Tracy Davidson

In a significant policy reversal, the USA’s largest bank plans will stop allowing consumers to overdraw their checking accounts with one-time debit card transactions.
Bank of America’s (BAC) new policy — which takes effect in mid-June for new customers and early August for existing customers — comes amid intense public scrutiny of financial institutions’ [...]

Some steep discounts are available to air travelers in the next two days in what one industry analyst calls “the first big summer fare sale” of the year.
AirTran sparked the sale this week, with US Airways, United, Delta and American among the airlines following close behind, says Tom Parsons, founder of Bestfares.com who tracks ticket [...]

Using your cellphone during checkout at Target could soon earn you discounts.
Starting Wednesday, the giant retailer will allow customers to take advantage of special mobile-coupon offers on their handsets.
The coupon is redeemed when the bar code on the phone is scanned at checkout. Offers are good only once and expire on the dates listed. “We [...]

Fares for sale Monday on remaining seats for Tuesday, Wednesday
JetBlue is holding a one-day sale offering $10 fares between New York’s JFK airport and the carrier’s first 10 destinations in celebration of its 10th year of operation.
JetBlue is offering the discount fares Monday on all remaining seats for travel Tuesday and Wednesday. Cities included in [...]

Since the dawn of the home-video era in the 1980s, as the proliferation of VCRs and DVD players spread to the point where just about every American home was equipped with one, Blockbuster was, well, a blockbuster. The company dominated its sector of the economy, gobbling up competitors and forcing many mom-and-pop video rental stores [...]

David Bach discusses his book Start Over Finish Rich and different ways to save money. He advises people to negotiate their monthly fixed expenses. Consumers should seek what Bach calls “recession pricing” in order to pay lower rates for monthly services. Bach suggests that negotiating expenses can save people up to $5000 a year.

If you knew coworkers, former bosses or exes who cheated on their taxes, would you turn them in? The Internal Revenue Service can make it worth your while.
As tax season nears, we all want to get as much money back from the IRS as possible. And while taking advantage of this year’s new tax breaks [...]

Coca-Cola (KO) is acquiring a huge chunk of its biggest bottler so that it can better compete in a world where a penny or two often makes the difference in a consumer’s choice.
The move mirrors one that rival PepsiCo made in August to buy its two biggest bottlers for about $7.8 billion.
The deals by Coke [...]

Sometimes, it pays to be a follower.
Twitter and Facebook have been a marketing godsend for all kinds of companies, which increasingly are using the social media to build loyalty with shoppers. Now, retailers have even begun to tout sales and exclusive discounts to customers who interact with them through social media. For example, Banana Republic [...]

Three dozen states will launch programs in March and April to distribute almost $300 million in rebates to consumers buying energy-efficient appliances.
The federally funded programs, similar to the cash-for-clunkers auto rebate program last year, are intended to improve energy efficiency and stimulate the economy. Rebates differ by state and appliance.
Eight states launched programs this month, [...]