Shopping, eggnog, shopping, pumpkin late, and more shopping. The time is here for the holidays and that involves going out to stores and shopping online to find those perfect gifts.
MasterLock encourages you to follow these helpful tips to keep in mind during your shopping this year.
Make smart online purchases. The convenience of online holiday shopping can quickly be derailed if you become a victim of identity theft due to sharing your credit card and shipping data with a non-secure site. Before providing any personal or financial information, make sure that you are interacting with a reputable, established company. Check to make sure the website is secure by verifying the address has an “s” in “https://” at the beginning of the URL, that a closed padlock is located in the URL bar, and that if you are entering any personal information, there is a checkmark or padlock image indicating the website is protected by a trusted source. If you’re still worried about using your personal financial accounts for transactions, a pre-paid debit card may be the way to go – just be sure to read the fine print for any fees and terms.A detailed list of tips can be found here for your reference, and you can register for a FREE subscription to the Master Lock Vault here.
Click with caution. Consumers may be bombarded with link-heavy holiday emails this season sending well wishes or advertising hot gift items and sales. However, with more than 9,500 malicious websites detected by Google every day2, consumers are advised to click links with caution to avoid a malware-spreading site. Before clicking, hover over the link first to review the complete URL. Beware of small errors in website addresses such as missing letters, misspellings, a different .com extension or other tweaks to a company’s name. For extra protection, type the address into the web browser directly to ensure you are not being redirected to a fraudulent site from a link.
Set and track your budget. Avoid post-holiday regret or debt by setting a realistic budget and tracking your purchases to ensure you adhere to it. A variety of apps and websites can help you with your budget tracking goals, such as Mint.com. For easy access to your private information on the go, store online passwords in the Master Lock Vault smart phone app or website for easy recall. Vault users can store and organize URLs, usernames and passwords in one protected place in a 256-bit SSL data encrypted, firewall protected, 24/7 monitored “safe deposit box.” Simply click on the stored URL for your popular sites for easy access directly from your Vault.
Master Lock Vault users can also use the Vault to access virtual holiday shopping lists, schedule reminders for bill due dates and holiday social events and even store newly received gift cards for easy access for post-holiday shopping.
Keep digital receipts. Easily file away receipts from your holiday shopping in one place to cross-reference purchase dates and totals with your bank and credit card billing statements to check for any unfamiliar charges, or to facilitate easy returns after the holidays. A quick and easy way to do this is to take a photo of the receipt immediately and store it in the Master Lock Vault. You can also use the Vault to store photos of gift receipts. If they accidentally get thrown out with the wrapping paper, you can easily re-print them. Check with your local store for specific policies and information.
Don’t leave a digital trail to your gift purchases. If you are using a computer that other family members use and don’t want them to see what sites you’ve visited, enable your browser’s private browsing feature when researching and buying gifts. Private browsing (also known as the incognito setting on Google Chrome) allows you to surf the internet without saving any information about which sites you visited or searches you’ve conducted. In some browsers this may be found under the Tools menu; check your browser’s specific settings to learn how to set up private browsing.
I got the opportunity to try out the Master Lock
dialSpeed, a Vault-connected electronic padlock. The dialSpeed lock is battery powered and electronic. Your combination code is a combination of directions, pressing up, down, right and left to key in your combo. It has letters and numbers along the ring, that you can use as a guide. For instance, if you wanted your code to be Tiff123, It would be Down, Right, Up, Up, Up, Up, Up. and voila, your lock will open.
When I first saw it in the packaging, I thought I was getting myself into a complicated tecnhical lock, but it is really simple to set your code and use the lock. You can actually store more than one code, so you can have a different code for each person that you want to access it. This idea is very cool for a family or group that you want to control different codes for access. This way, you can not only add a new person on easily, but remove a particular code if you don't want someone to have access. The master code controls the rest.
One very cool aspect, is that you can store your code online, so that if you forget it, there is always a backup.
The lock itself looks very cool. It lights up blue when you hit press each combination in. If it's the correct code it will flash blue and green. If it's not correct, it will light up red. It will remind you if it has a low battery also. As an adult, I love the flashy colors, but I know that a kid would love it even more. This would be great for a school locker or even a chest.
Being that this is electronic, you want to use this inside only, so no using outside on sheds or where it can be exposed to the weather. The battery is supposed to last for 5 years. There is also a one year limited warranty on it.
Buying this lock also gives you a 3 month subscription to Vault services. It is not mandatory to use with the lock, just an added bonus. That is what the USB drive is for. The Vault service helps to protect your sensitive online files and keep private notes and remember life's important events and occasions.
While I've been using the lock, I haven't signed up for the Vault yet because I haven't had time, but it seems handy to have, and you can take advantage by buying the lock.
You can continue to use the USB drive for whatever you want. It has storage for 1GB.
When I first saw it in the packaging, I thought I was getting myself into a complicated tecnhical lock, but it is really simple to set your code and use the lock. You can actually store more than one code, so you can have a different code for each person that you want to access it. This idea is very cool for a family or group that you want to control different codes for access. This way, you can not only add a new person on easily, but remove a particular code if you don't want someone to have access. The master code controls the rest.
One very cool aspect, is that you can store your code online, so that if you forget it, there is always a backup.
The lock itself looks very cool. It lights up blue when you hit press each combination in. If it's the correct code it will flash blue and green. If it's not correct, it will light up red. It will remind you if it has a low battery also. As an adult, I love the flashy colors, but I know that a kid would love it even more. This would be great for a school locker or even a chest.
Being that this is electronic, you want to use this inside only, so no using outside on sheds or where it can be exposed to the weather. The battery is supposed to last for 5 years. There is also a one year limited warranty on it.
Buying this lock also gives you a 3 month subscription to Vault services. It is not mandatory to use with the lock, just an added bonus. That is what the USB drive is for. The Vault service helps to protect your sensitive online files and keep private notes and remember life's important events and occasions.
While I've been using the lock, I haven't signed up for the Vault yet because I haven't had time, but it seems handy to have, and you can take advantage by buying the lock.
You can continue to use the USB drive for whatever you want. It has storage for 1GB.
Check it out here and get social.
Disclaimer: I was provided a sample of this product for review. No other compensation was provided. The opinions here are my own.
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