Get consumer advice on product purchases, financial planning, recalls, scams, fraud and more. Take a look at our articles, blog posts, Q&As, videos and radio shows for consumer advice on a wide variety of topics.
The Art of Storage: Making the Best Use of Space in Your House
Innovative storage ideas rarely make the pages of Architectural Digest. Fortunately, three new books tackle the problem by visually presenting several hundred pages of options.
Green Home and Office Design: A Good Investment
Building and designing green homes and offices is a good investment. Not only does designing green homes and offices save money, but it's also good for the environment. There are many marketing and insurance incentives for companies to design green homes and offices.
Home Improvement Before Selling
How much work they should do on your house prior to putting it onto the market? By doing basic things before selling, and making your home look as fresh and neutral as possible, you'll not only sell your home faster, but for a lot more money.
Stored Value Cards
A stored value card, also known as a prepaid debit card, looks like a regular credit card. But instead of acting like a credit card, a stored value card acts like a debit card attached to a checking account -- except there is no checking account. Instead, you put cash on the card in a variety of ways.
Home Improvement And Home Repair Needs? Hire A Handyman
With time at a premium, an increasing number of Americans are hiring one of an estimated 30,000 handymen to tackle small home improvement and home repair jobs. Handymen can make home improvement and home repair jobs stress free. Because many Americans don't have the skills to handle even small home improvement and home repair jobs, handymen become the perfect home helpers.
Home Improvement Scams
According to the Better Business Bureau (BBBonline.org) and the National Consumer Law Center (ConsumerLaw.org), home improvement scams are a big problems for consumers. Elderly homeowners in moderate and lower-income neighborhoods are the prime targets.
Spotting A Scam In Your Inbox
It seems like every time you open up your email, there's another opportunity that appears too good to pass up. Actually, it's an opportunity to have someone rip off your credit or financial information. If you have access to the internet, you can go to the Federal Trade Commissions website and familiarize yourself with the various sorts of potential credit scams that are going on.
Home Improvements: Consult Architect And Contractor If Large-Scale Rehab
Learn what to consider for a large scale home improvement plan. It helps to work with an architect, contractor and building department if the home improvement project includes building up or building out on the existing home. An architect and contractor can help put the home improvement project in financial and logistical perspective - whether building up or building out on the existing home is a possibility.
Renovation Projects – Perfection Is In The Eye Of The Homeowner
After spending a collective $200 billion on home improvement projects, many homeowners have discovered that punch list items often don't get fixed the way you'd like them, and even the best contractors make mistakes. All new homes and remodeling projects contain some items that either weren't finished properly, or punchlist items that weren't corrected. Repairing the mistakes after you've cleaned up and moved into the new or renovated portion of your home isn't fun.
Kitchen Training Helps In Job Search
When you're looking for a new job it's useful to develop new skills through training. One place that offers training is Chicago's Enterprising Kitchen. The Kitchen gives job trainees skills such as making soap and packaging soap - skills which they can later cite on a resume and use in their job search.