December 26th, 2008 by admin

We are quickly approaching that time of the year where the Internet pays off in spades - the holidays. Here’s a primer on protecting yourself while buying online.

Avoiding the Malls

I hate going to the malls during the holidays. They are packed with people, elbows are flying and I inevitably get in line behind the person who needs a price check or lost their checkbook. Thankfully, the Internet has largely solved this problem.

Millions of people now do most or all of their holiday shopping online. Frankly, it is hard to imagine how many brick and mortar stores stay in business. While shopping from your desk is great, you need to keep in mind the following legal cautions.

Don’t Buy Off An Email

In a few weeks, you are going to get bombarded by emails from businesses. Unfortunately, there is no way to be sure the email messages are actually from the business in question. Phishing scam artists have become masters at kicking out email messages that look extremely authentic. If you get an email message and want to visit a site, do not click the link in the email message. Instead, type the site domain name directly into a browser or find it through a search engine. Doing so will get you to the real site, not a fake.

Credit Cards

Most people have multiple credit cards and use them willy nilly. When shopping online, try to limit all of your charges to one credit card that doesn’t have a massive credit line on it. Also, print out all receipts. If a scam artist gets a hold of your credit card information, this should limit the damage. When you receive the credit card statement, make sure to check the charges against your receipts. If you find unauthorized charges, report them immediately.

Delivery Times

Sites selling products online have to comply with “prompt delivery” rules. To this end, sites are encouraged, but not required to tell you how long it will take to deliver products. In addition, they absolutely must deliver within 30 days unless stated otherwise on the site. When ordering gifts, make sure you note how long it is going to take to receive the item. If you are going out of town, make sure you keep the departure date in mind before you leave.

The Internet is a godsend when it comes to avoiding the stress of holiday shopping. Just keep an eye on those credit card statements!

Richard A. Chapo is a San Diego business lawyer with http://www.sandiegobusinesslawfirm.com - providing legal services and legal advice to businesses in San Diego, California.

December 5th, 2008 by admin

According to a study by BizRate Research, 60% of women were already planning their online buying in September, compared to only 42% of men. Women are also reported to carry the burden of Christmas shopping with 55% taking on the responsibility, compared to only 45% of men. However, as more and more retailers go online, women can exploit the internet by saving themselves time, money, and effort.

There are many advantages to shopping online:

* You have more choice
* Prices tend to be lower

* It’s scientifically proven to be less stressful!

Choice:

Even if you live in a big city, you’d have to be prepared to shop in multiple districts to get the same choice that you would have online. Most high street retailers now have a presence on the internet in any case and you may find that the website could offer more choice than your local store. In addition to big brand names, there are also lots of specialist sites on the internet - which only have an online presence. Such online specialists include CCL - a computer system and accessory specialist (http://www.cclonline.com/), Justtoys -with toys for kids and “big kids” (http://www.justtoys.com/) and ChristmasHamper.com (http://www.christmashamper.com/)or Highland Fayre which specialise in luxury food and drink hampers.

Lower prices:

Many websites offer minimal delivery charges and because they don’t have the same costs as a bricks and mortar business, their prices to the consumer are often lower. Most transactions on the internet start with a search engine, but this is not the only method of research that you can do for your Christmas shopping. Perhaps you have heard of price comparison sites which exist for very specific markets such as personal finance like moneynet.co.uk (http://www.moneynet.co.uk/) or for more general shopping services (Kelkoo - http://www.kelkoo.com/, Ciao - http://www.ciao.co.uk/). These sites act as mini search engines and they will collect data from a range of services - showing the results of products with the lowest prices.

Internet shopping is healthier

Internetretailer.com reported in 2003 that when twin sisters were asked to conduct Christmas shopping - one online, one offline, the sister who did her shopping on the internet fared much better. (http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=10847)The sister who shopped on the high street took four hours to complete her shopping trip. At the start of the shopping expedition, this sister had a heart rate of 67 which rose to 138 whilst shopping and was still 79 when she got home - apparently “tired and cold, with sore feet”.

On the other hand, her twin sister who had done her Christmas shopping online - took only 36 minutes to do her purchasing - and that was without broadband! Her initial heart rate was 66 and didn’t rise above 67. Instead of dragging the kids around the shops, this twin was able to have them on her lap, and all the shopping was delivered direct to the home.

And if you want some assistance in the New Year to lose those few extra pounds, there’s always online help for losing weight. The high profile website theleanteam.co.uk, as featured on Channel 4, provides useful health advice and if that still isn’t enough to tempt you online for Christmas - take a look at Disco Dancing Santa.

On researching suitable sites for this article, Rachel came across this work of magnificence: Disco Dancing Santa

Rachel also writes for a personal finance blog Cashzilla - a mighty personalfinanosaurus in Scotland.