Today’s business news highlight looming economy downfall which might not be all that bad news for bargain hunters. As long as your job is not affected and you expect a steady income, the next few months promise a shopper’s paradise as the merchants fight with each other to keep defecting customers.

Building your cash savings is probably the main way to protect yourself during economic recession and so in no way I am trying to rush you to spend more. Yet if you have to spend anyway, do it wisely, and this is where sites like Buxr.com can help you. Here are a few hot deals that caught my eye over the past week.

• Brother® MFC-665CW Color Flatbed All-in-One is a Swiss Army Knife of small office equipment. It is a copier, color printer, fax, answering machine, and scanner in one unit. What I like the most is the wireless interface and 2.5” color display. Currently available from Staples for $99.98.
• Planning a trip? Check out this AirTran Airways specials sale fares starting at $29.99. Many destinations are available. Must book today!
• Target Printable $5 off $25 Toy Purchase Coupon - don’t know about you but when my 5 y.o. goes to a birthday party, Target is the most popular place for shopping which makes this a very useful discount since our gifts are usually around $30
• cooks Elite Santoku Knives currently available at 7” for $9.99, 4.5” for $8.99 and 10” for $14.99. These prices are a bargain for high quality knives like these.
• A stylish blue backpack from Lands’ End for $14.99 with free shipping. Get it for your kid and her friends will envy.
• Feeling nostalgic? This collection of 9 DVD’s with TV Favorites 100 Episodes will put you at ease. Available from GraveYardMall.com for $4.99 with $6.99 shipping
• Hawking HNT1 Net-Talk USB Internet Phone is just $3.99 after $12 rebate (free shipping). It seems you can plug this device into a USB port and make calls via Skype or Yahoo Messenger account using it like a regular phone. I wish though it had a WiFi interface.

If you like these shopping deals I encourage you to visit Buxr.com or subscribe to Buxr.com RSS feed. See you next week!

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Consumer Reports is just out with its 2008 Top picks for Sedans, SUVs, Minivans, and Pickups. There are a number of surprises this year.  Here's the list:

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/new-cars/news/2007/04/top-picks-for-2007-4-07/overview/0704_top-picks-2007.htm

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Q&A: Driving up your credit score Q. I have heard that taking a new car for a test drive at a dealership, even if you don’t buy the car or apply for credit, can impact your credit rating. Is this true? A. There is only a kernel of truth in what you’re hearing, says Craig Watts, public affairs manager for Fair Isaac, the inventor of the FICO credit score. While test driving a car should have no impact at all on your credit score, it is possible that an unscrupulous dealer could use the information on your driver’s license (some old licenses still show Social Security numbers) to order your credit score—without your permission—from one of the national credit-reporting agencies, Watts says. This kind of inquiry, if it happens, has a very small effect on your score and is not likely to affect your credit. For more information on the types of things that can affect your credit score, click here. Subscribe now! Subscribe to ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

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Russ Alan Prince, author of The Middle-Class Millionaire, has been trying to understand a new sub-class of Americans called the “working rich”. Prince defines them as those with net worths between $1 million and $10 million, but who still work for a living. After conducting a survey of both middle-class millionaires and those just plain “middle class” (defined as having income of $50,000 to $80,000 and net worth under $1 million), he distilled these differences into 9 traits for Forbes. Apparently, middle-class millionaires:

1. Work Longer. The average middle-class millionaire puts 70 hours a week into the job. They take 12 vacation days a year, seven fewer than the average middle-class worker.
2. Value Networking. More than 60% say knowing “many, many people” is very important in achieving financial success.
3. Take Risks. Over 90% of middle-class millionaires admit to having made a major career or business decision that had a bad outcome.
4. Avoid Vanilla Corporate Jobs. Over 80% own their own business or a have a stake in a partnership.
5. Do It For The Money. 74% say that choosing a career “for its potential financial rewards” is very important to achieving success.
6. Don’t See Themselves As Rich. Fully one-third of those worth $1 million to $10 million think of themselves as middle class (the other two-thirds consider themselves upper middle class). Meanwhile, 21% of middle-class people (making $50,000 to $80,000 annually) call themselves members of the upper middle class.
7. Put Family First Over Community. The values the mass affluent place the most importance on are ethics, responsibilities to loved ones, parenthood and children’s education.
8. Pay For Help. Half of them have hired personal or career coaches.
9. Put Family First In Vacation. Over 60% of middle-class millionaires say that spending time with family is an important component of a vacation. By contrast, only 28% of middle-class workers think so.

