You’ve decided to buy a car. You know what you can afford for a monthly payment, you have figured in all the other costs such as insurance and you are ready to make that car loan committment. The dealer is offering you a rebate or a lower interest rate - which is the better deal?

That depends on several factors such as the size of the rebate, the price of the car and what interest rates are available. A rebate will lower the total loan amount but a lower interest rate will give you lower monthly payments for the life of the loan.

Bankrate.com has a nifty little calculator to help you decide which is the better deal for you. Just plug in the price of the car, the interest rates with and without rebate, the amount of the rebate and the length of the loan. Bankrate’s calculator will tell you the better option and how much it will save you.

But are they bright and beautiful?

Sharp unveiled its new gargantuan 108 inch flat panel LCD screen at this week’s International Consumer Electronics Show. The company states they have increased the frame speed and enhanced the way LCD screens show rapid movement, making them smoother. Improving the moving image quality gives LCDs the ability to compete with plasma TVs in the flat screen market. Sharp’s 108 inch screen beats out Samsung’s 102 inch behemoth offering last year.

And at the other end of the scale, Verizon Wireless is betting that consumers will watch TV on a tiny screen and is introducing TV for cellphones. Cellphones already are being widely used as cameras and for recording video. LG and Samsung are producing new phones capable of receiving TV broadcasts. Verizon has not revealed how much the new broadcast service will cost.

Consumer affairs.com is featuring an article about Blue Hippo Funding, a company that sells computers, televisions and other high-end technology to consumers with poor or non-existent credit. The company has a unique credit plan.

I checked out the Blue Hippo website where they advertise a computer system on easy credit terms. There are no credit checks. To qualify, you make a downpayment of $99.00 and then six weekly payments of $39.99. This means you will have paid $338.94 before your computer is shipped, in fact, the website states that it is not even ordered yet. Once you have paid the $338.94 “we can offer to finance the balance of your purchase price, order your computer and have it shipped…”. Still, you may think it sounds like a good deal. But nowhere on this page does it state how many payments you will make after they ship your computer.

Terms seem to change. I found several sites, including Wikipedia, stating that the initial pre-payment period was 13 weeks. Currently the BlueHippo site says 6 weeks. However, the term following the pre-payment is at least 49 weeks and in some cases it is said to be 52 weeks. In any case, the consumer ends up paying over five times the value of the item.

I checked with the Better Business Bureau. Not surprisingly, Blue Hippo has an unsatisfactory records with the BBB.

Bottom line: if you are thinking of doing business with Blue Hippo, check out a few of these informative sites first.

Better Business Bureau

ConsumerAffairs.com

Wikipedia

BlueHippo Ripoff Report at badbusinessbureau.com

A lot of us stayed home this season and did most of our Christmas shopping without ever leaving our chairs. Online shopping was more popular this year than ever with Amazon recording its biggest day ever with $4 million in sales on December 11.

The season was disappointing for retailers though, so many are slashing post-holiday prices in an effort to make up the lost sales.

And as retailers further discount high-ticket items consumers will be out looking for presents for themselves. And, why not? There’s no better time to get a great deal on that luxury item you have wanted all year but resisted the urge to purchase. Post-season savings could even make it affordable.

Christmas is over. ‘Tis the season to be selfish.