Money for the Rest of Us

I’ve got a dilemma- we are moving in just under a month and in preparing for the move across town I am updating our renter’s insurance. I am down to a choice between two companies—USAA and State Farm.

For the last two years we have used State Farm Insurance and paid about $160/year for a $26,000 policy with a $500 deductible. Before signing up with State Farm and renewing last year I also got quotes from USAA, my auto insurance provider. The quote from USAA for almost the exact same policy (except USAA covers flooding and State Farm doesn’t—not a concern for us) was about $30 more expensive—which is roughly 20%. Thus, we’ve used State Farm the past two years.

I got new quotes today and this time USAA is about $30 cheaper. My first thought was, well, we’ll go with USAA. BUT, here’s the catch. This tax season I got free tax software ($112 worth) through State Farm!

So, I’m torn. I like USAA more because:

1. They have the most outstanding customer service that I’ve ever experienced and because
2. They return their profits to the customers at the end of the year. (Like last year, we got a $35 check back from our auto insurance premiums. You can read more about it on the Wikipedia entry.)
3. And they’re simply a good company.
4. And the renter’s insurance is now cheaper.

However, if State Farm were to give me free tax software again next year then it would make their renter’s insurance policy a better deal.

So, do I go with what is outright less expensive and the company I feel more loyalty towards? Or do I pay $30 more in hopes that I’ll get the $100+ worth of free tax software next winter?

What would you do?

I am not one of those people who likes shopping. (Well, I love grocery shopping, but that’s about it). Sometimes I’m in the mood to browse, but usually when I shop I’ve already figured out exactly what I want and so I’m just searching for the best price. For this reason, I love shopping on the Internet. There are now a large number of online comparison shopping tools that will search and find the best price for you. I decided to test them out against eachother to search for three products that I’m currently considering purchasing. The products are: Brooks Women’s Adrenaline Running Shoes (GTS 7), Canon Powershot SD800 Digital Camera, and SimpleTech Simple External Hard Drive 250GB.

Here are the 16 comparison shopping tools I used (in no particular order): mySimon, PriceGrabber, Froogle, Bizrate, Yahoo Shopping, Shopzilla, Bottomdollar, DealTime, Shopping.com, NexTag, Amazon, Become.com, MSN Shopping, Overstock, Pricewatch, and PriceSCAN.

(Note that Amazon.com and Overstock.com are not actually comparison shopping tools. But, Amazon carries a lot of vendors and Overstock sometimes has good deals. Plus it’s a good baseline for comparison since so many people use these sites regularly.)

Here are the prices that were returned for each product. If you’re just interested in the overall results, see the end of the post.

SimpleTech SimpleDrive 250 GB Externa lHard Drive
mySimon 95.99
PriceGrabber 95.99
Froogle 99.54
Bizrate 99.99
Yahoo Shopping 99.99
Shopzilla 99.99
Bottomdollar 101.99
DealTime 103
Shopping.com 103
NexTag 108
Amazon 110.31
Become.com 127.49
MSN Shopping 132.99
Overstock 148.99
Pricewatch: No results
PriceSCAN: No results

Canon Powershot SD800 Digital Camera
MSN Shopping 285 from a non-reputable seller 320 from rated sellers
PriceSCAN 323
Become.com 280 (non rated) 329 rated
NexTag 332 (trusted seller)
Shopzilla 332 (smart choice seller)
mySimon 332
Bizrate 332 (smartchoice seller)
PriceGrabber 332
Bottomdollar 332
Yahoo Shopping 282 (poorly rated seller) 336 well rated seller
Shopping.com 338
Pricewatch 343
Amazon 344
DealTime 338 (at the top, but actually 349.7 when I clicked through to the website)
Overstock: No results
Froogle: Not worth the time to sort through

Brooks Women’s Adrenaline Running Shoes (GTS 7)
Amazon 85.49
Bizrate 85.49
Shopzilla 85.49 (had to sort)
Yahoo Shopping 67.95 (unrated seller) 85.49 next best
DealTime 89.99
Become.com 89.99
NexTag 89.99
Shopping.com 94.99
MSN Shopping $94.99
PriceGrabber 94.95
Bottomdollar 94.95
Froogle: Not worth the time to sort through
Overstock:
Pricewatch: No results
PriceSCAN: No results
mySimon: No results

As you can see some of the sites produced very different results (particularly for the external hard drive). Based on this tedious comparison shopping experience here were a few things I noted about comparison shopping online:

1. Froogle. I’m generally a huge fan of Google products and have used Froogle many times in the past. But honestly, when comparing it to the other search engines, it pales in comparison. It was a big big disappointment. The truth is that it brings in too many products and it takes far too long to sort through them. For instance, when I was looking at the camera it kept giving me prices for the camera case and an underwater camera case. It just wasn’t worth the time to sort through everything it pulled up.
2. Many of the shopping comparison engines list “featured sellers” first. You have to sort by price to get all of the sellers.
3. Watch out for something that is too cheap. When you find a price that is much cheaper than what everyone else is offering, be suspicious. Many of the cheaper cameras were refurbished or a non-US model. (This was listed in small print and hard to find on their websites)
4. Look for trusted sellers. Several of the comparison sites have user ratings for the sellers. Be careful when buying from sellers that are unrated or rated poorly. I recommend spending a few more dollars to get it from a seller that has proven itself in the past.
5. Look at shipping costs. Some of the better comparison sites list shipping prices and a total price for you.

