Actually, it’s not a scam. It’s a completely free way program where you have the opportunity to get some amazing bargains. Here are some Daily Wish tips to maximize your luck…

What is the American Express Daily Wish
The Daily Wish happens every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. In a nutshell, the Daily Wish allows cardmembers to buy things at incredible prices. But what’s the catch? Well, there is only so many of each item available at the special price. They’re on a first come, first serve basis. For example, tomorrow they are offering $200 Best Buy gift cards for only a $100! However, there are only 25 available. Once they’re gone, that’s it.

What’s available through the Daily Wish?
Pretty much anything you can think of. For example, in addition to the gift card, the next few sessions include digital cameras, laptops, NordicTracks, TVs, and bikes. However it’s not just retail merchandise they offer. Throughout the years, especially during the holidays, American Express has been known to offer some pretty incredible bargains. For example, last Christmas they were offering brand new BMWs at half price! They also feature vacation packages and other unique opportunities.

How to win American Express Daily Wish list?
Well, they don’t tell you the exact times the items go on sale. They only tell you the days. So if you have a job where you can fool around on the computer all day, then check the American Express Daily Wish page frequently You never know… that’s three days per week you can try to win.

However during certain periods, American Express will actually tell you when the Daily Wish list items will be made available. For example, during Christmas they will have a full schedule of which items are offered at which times for each day. Some items were even offered several times throughout the day, i.e. 9 am, 11 am, 3 pm, and 6 pm PST. So when they tell you the time, make sure you’re on a lightening fast internet connection and keep refreshing the page in the minutes and seconds leading up to the designated time.

How to participate?
It is completely free to participate in the American Express Daily Wish program. Of course you will have to pay for the designated items at the discounted price if you want it, but other than that, there are no costs involved. However, you do need to be an American Express cardmember to participate. Don’t have one yet? Then check out their no annual fee American Express Blue Cash that gives you 5% cash back!

Rank Category / Number of Complaints

1. Identity Theft /  278,078 
2. Third Party and Creditor Debt Collection / 119,549
3. Internet Services / 83,067
4. Shop-at-Home and Catalog Sales / 74,581
5. Foreign Money Offers and Counterfeit Check Scams / 61,736
6. Internet Auction / 57,821 
7. Credit Cards / 45,203
8. Prizes, Sweepstakes and Lotteries /  41,763 
9. Advance-Fee Loans and Credit Protection/Repair / 41,448
10. Banks and Lenders / 32,443
11. Credit Bureaus, Information Furnishers and Report Users / 31,629
12. Television and Electronic Media / 26,568
13. Health Care / 25,414 
14. Business Opportunities, Employment Agencies and Work-at-Home Plans / 22,896
15. Computer Equipment and Software / 22,621

I always find these lists interesting, because they are made up of consumers who actually took the time to file a complaint with the FTC. How many other people were ripped off, or had problems, but suffered in silence?

Later this week, I'll detail one of the scams on this list that's costing consumers hundreds - sometimes thousands - of dollars. But in the meantime, I want to remind everyone how important it is that we speak up if we have been taken. No matter how embarrassed (or busy) you are, if your complaint helps one other person, then it's worth it. You are just as an important part of the consumer protection effort as any government agency.

Fortunately it's easy these days to get the word out about rip-offs or problems. Here are several places to file a complaint/share your story:

FTC.gov The Federal Trade Commission won't get involved in solving your actual complaint, but if they see a pattern of abuse, the can step in. Case in point: Operation Clean Sweep, aimed at fraudulent credit repair firms.

Credit.com Forums: Post your experiences with credit-related scams. We have heard from several consumers who found our forums just in time to avoid being ripped off.

IC3.gov: The place to go to report white collar crime.

Stay tuned this week as we detail more ways to protect your hard-earned money.

Gerri Detweiler – Personal finance author and Credit Advisor for Credit.com, Gerri contributes budgeting, debt recovery and savings information online. She is also the co-author of Reduce Debt, Reduce Stress: Real Life Solutions for Solving Your Credit Crisis.

If our credit card issuers increase our interest rates or implement new credit card fees, they are required to give us a 45-day notice of the change. And, we have the right during that 45 days to opt out of the change and pay off the balance under the old interest rate terms. This is a significant protection from higher rates, but it requires that we proactively contact our issuers to opt out.

