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You’d think that if you pay for health insurance you’d have a right to know what your plan is paying for. But patient privacy rights can override your desire to know who’s claiming what on your health plan. “Adult children are most certainly worried about this lack of privacy, so much so that it causes many to not seek treatment at all,” says Andrew Schrage of Money Crashers. “This can be especially true in cases of substance abuse or contraceptive care.” Children over age 18 who remain on their parents’ health insurance plans until age 26 under the Patient Protection [...]

Credit card companies offer a dizzying array of rewards cards. They come with numerous sign-on bonuses, fees, perks and partners — so many that the choices have befuddled even the savviest of shoppers. So how do you pick? Maximizing credit card rewards Let “The Points Guy” help you. In his first interview with Bankrate.com, Brian Kelly, founder of the popular website ThePointsGuy.com, demystifies how to choose a rewards credit card. Kelly explains how the right card can get you a lot more for your money. What kind of rewards do credit cards offer? Rewards cards come in three main categories. [...]

Seven Ways to Save Money on Groceries The average American family spends $ 537 per month on food — $ 312 directly on groceries, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Survey. Although it may not seem like it, food costs are still one of the most flexible areas in most families’ budgets. While you may have little control over your mortgage or day care costs, you can probably save money on groceries. Wondering Where to Start? Try these Turbocharged Tips. 1. Become an ‘extreme couponer’ The average manufacturer’s coupon is now worth $ 1.20, according to food [...]

Indictment says Kolon Industries tried to steal trade secrets from DuPont and a Japanese firmA DuPont plant in Richmond, Virginia, makes KevlarThe high-strength fiber is used in body armor, fiber-optic cables and industrial productsWashington — A South Korean competitor of the American chemical company DuPont was indicted in Virginia on Thursday, accused of trying to steal trade secrets on the design and manufacture of Kevlar, a widely used product made by DuPont.A DuPont plant in Richmond, Virginia, makes Kevlar, a high-strength fiber used in vests and body armor, fiber-optic cables and a variety of industrial products.A six-count indictment returned by [...]

A U.S. grand jury charged South Korea-based Kolon Industries Inc with criminal trade theft in a long-running dispute over how the company produced high-strength fiber, according to an indictment unsealed on Thursday. Kolon and five individuals face charges that they stole trade secrets belonging to DuPont Co, maker of Kevlar fabric used in body armor and other products, and Teijin Ltd, maker of Twaron, the rival fabric. The United States threatens to take at least $ 226 million in assets from Kolon, which represents the gross proceeds of the company’s sales of its fabric, Heracron, according to the indictment. The [...]

Do you feel like your credit report is spying on you? Sometimes it seems like just about everything personal is included in your credit history, including your name, address and Social Security number. Even your birth date is on it. But you still have a few secrets even your credit report doesn’t know. Here are seven items that lenders won’t see when they pull your credit report. Your Salary Salaries haven’t “been on a report since the early 1990s,” says John Ulzheimer, president of consumer education for Even then, it was “highly dubious” because the information came from the consumers [...]

Chinese theft of valuable U.S. trade secrets, often obtained by sophisticated cyber-attacks, is becoming a more serious problem, U.S. industry officials said on Wednesday. “This matter requires more attention,” Jeremie Waterman, head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s China division, told a U.S. government panel hosted by the U.S. Trade Representative’s office. It “has risen substantially in importance over the last year, year and a half,” Waterman said at an annual hearing on China’s compliance with World Trade Organization rules. In one recent case, two Chinese citizens in Kansas City, Missouri, were charged with attempting to pay $ 100,000 for [...]

Besides couponing, there are so many different ways to save money on your grocery bill — if only you knew the ins and outs of your favorite store’s policies and promotions. And how do you find that out?”Just ask your store manager, who will happily tell you how to save the most at their store,” says Annette Economides, who co-authored ”Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America’s Cheapest Family.”One out of three Americans (34%) said he or she isn’t likely to settle for paying retail prices, according to RetailMeNot.com’s third annual coupon behavior survey. These survey respondents said they’ll go [...]

iPhone 5: Thinner, faster…better?The fact that yesterday’s bash wasn’t full of startling twists presumably helps explain why it prompted lots of stories declaring the event, and even the iPhone 5 itself, to be a disappointment.Product rollouts aren’t action movies. Surprises are nice, but they aren’t the ultimate goal — at least if the idea is to sell lots and lots of gadgets and make lots and lots of money.Surprise has no inherent relation to quality or popularity. I was more surprised by Samsung’s decision to give the Galaxy Note II a whopping 14-cm screen than I was by anything Apple [...]

That FICA Guy Won’t be Your Buddy In the first season of “Friends,” Rachel Green looks at her first paycheck as a waitress and asks, “Who’s this FICA guy, and why is he getting all my money?” That’s one hard lesson about Social Security. Another is that when it’s time to claim, you can’t depend on the Social Security Administration to be your personal adviser. In an effort to save time and cut costs, Social Security employees generally don’t give case-specific advice. So that means you are on your own to make the most important financial decision of a lifetime. [...]