Avira Savings Advisor -- holiday shopping cost savings and fraud prevention

When it comes to holiday shopping, I am a bit of a scrooge. I love the holidays and I love gifts, but the actual shopping is a chore. While online-shopping has reduced my need to leave the house and interact with other humans, even that can be problematic. After all, there are so many online retailers nowadays, that it can be hard to choose. Not to mention, if you find a good price, how can you know it is a reputable website?

Luckily, Avira, the often-trusted security company, has unveiled a solution called Avira Savings Advisor. The company says, "just in time for the holiday shopping season, security expert Avira announced today the release of Avira Savings Advisor -- a free browser add-on that helps shoppers find the best prices and the most trustworthy e-commerce sites to buy online".

In other words, this free browser plugin will help you save money by finding you better deals, but also keep you safe from fraud by monitoring information about the retailer. Avira claims the software works by performing the following checks:

• Positive average of user reviews


• Presence of email and telephone support contacts


• Certificates and Trust-marks (Bizrate, NexTag Trusted Seller, etc.)


• Encrypted payment systems and at least two trusted payment options (major credit card & PayPal)


• Stated return policies


• Stated shipping and delivery costs


• Company history (more than 1 year active in business)


• Positive credit score (via Creditreform Check)

If you would like to try it yourself, Avira claims it works with "any browser", so it should be compatible with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Chrome. You can download the plugin here. If you try it, tell me in the comments if you like it. Hopefully it will save you some money.

via BetaNews http://feeds.betanews.com/~r/bn/~3/y19OhUOF6dY/