Archive for the ‘Cash – Spend’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Following a $10 bill across Middle America way more interesting than you would think.

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

This guy followed a single $10 bill as it changed hands across Middle America. It’s amazing how far and how fast the bill traveled, but what’s more amazing is that people actually let this writer follow them around until they used the bill to pay for something. Which was sometimes days later.

Click to read: http://bit.ly/eO3hhB

If Spider-Man had been our first president…

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

Reblogged from moneyisnotimportant:

spiderman-dollar.jpeg

Do you think this dollar would be accepted anywhere?

Santa’s Skipping The Credit Card Debt This Year

Friday, December 10th, 2010

Credit card companies are freaking out as they try to entice shoppers to pay for gifts with credit. But those 5% cash back offers aren’t exactly worth taking on thousands of dollars in debt.

  • Even though holiday spending is up compared to last year, shoppers are less likely to whip out their credit cards at the register this year.
  • Some shoppers are trying to avoid taking on more dangerous debt, and some simply lost their cards because of the recession and last year’s credit card reform. Outstanding credit card debt is “bad debt” because it lowers your credit score.
  • Card issuers make money when customers run up their credit bills and then fail to pay the entire balance at the end of the month. If they miss payments, their interest rates go up, and so does their total amount owed.

Facts & Figures

  • Use of Visa and Mastercard cards fell 11% in the past year
  • Spending on Black Friday was up more than 6% over last year
  • 15 million Americans lost their credit cards because of the recession and new credit card regulations

Best Quote

“With the interest rates, it just seemed like I never paid it off.” – Liz Gonzalez, talking about her credit card debt

The Haunted House Gets A Spooky Modern Makeover

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

Looking for a thrill this Halloween? There’s a haunted house for everyone, including evangelical Christians. But a new style in New York City is catering to adults… with strong stomachs.

  • Today’s haunted houses are more complicated and sometimes much more shocking than productions of the past. The NYC Halloween Haunted House is only open to audiences 18 and older.
  • It’s more expensive to put on a large production in NYC, but the city has the advantage of a huge community of theater pros. They bring modern and impressive acting, costumes, makeup, and set design to the old haunted house.
  • Many of the new shows use creepy, psychologically troubling plot lines to set up the scares. But in the end, it’s usually all about the man jumping out from behind the curtain. Boo!

Facts & Figures

  • In “NYC Halloween Haunted House,” an actress playing a mental patient removes one of each participants’ shoes.
  • In “Nightmare: Superstitions,” in NYC’s NoHo neighborhood, participants somehow travel through huge rooms and tiny tunnels in the course of their visit.
  • Haunted houses around the country generate hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

DailyCandy Editor Lauren Lumsden On Discovering New And Cool

Monday, October 4th, 2010

It’s not every day you get to interview an editor from your favorite daily mailing list, but we somehow convinced Lauren to chat in front of our camera last week. Check out her interview to learn about the dude-ranch-to-web-editor career track and, of course, Bacon Salt.

>>TILE brings you exclusive interviews from people doing great things in SPEND, GROW, and GIVE. To view more, click on TILEcasts in the TILE Library.

Have a burning question or someone you’d like to see interviewed? Let us know – just Ask TILE!

Your Friend Can Now Lend You $20 Using A Credit Card

Friday, October 1st, 2010

Is this the end of the entire credit card business model as we know it??

  • A new company called Square is blowing the minds of credit card company executives everywhere. Square produces a little gadget that plugs into the headphone jacks of a variety of iThings and the Android phone. That’s where things get crazy.
  • The free device allows anybody with a bank account to accept credit card payments in person or over the phone.
  • Usually, only businesses accept credit cards. They have to purchase expensive equipment and then pay fee after fee just for the ability to process credit payments. Square Up changes that, eliminating equipment, setup, and maintenance fees.

Facts & Figures

  • Square’s chief executive is the co-founder of Twitter.
  • Each time you process a payment using Square Up, the company keeps 2.75% of the transaction amount, plus $0.15.
  • At first, transactions are capped at $1,000, but that cap can be raised over time or for established businesses.

When The Economy Hurts, Allowances Suffer, Too

Monday, September 20th, 2010

Grown-ups aren’t the only ones feeling the global recession…

  • Research shows that the average weekly allowance for kids aged 8 – 15 in the UK has fallen since 2009. This is the first time that the average allowance has fallen below £6 since 2003.
  • The study also showed differences in allowance based on gender (boys scored 40 pence more than girls each week) and location (children from Wales made more than children in London, who made way more than children in the South West of England).
  • Despite the cutback, British children are still saving almost 37% of their pocket money every week!

