1. Research your products



Don't buy on price alone, because what seems like a great deal can turn out to be a nightmare. Reports are growing of fraudulent and fake digital memory products turning up on ebay and other market places. These fake goods are sold as being high capacity - frequently 16gb or more - when in fact they rarely hold more than 2gb of memory.

Innocent buyers, thrilled to be getting a bargain, are left with corrupted files and lost memory when the re-programmed memory device they bought fails to live up to the promise. These cards are incapable of holding anything like the amount they claim, so the excess data gets dumped or heavily compromised.

Research either in shops or on manufacturer websites so that you can recognise genuine products. Kingston is just one memory manufacturer which colour codes its goods according to capacity. Seen a green Kingston keydrive for sale with 16gb capacity? It's undoubtedly a fake - a 2gb device re-programmed and re-labelled - a genuine Kingston 16gb key drive is dark red. Some of these disreputable sellers sell memory in capacities not even offered by the brand they're supposedly offering. Others offer non-branded goods claiming to be a higher capacity than they are. A brilliant source of data on this issue is http://fightflashfraud.wordpress.com/ the Fight Flash Fraud blog.

2. Research the seller

Whether you choose to buy from ebay or a known online shop, it pays to read the reviews. The beauty of ebay is that buyer feedback soon shows up problems with products. The downside? Few buyers purchasing digital memory from ebay think to fully test their new device when it arrives. The products arrives on time looking good, so the customer leaves positive feedback without realising that they've been conned.

The answer is to really scan the feedback, looking for signs that any other buyers have had problems with the goods. At any sign of fake products, look elsewhere. It's no bargain. And ebay sellers who keep their feedback private? When it comes to buying digital memory, avoid them totally. These aren't sales that need any kind of confidentiality.

If you buy from an online shop, you can check out review sites. You may need to make an allowance for the fact that they are more popular with the grumblers than the praisers. A seller's response to questions is often a good way of judging their service - and how long they have been in business. A poorly-run business will not last long in today's economic climate. The About Us on a website should give you a good feel, as should the amount of contact info.

3. Identify your need.

This is where you should be looking when trying to save money. Why spend your money on a 16gb memory card when in fact you only need one 4gb, or maybe several 2gb cards? Bigger is not always better. Technology is constantly upgrading and prices are continually falling. You might find that the cost of a new high capacity card has dropped drastically long before you've filled up the expensive one you bought.

You can easily fill a 2gb memory card with more than 600 images, possibly double that, depending on megapixel size. Even professional photographers rarely take that many images in one session, so the amateur snapper probably doesn't need a 16gb card in his camera, unless he films a lot of high resolution video.

It might be convenient having everything in one place, but you probably don't want to store all the photos you've ever taken on one SD card. It makes more sense to download images regularly and store them securely. A camera that gets lost or stolen can be replaced, but if you've lazily left all your images on it because you had the capacity, you'll be kicking yourself.

Equally, don't waste money on high capacity key drives when there are bargains to be had in lower capacity multi-packs. A very handy key drive is the Dane-Elec zLight 2gb. These come in multipacks of five colours enabling you to easily distinguish music from photos from data files. If you're backing your hard drive, you may well need a weighty drive, but otherwise you could be wasting your money.

So, the conclusion? Think before you buy. Don't blindly take up the first cheap digital memory deal you find. Doing some research only takes a few minutes and can be the difference between success or disappointment.