to prevent each state from enacting their own laws with lower fees and more restrictions than they wanted, many states are still pursuing their own legislation (as they should).

Georgia's proposed law would allow freezes for only $3 and would automatically be free for anyone 65 and up (the first state I've heard of to have such a provision). Though it's not law yet, this is one of the better ones I've seen.

Arizona is also busy on a credit freeze law, but I wasn't able to find any details on how well their law is written.

Don't let them cheat you.

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Not too long ago, I put an item on my Christmas wishlist that my wife bought, but I put a link to a fraud company as a place to buy it. If I had bothered to check it out first, I would have quickly realized as much and saved us both a lot of trouble.

So before you pull out your credit card, you should check them out.

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This was faster than I thought.

The Arizona Department of Insurance has reviewed LifeLock's service and does not believe it is an insurance product, department spokeswoman Erin Klug told the Arizona Republic.

There are people filing class action suits against Lifelock stating that because of fine print and loopholes, most people won't be able to get any money even if they were victims of ID theft.

Don't fall for the debt trap

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If you weren't already suspicious of such services, you should be. Companies like this that prety on the weak and defenseless while simultaneously pretending to offer a helping hand are the worst kind of scum.

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A city that found that the red light cameras made motorists more cautious resulting in less tickatable offenses turned them off.

Beware. Monster Cables are a scam.

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The Consumerist was taking heat recently for posting articles about how Monster brand cables are no better than any other even though they cost so much more. Now Popular Science is joining the action with their article explaining that all high end cables are a ripoff.

The electronics industry’s dirty little secret is that they have extremely thin margins on gear, so they make up the cost difference by up-selling you on extended warranties and incredibly marked-up cables.

This is completely true. When I worked at a big named retailer, I could buy a 30 dollar cable for about $6 with my employee discount. Things like extended warranties, add on-services, and accessories are all the same.