10 Ways a Smartphone Drains Your Wallet

24/7 Shopping
As a rule of thumb, one should never email an ex when overtired or drunk. The same goes for online shopping.

A scenario: You are bored, flipping between the Kardashian sisters and Jersey Shore because there's nothing else on. As you flip idly through the apps on your phone while watching, you check out Amazon (Stock Quote: AMZN), EBay (Stock Quote: EBAY) or Etsy. Before you know it, the ability to shop from the couch in your pajamas, in a near daydream state, leads you to start clicking items into your shopping cart. Any commercial that pops on the TV brings with it the risk you'll add that product to the queue as well.

Before you know it, you've hit "Proceed to Checkout" and bought a slow cooker, a new watch and a subscription to the Los Angeles Times.

In willing hands, a smartphone can easily turn shopping into late night recreation.

Early morning shoppers are also an important market.

Research by Mobclix, a mobile ad exchange, found that while other times see greater smartphone usage, the time iOS and Android users have been shown to be the most "engaged" with ads in mobile apps is from 8 to 11 a.m.

Impulse buys
Just like late-night shopping, smartphones amplify the impulses behind "impulse buying."

In a department store or supermarket there is at least a buffer between your shopping cart and the cash register -- and time to reconsider or think about prices.

But the ease of instantaneous buying introduces the dangerous (to your wallet) aspect of speed and lacks the restraint-inducing effect of actually having to count money out of your wallet.

In-app purchases, in particular add-ons for social media games such as Farmville and The Smurfs where what's bought is part of game play, can also cleverly spark spur-of-the-moment buys.