Canadian Capitalist

A Canadian Personal Finance Weblog

Entries Tagged as 'Consumer'

Bravo Best Buy!

April 2nd, 2005 · 6 Comments

As a consumer, there are very few things I hate about big electronics retailers than mail-in rebates. In this week’s flyer, a particularly bad page had mail-in rebates for 14 items out of 17! A popular tax software is listed at $31.99 and offers a $5 mail-in rebate. Who are they kidding? It is an [...]

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Tags: Consumer

CBC Show on Credit Cards

March 4th, 2005 · No Comments

CBC Marketplace is repeating its recent program on credit cards called Card Tricks on Saturday (3:00 p.m. ET. Check local listings). The show provides an in-depth analysis of the various gotchas buried deep inside the fine print. Among the tricks:

Partial Payment: Some cards require that the entire amount be paid in full. Otherwise, interest is [...]

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Tags: Consumer

Number Portability

March 3rd, 2005 · 1 Comment

The recent Federal Budget mentioned that the government will ask the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) “to move expeditiously to implement wireless number portability”. Newly launched Virgin Mobile is also pushing for portability that will enable it to be more competitive.The Toronto Star reports today that a new poll shows that an overwhelming majority [...]

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Tags: Canadian Interest · Consumer

Goodies from Google

January 19th, 2005 · 1 Comment

We already know about really neat stuff like search, mail, toolbar and blogger (including this blog) offered by Google. Recently, I tried two new products and found them extremely useful.
Google Desktop Search rifled through all the files in my desktop (documents, text, mail etc.) and indexed them. This process took about a day or so [...]

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Tags: Consumer

Buying an Inkjet Printer

December 30th, 2004 · 1 Comment

I was in the market for an el cheapo inkjet printer that should be able to print:

Directly on ink-jet printable CDs and DVDs.
Near photo-quality images.
Occasional text documents.

I found the printer guides at Steve’s Digicams, PC Magazine and CNet.com to be quite useful. At the local big box retailer, basic inexpensive models offered by [...]

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Tags: Consumer

Order a credit report

December 15th, 2004 · 3 Comments

There are two credit reporting companies in Canada: Equifax and TransUnion. Every time, we apply for a credit card, phone service or mortgage, our credit report is checked with one of them. I usually request a credit report every year, but I should really try to get a report from both of them, just to [...]

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Tags: Consumer