American Express launched a first of its kind Facebook application “Link, Like, Love” to provide its cardmembers with deals, access and experiences based on the likes, interests and social connections of cardmembers and their Facebook friends. Using American Express Facebook page customers can link their cards to the program and choose their favorite deals; American Express will send statement credits to cardmembers’ accounts as they shop online or in stores, without the need to pre-purchase anything, print out or show a coupon at the point of sale.

Jim Rogers, chief executive of Rogers Holdings, warned this week that the United States is approaching another ruinous crisis worse than that of 2008. "The debts that are in this country are skyrocketing," he said. "In the last three years the government has spent staggering amounts of money and the Federal Reserve is taking on staggering amounts of debt.

Automatic savings, rebates, discounts, and reward points specialist Offermatic announced a new business model for deals and offers which completely changes the way consumers save money, and how merchants acquire and retain customers.

According to the survey statistics from PriceGrabber this year online shoppers plan to spend more on holiday gifts as compared with the previous season. The research shows that 66% of shoppers will spend over $500. Last holiday season over 59% of shoppers spent $500 or more on gifts. This year shoppers plan to spend $845 on average. The survey also found that the average 2010 holiday shopper will make 57 percent of their holiday purchases online, 40 percent in brick-and-mortar stores and 3 percent from a mobile phone.

According to the study, by Coleman Bazelon, a telecom economist with The Brattle Group, network neutrality rules being adopted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission could lead to the loss of more than 340,000 jobs in the broadband industry over the next 10 years.

Shoppers will have spent £951,000 per minute on Christmas Eve on last-minute shopping, research suggests. Sainsbury's Credit Cards say 19% of the nation's adults intended to do some of their seasonal shopping on Thursday, spending about £1.37bn. More than 13m people were expected to do Christmas Eve shopping, spending the equivalent of £57m an hour. Financial data firm Experian said consumers were making the most of this year's final few shopping days.

According to PA News, consumers are expected to spend a record £23 billion on their debit cards during December despite the economic downturn, a research has shown. A further £17.8 billion of cash is also expected to be withdrawn from ATMs during the month, according to Barclays. The group, which based its research on spending trends in the past two years, expects debit card spending to be 4% higher than during December 2008.

A gift card has typically been the one item that holiday shoppers had to buy at full price. But after a slump in spending on the cards last year, retailers got out the red markers and started slashing. Buy $100 in gift cards for any of eight retailers at Kroger and you pay only $90. At CVS this week, spend $50 on iTunes gift cards and get a $10 credit to use the next time you shop there.

With the holiday season just around the corner, consumers are already on the hunt for the best bargains. While the bulk of holiday sales still occur in brick-and-mortar stores, surveys suggest most consumers will also go online to find deals on holiday gifts. A recent MarketLive survey reports that 55 percent of consumers plan to shop online for holiday gifts, compared to 49 percent last year, and 26 percent plan to spend more online this year compared to last year. In advance of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, blogs and social networking sites are buzzing with coupons and promotions.

Even after a year of recession, for some consumers ‘tis the season for a rise in spending. A new survey from American Express reports that 10 percent of consumers actually intend to open their wallets and spend more on holiday gifts relative to last year and 43 percent plan to spend about the same. In the next 30 days, more than one in five U.S. consumers (22%) expect to spend more when compared to the last 30 day period.

American Express Co said credit card spending increased in October from September in another sign that the worst of the financial crisis may have passed for the largest U.S.

 Retailers are about to embark on the holiday season of the serious bargain hunter. According to NRF’s 2009 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, U.S. consumers plan to spend an average of $682.74 on holiday-related shopping, a 3.2 percent drop from last year’s $705.01.

A recent national survey from ThomasNet shows that businesses are very optimistic about their growth and their ability to survive through the recession in spite of all the challenges they face in the current tough environment when customers’ are increasingly reducing their spending. The survey polled 800 executives, managers and engineers from small, midsize and large companies. 79% of the respondents said that they believe the US economy will improve by the second quarter of 2010 or sooner with 35% expecting their business to grow by the year end.

 The creation of customized online tools that help consumers manage debt and analyze their spending earned Discover a place on the 2009 InformationWeek 500 annual list of the most innovative users of information technology.  InformationWeek recognized Discover for launching an innovative series of online financial planning tools to help consumers get a clearer view of their spending behavior, manage their debt better and empower them to make smart financial decisions. This is the fourth consecutive year that Discover has made the list. 

According to the survey conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research among 2000 Americans, as crisis affected people to tighten their belts about 80% of responded adopted a personal money management system.   Currently, online banking became the most popular method for tracking finances, used by 59% of those inquired, and about 30% of them check their balances daily and 50% look weekly.   About 20% of polled track their money on spreadsheets such as Excel while 12% use software like Quicken.