Credit Card Thief Talks About How Easy it is to Steal Your Information

Steve Rhode — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:03:27 +0000

photo © 2008 rikkis_refuge | more info (via: Wylio)CreditCards.com published a piece recently that talks with a former credit card thief, Dan DeFelippi, and he revels how easy it is to get into the fake credit card business.

DeFelippi, 29, mostly made fake credit cards with real credit card information he bought online. “I would make fake IDs to go with them, and then I’d buy laptops or other expensive items in the store and sell them on eBay,” he says.

CreditCards.com: What’s your No. 1 tip on how consumers can protect themselves?

DeFilippi: You’ve probably heard this before, but the most important thing really is to watch your accounts. And I don’t mean just checking your statement once a month. If you’re only checking your statement once a month, someone can start using your card at the beginning of the billing cycle, and they can do a lot of damage before you catch it. You’re talking thousands of dollars, and it will be a lot harder to catch them and dispute it. I use Mint.com, which is a free aggregation service that allows you to put all your accounts on there and monitor everything at once. I check that every day. It’s also a good idea to check your credit report at least twice a year to make sure no one has stolen your identity.

And if you are going to check your credit report, make sure it is a consolidated credit report.

You can read the entire story online, here.

@GetOutOfDebtGuy

Sam’s Club, CVS, Walmart, Lowes Food & Food Lion – Who Has The Best Prices?

Steve Rhode — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 01:16:31 +0000

From How to Get Out of Debt

So Pam and I were talking about where to shop for the best prices and rather than guess, we got in the car and went price comparing.

To get a wide comparison of prices we went to Sam’s Club for wholesale prices, Walmart for bragging cheap prices, Lowes Food for your typical grocery store, Food Lion for a discount grocery store, and CVS drug store. We added CVS to the mix because I had heard that paper products were often cheaper at CVS.

We tried to compare the same products from store to store but where we couldn’t we did our best to find good comparisons.

SAM’s Club

Bread
Wonder Bread 2 pack of 24oz loaves – $3.32
Gallon of Milk
Whole $3.29
Skim $2.79
Large Eggs
18 Count – $2.15
Paper Towels
Bounty Select-a-Size 12 pack, 880 square feet – $17.58 ($1.45 per roll) ($0.019/sq ft)
Generic Members Mark 12 pack 907.2 square feet – $13.86 ($1.15 per roll) ($0.015/sq ft)
Toilet Paper
Generic Members Mark 36 rolls 860 square feet – $15.68 ($0.44 per roll)($0.018/sq ft)
Charmin Ultra Soft 36 rolls 854 square feet – $18.32 ($0.51 per roll)($0.021/sq ft)

Lowes Food

Bread
Wonder Bread 20oz Loaf – $2.49
Gallon of Milk
Whole – $3.89
Skim – $3.89
Large Eggs
18 Count – $2.99
Paper Towels
Bounty Select-a-Size 12 pack, 704 square feet – $16.99 ($1.42 per roll)($0.024/sq ft)
Generic 8 pack 376.4 square feet – $7.99 ($0.99 per roll)($0.021/sq ft)
Toilet Paper
Chairman Ultra Soft 24 rolls 569.3 square feet – $15.35 ($0.64 per roll)($0.027/sq ft)
Generic 12 rolls 300 square feet – $7.99 ($0.66 per roll)($0.027/sq ft)

Walmart

Bread
Wonder Bread 20 oz loaf – $2.33
Wonder Bread 24 oz loaf – $2.42
Gallon of Milk
Whole $3.98
Skim $3.84
Large Eggs
18 Count – $2.28
Paper Towels
Bounty Select-a-Size 6 rolls 484 square feet – $11.64 ($1.94 per roll)($0.024/sq ft)
Toilet Paper
Charmin Ultra Soft 24 rolls 569.3 square feet – $14.24 ($0.59 per roll)($0.025 sq/ft)

CVS Drug Store

Bread
None
Milk
None
Eggs
None
Paper Towels
Bounty 1 roll 63.2 square feet $2.19 ($2.19 per roll)($0.034/sq ft)
CVS Generic 3 rolls 151.2 sq ft $2.99 ($1.03 per roll)($0.019/sq ft)
Toilet Paper
Charmin 12 rolls 284.6 square feet – $10.99 ($0.92 per roll)($0.038/sq ft)
Generic 12 rolls 1311.5 square feet (single ply) – $8.99 ($0.75 per roll)($0.014/double ply/sq ft)

Food Lion

Bread
Wonder 20oz Loaf – $2.49
Generic Bread 20oz Loaf – $1.74
Gallon of Milk
Whole – $3.79
Skim – $3.79
Large Eggs
18 Count – $2.49
Paper Towels
Generic Select-a-Size 1 roll 75.6 square feet – $1.78 ($1.78 per roll)($0.023/sq ft)
Bounty Select-a-Size 1 roll 63.2 square feet – $2.23($2.23 per roll)($0.035/sq ft)
Toilet Paper
Charmin Ultra Soft 427 square feet 18 rolls – $11.61 ($0.65 per roll)($0.027/sq ft)

Results

So after all that data gathering, what are the results?

The Least Expensive Place:
Bread – Sam’s Club
Milk – Sam’s Club
Eggs – Sam’s Club
Paper Towels – Sam’s Club
Toilet Paper – Sam’s Club

The Most Expensive Place:
Bread – Food Lion
Milk – Walmart
Eggs – Lowes Food
Paper Towels – Food Lion
Toilet Paper – Food Lion

Biggest Surprise

The biggest surprise was that even if you turn your single ply toilet paper from CVS into double ply, the CVS generic toilet paper is the least expensive. It was only because the name brand toilet paper was more expensive that I did not give CVS the least expensive rating. After all it is a bit less desirable as single ply paper.

I was under the impression that Food Lion was a lower cost grocery store but from the data gathered tonight, that’s not the case. The warehouse store was a better deal but what if you don’t have room to store all the stuff? And I guess Pam and I should compare the different warehouse clubs next to see what the differences are there.

I was very surprised to see Bounty paper towels sold in an 18 pack at both Sam’s Club and Lowes Food but if you look the Lowes 18 pack is 176 square feet smaller so it would be wrong to compare the 18 pack price. If you did that then you’d say that Lowes Food was cheaper and you’d be wrong.

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