Overall, there are some interesting differences. But I personally don’t see these as a “how-to” template - There’s no way I’m consistently working 70 hours a week - the whole point of being smart with money for me is to work less. Also, I feel like some information is missing. Are working millionaires older than average? Being a working millionaire at 30 is a lot different than at 60.

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President Bush signs kids car safety act into law Today the President signed into law the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act, which requires the Department of Transportation to issue regulations related to  power window safety, rearward visibility and rollaway prevention. The signing comes two weeks after the Senate passed the measure; it was passed by the House late last year. The bill was named after two-year-old Cameron, who was killed when he was inadvertently backed over by an SUV driven by his father because the blind zone behind the vehicle made it impossible to see the boy. The new law addresses three of the most serious causes of preventable injuries and fatalities to young children in and around motor vehicles: being struck by a backing vehicle with an unacceptable blind zone, getting caught in an automatically closing power window; and the ability to place a vehicle in gear without having to depress the brake, resulting in an uncontrolled rollaway. The Gulbransens and at least 21 other families whose children were killed or seriously injured in non-traffic vehicle accidents threw their support behind passage of the bill as did a broad coalition that included Kids And Cars, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Public Citizen, Center for Auto Safety, CFA, NCL, the Trauma  Foundation, and Consumers Union. We applaud the president's action. Subscribe now! Subscribe to ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

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24,000 cribs voluntarily recalled today. Munire Furniture is recalling five types of cribs.

The Majestic Flat Top cribs model # 9000

Majestic Curved Top cribs model #9500

The Essex model # 7100

The Captiva model #5100

The Brighton/Sussex model # 9100.

The recall affects those cribs made from November 2005 through November 2007.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says the cribs do not meet federal safety standards.

4 mattress support screws are too long and that does not allow the crib to be lowered fully, allowing babies to crawl over the railing.

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CPSC report on nursery-related deaths highlights crib and play yard dangers Today, the Consumer Product Safety Commission released its annual report, Nursery Product-Related Injuries and Deaths Among Children under Age Five. The news is not encouraging.  In 2006, the latest year for which data was analyzed, children under age five suffered an estimated 66,400 injuries associated with nursery products that were severe enough to require hospital treatment.  And during the three-year period from 2002 to 2004, again the most recent data available, there was an average of 80 deaths per year associated with nursery products among children under five.  Compare that to last year’s report, which showed 59,800 injuries in 2005, and an average of 61 deaths per year during the period of 2001 to 2003.  It certainly looks like we're heading in the wrong direction. What worries us most are the number of deaths and injuries associated with cribs and play yards. Together, these two products accounted for 43 deaths per year and about 12,400 injuries according to the CPSC’s most recent data.  The recall of almost 1.5 million cribs and play yards in 2007 alone may be indicative of an inherent problem.  Many of the crib recalls were due to lack of durability.  Although the CPSC regulates cribs, their standards do not include durability test requirements.  They should.  Cribs are also covered by several voluntary ASTM-International standards.  Although those standards include durability test requirements, the tests do not completely simulate the stresses that an active toddler can place on a crib when jumping or vigorously shaking the side rails or other components.  Crib hardware often becomes loose over time. Parts can fatigue and fail, screws can loosen and fall out, wood can split or splinter—all creating hazards to a child.  For these reasons we think it's important to check your crib for loose or missing hardware every two months.  We also recommend against buying any crib whose history you don’t know, such as one from a garage sale, or a crib that has been in use for more than five years.  And never buy a crib that has loose or missing hardware or other components. To provide a safe sleep environment for your child, Consumer Reports and the CPSC also recommend: Placing baby to sleep on his or her back in a crib that meets current safety standards to reduce the risk of SIDS and suffocation. Removing all soft bedding, including bumper pads, from the crib to prevent suffocation hazards. Never using a pillow as a mattress or to prop a baby’s head or neck; doing so poses a suffocation risk. Using a snug fitting crib sheet that can’t be easily pulled off and possibly become wrapped around a baby's neck. Never using an old, broken or modified crib because an infant can strangle to death if his or her body passes through gaps between loose components, broken slats or other parts of the crib and the baby's head and neck become entrapped in the space. Never allowing a gap larger than two fingers wide to develop between the sides of the crib and the mattress. Infants can suffocate in spaces between the sides of the crib and an ill-fitting mattress. Never placing a crib near a window with blind or curtain cords; infants can strangle on cords. Properly setting up a play yard according to manufacturers’ directions. Only use the mattress provided with the play yard. And do not add extra mattresses, pillows or cushions, which can cause a suffocation hazard for infants. Routinely checking nursery products against CPSC recall lists and removing recalled products from your home. You can sign-up for automatic e-mail recall notifications at www.cpsc.gov. Using a baby monitor to alert you to a problem before your child becomes one of CPSC’s statistics. Subscribe now! Subscribe to ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

