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The country’s recession continues, as a result consumers continued to shop frugally, driving coupon use to record-setting highs.

According to Inmar, Winston-Salem, N.C., which tracks promotional transactions, coupon use in 2009 reached its highest levels since the company began tracking the numbers in 1988.

In addition, for the first time in 17 years, customers used more coupons than in the previous year, redeeming 3.3 billion packaged-goods coupons, a 27 percent increase from 2008.

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Nearly 13 million people have suffered from identity theft so far this year.

That’s ridiculous!

Lax security threatens to hammer a nail in the coffin for privacy. So far in 2010, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) reports there have been 371 identity breaches that exposed 12,871,065 records in the United States alone.

ITRC does not count stolen encrypted records. But the real total could be a lot higher. The ITRC’s breach database only includes previously published records from what the organization consider to be credible sources.

Many data privacy experts believe data breach reporting needs to be improved as sometimes details of breaches are sketchy at best.

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My friends over at Bill Shrink offers some great advice on money and finances that apply regardless of the state of the economy.

In the first half of 2010, personal bankruptcy filings in the United States totaled 770,000+ people. Filing for bankruptcy is a difficult, emotionally draining process.

While it may not be the end of the world for some people, it is still a financial outcome that you should strive hard to avoid.

The reasons for bankruptcy filings can vary greatly from persons to persons, and many times it can be out of your control. But sometimes the things you do can accelerate the outcome, and here are eight such ways (in no particular order).

Read more – Bill Shrink

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Outlet shopping is such big business, it stands to reason that retailers try to slip some tricks past shoppers to make a little more money.

The foot traffic at America’s outlet malls is immense, and everyone is there to spend. Many of the country’s biggest malls are tourist attractions unto themselves.

The next time you hit your nearest outlet center, keep these tips in mind, and avoid the five ways that retailers try to divert you from the true discount shopping opportunities.

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Consumer Reports said it isn’t recommending Apple Inc.’s iPhone 4 following tests confirming the handset has a hardware flaw that causes signal quality to degrade.

“The problem seems to be a design flaw, and it is significant,” Mike Gikas, senior electronics editor for Consumer Reports, said today in an interview. The publication has recommended the three previous iPhone models.

Tests were conducted in a room designed to eliminate radio- frequency interference, he said. The results showed that when a user covers the phone’s lower-left side, where two parts of the external antenna meet, the loss of signal strength may lead to dropped calls in areas where AT&T Inc.’s coverage is weak. The tests suggest AT&T’s network, often criticized for spotty iPhone coverage, isn’t responsible for the signal problems.

AT&T is the iPhone’s exclusive carrier in the U.S. Apple says the problem is software-related and involves how the phone displays signal strength.

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