Roughly 97% of us do not read our bank notices. And, if we do not respond with our intention to opt out within the 45 days allotted to us under the CARD Act, then the issuer can increase our rates on all new purchases. So, Step #1 for protecting ourselves from higher interest rates and annual fees is to open all of the mail we receive from our credit card issuers — and READ it.

John Ulzheimer – Credit scoring and credit reporting expert and author, John is the President of Consumer Education for Credit.com. Formerly with Equifax and Fair Isaac, John shares his unique insight of the inner workings of credit scoring models and the credit reporting industry on CreditBloggers.com.

When looking for information designed specifically for the user, a site by the name of Quizzle.com, is giving cardholders a breath of fresh air and free tools that can help them make good financial decisions when the time arises. While there are many things that set Quizzle.com apart from other financial informative sites, one that consumers will be pleasantly surprised to know is that they can get all the information they need about their financial life all in one spot. In addition to that, consumers will find that there is no need to give personal information like social security numbers or credit card numbers in order to utilize the functions on the site. While you may think that they will ask for this information later after signing up, unlike other sites they won’t come back later asking for it in order for you access to additional features.

When it comes to cardholders, information and tools such as free credit reports and scores are now more important than ever. As credit card issuers have now placed stricter guidelines on to whom they issue cards, cardholder’s credit scores have become one of the main factors on whether or not you receive a card. In addition to that, your score also determines the interest rate, whether it is new purchases or balance transfer, that is associated with the new plastic that you receive.

While Quizzle.com does offer you free credit reports and scores, they offer consumers much more and the information can help you beyond getting the best interest rate possible on a credit card. Users of the site also have access to tools, which include a home value estimator, personal budgeting and home loan recommendations; and that is only just the beginning. For consumers that have decided to leave their plastic at home and pay with cash there is also great information on paying off debt and how to improve your credit score.

As for the potential that prepaid cards have, there is no better indication than numbers reported by one prepaid issuer for the month of February. It was reported that NetSpend, one of the largest prepaid card companies within the United States, hit a record number for the amount that cardholders deposit on prepaid plastic. That record breaking amount was around $1.04 billion, and surprisingly that number could just be the beginning of what prepaid card issuers could see moving forward into 2010.

When it comes to the amount of money loaded on re-loadable prepaid cards in one given month, the billion dollar number is an industry first; but it seems that many have expected it for some time. While prepaid cards have been around for some time now, it was not until very recently that consumers started to heavily depend on them more than their credit cards or cash. What started out as being heavily targeted toward the un-banked and underbanked has spread to the average consumer (including students). With prepaid debit cards, cardholders still get the convenience of using plastic to make purchases, without the interest rates associated with credit cards.

Last week I reviewed the Fujitsu ScanSnap 1500M. I’m unabashedly in love with it. This scanner is going to eliminate paper clutter in my office. If I had written the review on Amazon, I’d have awarded it 5 stars. My only regret is that I didn’t buy a ScanSnap years ago.

Fujitsu also sent me the ScanSnap 1300 to try out, as well. As you can see in my photo above (pardon the obligatory Office Space reference), the 1300 is a lot smaller than the 1500M. That’s because it was primarily designed as a mobile scanner. I tried it out, and here are my observations:

1. The 1500 doesn’t take up much room on your desktop, but the 1300 has an even smaller footprint. If space is at a premium, the 1300 might be the way to go.

2. You can power the 1300 with the included AC adapter, or you can power it via USB. If use the USB power cable, then you will you need two USB ports on on your computer — one to supply power and one for the data.

3. The 1300 is much slower than the 1500. The rated speed of the 1300 is 8 pages a minute. The 1500 can process 20 pages a minute. I am used to the 1500s speed, so the 1300 seemed too slow for me. But like its bigger brother, the 1300 scans both sides of a document at the same time, and it makes full use of the same excellent software that lets you scan to email, scan to a printer, and scan to Evernote. And like the 1500, you can use a highlighter pen on your paper documents to identify searchable keywords before you scan them - a neat and useful trick.

4. The 1300’s document feeder can handle a stack of 10 sheets, compared to 50 sheets on the 1500. Also, I found out that if you don’t precisely align the stack of papers into the 1300, some of the sheets could stick together. That means you have to keep an eye out for pages that don’t get scanned. I don’t like the fact that I can’t completely trust it to scan every sheet. The 1500 has an ultrasonic sensor that lets you know when sheets get stuck together and it seems to work flawlessly.

5. The 1300 is cross-platform, so it will work on Macs and Windows machines. This is good news for the traveler. (Be sure to bring the software disc with you if you want to use it on someone else’s computer!)

6. If the 1500M is too expensive for you ($419.99 on Amazon), the 1300 might match your budget ($264.99 on Amazon).

Conclusion: If you need a scanner when you travel, I would recommend the 1300, provided you learn how to load sheets into the document feeder correctly so that the pages don’t stick together. But if you are looking for a desktop scanner, I think it’s well worth paying the extra money for the 1500. You won’t be sorry.

NCPW 2010 — Dollars and Sense: Rated A for All Ages — highlights the importance of using good consumer sense at every stage of life – from grade school to retirement.

NCPW partners are promoting free resources to help people protect their privacy, manage money and debt, avoid identity theft, understand credit and mortgages, and steer clear of frauds and scams.

To support this year's NCPW campaign, Credit.com will be hosting a daily series on consumer protection issues with tips, tools and expert commentary through our blog, in our learning center and community forums, as well as in the Expert Insight area of our news section– so be sure to check back daily. We're also hosting a week-long public relations campaign where our team of experts will do their part to spread the word on key consumer protections and financial literacy topics via radio, television and print outlets.

To become a partner in this national campaign, visit the website at www.consumer.gov/ncpw, where you’ll find information for getting involved and promoting NCPW.

However, when looking at the main difference of what businesses have to look toward moving forward, one would have to know that the recent regulations put on credit card issuers with the implementation of the CARD Act does not protect businesses. Instead businesses are left to the constant changes that plagued consumers throughout 2009 and in the beginning of 2010.

When it comes to the importance of credit cards for businesses, it would be very hard to find many that don’t use credit cards as a vital part of everyday business. While there may be a few, credit cards have become a fundamental part mainly because they are used to fund everyday cost, bridge gaps in cash flow, and in many cases they are used to help pay employees. When drastic changes occur to the terms of these cards it could very well essentially play a major part in whether the company succeeds or fails, especially for many of the smaller businesses. For larger companies, while the change in rates or limits may not effect it as much as small business it still creates a potential problem that can become one that is hard to overcome.

In a post written earlier entitled "American Express Claims Happiest Cardholders", American Express was listed on a J.D. Power and Associates survey as the issuer with the happiest cardholders. While that was well before the drastic changes millions have seen with their card accounts, it now seems that consumers are ranking them among the best when it comes to another group of companies, and this time it is for privacy according to the Ponemon Institute’s annual Most Trusted Companies for Privacy Study. While the happiest cardholders’ list comprised solely of the U.S. largest issuers, this time well known companies such as IBM, Wal-mart, Hewlett Packard, and E-Bay were in the running.

Over the last two years we have hit record numbers of consumers’ personal information or data being breach or collected, and 2010 will probably be up there as new technology and payment methods are being created. For this reason identity theft and credit card fraud is defiantly something that majority if not all Americans are worried about. For any company, a person’s trust on whether or not they think that their information is safe plays a vital role. As many cardholders see American Express as a safe company to do business with, it will help them increase cardholders especially if factors such as interest rates and fees are equal.

When looking at the new proposed rules, if accepted it would go into effect on the last phase of the CARD Act, which takes effect in August. Under this proposal, credit card issuers would have their fees for such things as over-limit fees and late fees be set at an amount that is more realistic to the consumer. At most, the fee would not be any higher than the value of the violation, meaning it could not be any higher than the amount that was paid late or charged over.

Other concern that would be addressed by this proposal would be the charging of an "inactivity fee", which has been a hot topic for many weeks now. While there are not many major issuers currently utilizing the fee, it has been one that experts and media alike have put under the microscope as the next major feature issuers would adopt.