shopping online - Stuff Parents Need

You may have already heard me mention on Twitter and Facebook that I have 25 people on my Christmas shopping list. I have a lot of siblings, in-laws, and a TON of nieces (and one sweet little nephew, too!). I have a 6 page list where I keep track of the gifts I have purchased, as I shop all year long so that I can afford to get fun and interesting gifts for everyone.

My goal every year is to be completely finished with my shopping by Thanksgiving.

I rarely meet this goal.

But I almost NEVER subject myself to Black Friday. I don’t think it is fun at all. I think it is stressful and a little bit sad, as it just seems to be a day of grabbing as much stuff as you can before someone else grabs it. No thanks.

But Cyber Monday? Now that’s a different story! I think I like it because I can’t see with my own eyes how many other people are shopping, and somehow that makes it easier to accept. Also, my work day starts around 4am, and if I can get some shopping done in the wee small hours of the morning, that’s ideal for me! No need to get out of my yoga pants!

Oh who am I kidding; I still wear my yoga pants when I go to the store…

Whether you are hitting the stores for those tempting holiday deals or just going online to get what you need (or both, which is what most Americans are doing now), you will likely be making use of your credit and/or debit cards. They are so convenient and in the short run feel much safer than cash, but each shopping experience you have with them is also another opportunity for identity theft.

Sorry to be a joy kill, but as you know I’ve been a victim MANY times, and a few of those times happened around the holidays, when I was using my credit card quite liberally.

I have a few tips to help you stay safe this holiday season. These are tips and tricks I have picked up over the years and I hope they help you.

Shopping in a store

1. DO NOT get your credit card out of your wallet until it is time to pay. Many people have it out and on the counter or in their hands while they wait for the total bill. In this day and age, security cameras and cell phones can easily get a picture of your credit card numbers and the name on the card. I know that sounds crazy, but it is true. Don’t get would-be picture takers the chance!

Shopping online

1. If you are like me you do price comparisons online before making a purchase. Sometimes a lesser known store might have a better deal than some of the online giants like Amazon. I’ve seen it! BUT….if the best deal is coming from a store or site you’ve never heard of, please take an extra moment to do a web search on the company and see if there are any complaints out there. You need to make sure that you are shopping with a reputable retailer before handing over your credit card information. Checking out the store with the Better Business Bureau is also a good idea and it only takes a few seconds. This strategy has kept me from handing over my credit card information to businesses that turned out to be shady on more than one occasion.

2. Keep your internet security software up to date to help you catch anything fishy (or should I say phishy?).

Holiday donations

1. I never make donations to organizations over the phone, because I don’t know if the person who is calling me really is from the organization in question, or if they are just claiming to be from the organization. Unfortunately this is a popular way to get people to hand over their credit card info, along with their addresses. Instead of donating this way, go directly to the organization you support online and donate through their site.

I hope my tips will help you play it safe this holiday season! For more helpful hints and tips (and for chances to win GREAT prizes, like a $1,000 Visa card!) remember to play the LifeLock for Life game online. It’s one of my favorite weekly games to play as it teaches me something new every time!

Do you have any tips for keeping your personal information safe while shopping and making donations this holiday season?

I am a compensated ambassador for LifeLock. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Thank you to BING for sponsoring my writing today. To learn more about BING Shopping Rewards, click here. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

Oh, internet. I owe you one serious love song. And maybe a poem or two. How I adore you! You have changed my world so completely! Today I’m going to focus on one key way that you have changed the way I do things. You have saved me SO much time on a task that I both love and loathe: shopping.

When I was in college, I would hit the local mall when I was stressed out or just needed a break. It was VERY rare for me to actually purchase anything, but it was great to window shop. You could purchase clothing online at that time (this was 1998-2002), but since then the online shopping selections have EXPLODED, and the amount of time I have spent in malls has gone down right along with it.

You see, shopping is a good stress reliever. Sort of. Over time, I’ve found that the peace it used to bring me is often cut short by a few key things:

1. The traffic getting to and from the mall. I don’t so much like traffic. And I don’t like wasting time. And that’s what 20 minutes in the car each ways feels like. Just sayin’.

2. Honestly, this might sound crazy, but I think the selection of merchandise in stores is borderline pitiful as compared to shopping online. So I find shopping in brick and mortar stores to be a bit of a drag. In this season of my life, I have a much better sense for what looks good on me when I shop, so I do less browsing and more targeting searching.

3. I have a toddler. Have you ever shopping with a toddler? Me, too. ONCE. Not kidding. It’s payback for all the times that I would cry in the mall with my mom when we went shopping. I remember thinking that it was worse than a death sentence. Darah seems to agree. So I avoid it pretty much at all costs. The shipping fees I may incur for shopping online seem like such a small price to pay for avoiding having to subject both Darah and myself to shopping together.

4. Store hours. Let me tell you when I live my “non-mommy” life: between 4:45am and 6:30 am, between 1-2:30pm (but I’m stuck in the house because my child is sleeping) and after 7pm, at which point in the day I’m way too tired to schlep out to a store and shop. Especially if that means I have to put on makeup. Forget about it.

Online shopping I can do any time, in my pajamas, face NO lines, no traffic and easily hunt down EXACTLY what I’m looking for. It is bliss. I have been living in Chattanooga since August 2010, and I have been to the mall here exactly 1 time, and that was a few months ago. Wanna know why I went? Only because I felt really weird about the fact that I had never gone. I seriously don’t think I stepped inside more than 2 stores, and I got bored really fast. I have no idea why I would ever go back, unless I desperately needed something I could only get there, and I needed it today. Otherwise, I’ll just buy it online, thank you very much.

So now I want to talk about ways that you can make shopping online super efficient and fun. There’s actually a way to get paid for your searching efforts, which makes online shopping SO much more fun!

I’ve heard of quite a few programs out there, but this one is new to me, so it may be new to you, as well. It is called the Bing Rewards Preview and you can use it to earn credits that can be redeemed for gift cards, merchandise, and even charity donations. I just signed up and earned 250 credits just for signing up! Easy!

You can earn credits by installing the Bing Bar toolbar onto your browser. I like this option, as you can very easily watch those credits increase with your searches!

The other option is to just log into Bing.com and make sure you are signed in. You’ll see your Rewards credit counter in the top right of the header.

So how many credits do you need to get something you’d actually like to have? Well, a $10 Starbucks gift card will cost 1,338 credits. If coffee isn’t your thing, they have Sephora gift cards and those always popular Amazon.com gift cards. So log on and start searching. It literally pays to do your shopping online with Bing.

What about you? Do you shop online? Do you prefer going out to the stores to see and touch the merchandise before making your purchase? Do you take advantage of opportunities to make every search count online with something like Bing?