Facts & Figures

  • In 2005, allowances peaked at about £8.37 per week, in 2009, the average was £6.24, and in 2010 it was down to £5.89
  • Welsh kids take in £7.77 per week; children in the South West of England make £5.05
  • Londoners saw the biggest loss this year – their allowances went down by almost £4 a week

Best Quote

“It is encouraging to see that children are still saving, despite the amount of pocket money falling.” – Flavia Palacios Umana, Head of Savings Products at Halifax

Demand For 3D Projectors Stifled By Lack Of Supply

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

As consumer demand for digital projectors skyrockets, the industry may not be able to supply quickly enough.

  • Privately owned makers of projector components have struggled to keep up with the soaring demand.
  • Despite the inability to match supply with demand, digital projector purveyor Barco doubled its projector sales in 2009 – its best year to date.
  • Barco considers additional funding of component makers as a potential option for solving this supply crisis, and may even use a secondary supplier to meet its component needs.

Facts & Figures

  • 85% of the world’s cinemas have yet to be fitted with digital projectors.
  • Barco thinks it could make nearly 150 million euros ($203.6 million) in 2010.
  • Barco shipped around 1,000 projectors in the fourth quarter of 2009, worth around 36 million euros.

Best Quote

“The challenge will not be how many you can sell, it will be how many you can make.” – Eric Van Zele, CEO of Barco

Guns And Coffee Go Together Like Peas And Carrots

Friday, March 12th, 2010

A fast-spreading movement in the pro-gun community has taken the Starbucks coffee contingent by storm.

  • As firearms fanatics and gun-control advocates battle over an issue known as the “open carry” movement (a demonstration by gun owners of carrying their guns in unconcealed holsters in public areas and private businesses where allowed), Starbucks, in full compliance with state open-carry weapons laws, has been caught up in the middle of the raging debate.
  • Starbucks, along with some other establishments, has refused to ban guns, causing uproar in the gun-control community.
  • Some retailers have banned guns from their stores for fear of losing out on potential customers with hoplophobia (fear of firearms).

Facts & Figures

  • The “open carry” movement started gaining momentum in 2004 after pro-gun advocates began researching state laws only to find that many states do not have laws that prohibit carrying unconcealed firearms.
  • In the 43 states where open carry is legal, Starbucks has around 4,970 company-operated stores.
  • Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Home Depot Inc., Best Buy Co. and Barnes and Nobles Inc. also allow unconcealed weapons in the respective states that allow such an activity, and have all become “open carry” friendly sites and milieus for informal “open carry” demonstrations.
  • Companies such as Peet’s Coffee & Tea have disallowed carrying unconcealed weapons in their stores, despite the legality of such an action.

Best Quote

“I think the policy shows complete disregard for the safety and sentiments of their workers. The only thing worse than a yuppie upset with how their frappuccino turned out is a yuppie with a gun who’s unhappy with how their frappuccino turned out.” – Erik Forman, a Starbucks barista, union member, and ostensible hoplophobe and sensationalist from Minneapolis

A Different Kind Of Credit Crunch

Friday, October 9th, 2009

Pay now or pay later? In a bad economy, more consumers are choosing to feel the effects of their spending right away.

  • In a significant shift in credit-happy American spending habits, people are beginning to use their debit cards more than their credit cards to pay for purchases.
  • The recession has most consumers trying to curb their spending, which the immediate monetary loss of a debit card transaction can make easier. People are also shopping less for the big-ticket items that are usually paid for with credit, but they continue to use debit for everyday purchases such as groceries.
  • The drop in credit card transactions may also have something to do with recent legislation, which had the effect of credit card companies lowering limits and raising fees – and making themselves less attractive to the struggling shopper.

Facts & Figures

  • According to the Federal Reserve, total revolving credit went down $6.1 billion in July.
  • Both Visa and Mastercard saw debit card transactions increase and credit transactions decrease in the first part of 2009.
  • In the past 15 years, debit card transactions have grown to represent more than 50% of all non-cash transactions.

Best Quote

“People are managing their money in a different way. You clearly have a situation where those people who have jobs are exhibiting recession anxiety and they are making more debit transactions.” – David Robertson, the Nilson Report (which tracks credit card industry)

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »