BOSTON — In addition to waistlines, the Better Business Bureau says consumers should watch their finances in the New Year.

The Better Business Bureau governing Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont issued its second annual list of consumer resolutions Monday.

The list was culled from the more than 500,000 requests and complaints the bureau received in 1991.

“The message is to investigate before you invest,” said Dawn DiMartino, the bureau’s director of communications. “It protects the consumer from possible problems down the road. If you do run into problems, make your feelings be heard,” DiMartino said.

The bureau’s tips include telling shoppers to “add your checking account number to the list of `Never Give Out Numbers.’ ” What follows, officials say, is a direct deduction from the consumer’s checking account.

Consumers are further advised to keep their credit card numbers to themselves. The retailer may ask to see the shopper’s card for identification purposes, but they are not allowed to write down the account number.

Another piece of free advice: If something looks too good to be true, it probably is.

If a mail order company requests that a consumer pay a shipping/handling charge or purchase items such as water purifiers or vitamins in order to receive a free gift, the bureau says — forget it.

“It is neither free, nor a gift,” bureau officials say. “In fact, it probably won’t be fabulous either.”

“People are in such dire situations, they really are willing to believe a lot of different things,” said DiMartino.

And when it comes to inking your John Hancock on forms or contracts — read between the lines. “If what you sign absolves the business from poor workmanship, guarantees or promises, then you may have no recourse when things go wrong.”

“The people who just write it off as a lesson learned are the people we want to capture to let us know if there’s a problem in the marketplace,” DiMartino said.