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Debit users say the PIN is mightier Further evidence that consumers are pretty smart comes from a new survey by the research firm Gartner. It found that most debit-card users would rather punch in a PIN to make a supermarket purchase than sign a payment receipt. This is despite the push many banks have made to get consumers to sign (which rewards the bank with higher transaction fees). But signing puts you at greater risk of identity theft and, under federal law, your liability for fraudulent charges on a debit card can be greater than for a credit card. This recent article from the Consumer Reports Money Adviser newsletter offers tips on how to avoid high overdraft fees and other bad stuff when using your debit card.  Incidentally, the Gartner survey showed one payment method consumers preferred even over the debit/PIN combo. That was paying with cash. Subscribe now! Subscribe to ConsumerReports.org for expert Ratings, buying advice and reliability on hundreds of products. Update your feed preferences

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TODAY Travel editor Peter Greenberg takes a look at British Airways’  impressive new addition— an architectural gem that’s larger than 50 soccer fields,  houses 112 stores and even offers a special Krispy Kreme doughnut.

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Ever since I wrote about PowerReviews in October 2006 I have not heard about the review-aggregating startup that much, until today when I discovered the fact that they did launch their promised shopping portal after all. Bazzillions is the name.

As much as I liked the original idea of in-sourcing the product reviews from merchants in exchange for the leads the merchants get back from PowerReviews, just as much I don’t like how the shopping portal that is supposed to generate these leads is implemented. I think it really lacks structure and looks somewhat incomplete.

OK, without going into too much of a rhetoric, let’s get hands on. Bazzillions is a fresh site so to avoid glitches caused by lack of reviews I look a look at “Video Cameras and Camcorders”, the category PowerReviews have been working with for some time. I have then used the links to the left to further narrow it down to Sony Camcorders thus filtering out professional equipment and other brands.

What I have as the result is a list which doesn’t even have a camcorder as the first product, it is a carrying case made by Sony (see the screen shot above). OK, could be a bug. Looking closer I notice that the products are sorted in a strange fashion. The ratings have a tendency to go down but sometimes you can find a lower rated product up in the top and vice versa. There could be some sense in it but I just don’t get it.

Mislabeled products

I quickly scrolled down the list and what I found is a camcorder labeled “Sony High Definition Handycam Camcorder” which judging by the image is the HDR-CX7 model I currently have. Obviously a search by “HDR-CX7” doesn’t produce any result since the product is mislabeled.

Very few merchants

Another thing that disappoints is the limited number of merchants listed offering the products. I understand these are the partners who provide Buzzillions the reviews however with major retailers missing I feel reluctant to use Buzzillions for my shopping. I might well be missing out on the best deal out there - can’t afford that to happen.

Buzz Guide is ineffective

And the last, the green box in the middle labeled “Buzz Guide” simply doesn’t cut it. I understand the theory. PowerReviews makes merchants ask these questions to their customers as a part of after sale survey and then uses the answers to generate product recommendations on Buzzillions based on your preferences. The result however is somewhat mixed to say the least. What lacks is the quantitative ranking of the products based on the qualities I select. I.e. when I click on “Comfortable to operate” tag I want to know how well the recommendation stands (how many people made it) for each product without having to click on the “Compare” button and examine the aggregate of all the qualities. Without it the results are too unpredictable.

Conclusion

The bottom line is, the idea is great but the implementation has a long way to go before it becomes a place of choice for shopping, at least for me. If all you are looking for is quality reviews on technology products, I recommend SmartRatings, a site I recently reviewed. Retrevo is another alternative. They are not trying to accomplish as much in guiding you (so far they only quantify overall product features vs. price) but the implementation is so much better.

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In case the last 5 free ways to get your credit score weren’t enough, there’s also the free Credit.com Report Card. It is actually a pretty comprehensive analysis, providing:

• Credit Score Range: This provides a hint of your credit score based on the standard FICO range of 300-850. (You have to pay for the specific number… see below)
• Credit Score Grades: School-style grades (A-, C+) of each of the main factors in FICO scores: Payment History, Debt Usage, Credit Age, Account Mix, and Recent Inquiries.
• Actual Credit Report Details: Your address on file, employer data, total accounts, total credit limits, number of inquiries, etc.

Here’s an example screenshot:

I’ve bought my credit report and score before, and this is the kind of information I would find useful anyhow. I don’t care if my score is 728 vs. 732 vs. 721 since slight changes occur all the time. Note that this analysis is based on your data from the TransUnion credit bureau only. You can upgrade to reports from all three credit bureaus plus actual credit scores for $14.95 per month.

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