5 Best Online Comparison Shopping Tools
After all was said and done here were my 5 favorite sites that I will use again and again. I don’t think I can fairly rank them against each other, so the top 5 in no particular order:

• Pricegrabber
• Nextag has a really snazzy price history feature for some of the products that will give you a chart of how much the item has cost in the past
• Shopzilla
• Bizrate
• Yahoo Shopping

Please note that these prices were as of April 5, 2007 when I did the initial research for this post. I make no promises about which search engines will give you the best price and hold no responsibility for fluctuations in product pricing.

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If you own a Honda Accord Car from ‘95, ‘96 or ‘97, you may be able to get a free inspection, free repairs, and a free oil change.
I recently got a letter from Honda informing me that my car had not yet received a free service. At first I was a little hesitant thinking it might be some sort of scam, but I called the local dealership and it was true. (And I can vouch for it because I waited to post until I went in and took advantage of the service, which I did on Monday– details below).

Here’s the scoop:

“We are sending you this notice to remind you that your vehicle is covered by an emissions warranty extension and to encourage you to take advantage of the free one-time 75,000-150,000 mile inspection and parts replacement offer detailed below…”

The letter then goes on the explain that there was an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency because some of the diagnostic systems do not comply with the Clean Air Act.

The breakdown is as follows. If your car has:

Between 50,000-75,000 miles– You get a free emissions control system inspection. All repairs and replacements on the emissions control system will be free of charge (both parts and labor).

Between 75,000-150,000 miles– You get a free emissions control inspection, free repairs and replacements on this system; and a free oil and oil filter change.

Over 150,000 miles- unfortunately you are no longer eligible under the extended warranty. (Though if you previously had work done on the emissions system you may still be able to get that reimbursed.)

If you fail a smog-test (in the future)- Take your car in and they will fix the emissions problem for free;

If you have already failed a smog-test and/or have had emissions related parts/repairs– You may be eligible for reimbursement. (Send copies of repairs orders and documentation to: American Honda Motor Co, Inc. Automobile Customer Service PO Box 2964 Torrance, CA 90509-2964.)

To take advantage of the offer you can call any local dealership (find one at Hondacars.com) and tell them that you want to come in and get the emissions warranty inspection (and free oil change) on your 95, 96, or 97 Honda Accord. If you bought your car used you may want to ask them to check your car’s VIN number to see if your car has already has had this done as the car is only eligible once. (You may also be able to register online with your VIN and look it up yourself–I believe I got this letter because I registered online to get updates.)

The Catch:
Of course, even if there’s not a catch, there’s always a catch. When I took my car in to fix one thing they found 5 other things that needed work. (I did some research on the service center before I went and so I trusted that they were telling me the truth.) In the end, this “free” oil change and inspection ended up costing me $250.

1. A break light was out: Cost $15 (I knew this and had just been putting off getting it fixed)
2. An engine mount was broken: Cost $235 (They showed me where it was broken. This sounded pretty serious so I got it repaired right away.)
3. 4, 5) They also told me that I should get my automatic steering fluid flushed and something else and something else cleaned. I don’t know anything about these things so I said I’d wait on it. (And the total cost of getting all of this done was nearly $300. None of them were urgent, just recommended.)

There’s no doubt that I could have walked out of there without paying a cent, but just be prepared that they will recommend other services to your car when you bring it in.

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Day-to-day we all are blatantly or unintentionally judged or discriminated against for various reasons. But there is one form of discrimination that makes me angrier than all others: ageism.

I hate it when people treat me poorly because of my age. Yes, part of the reason I hate it is because I don’t like being treated unfairly; but there is a bigger reason why I despise ageism.

It just doesn’t make sense to treat young people poorly! It doesn’t make sense socially; we should treat everyone equally. And it doesn’t make sense economically.

Young people may not make a lot of money right now. But they control more money than any other group. What do I mean by saying that they control more money than any other group? Well, they have some spending power now, AND they control all of their future spending power. And what we experience right now, when we’re twenty-something, will influence us 30, 40, 50 years from now.

When I experience great customer service I remember it. For instance, when I was around 16 I was going to the mall and my mom asked me to get some links removed from a watch for my brother. The first jeweler I went to looked me up and down and said snidely, “We only do that if you purchased the watch here.” But, the second jeweler I went to said “We’d be happy to do that for you.” And, they didn’t even charge me for the service. I still remember that jeweler and I think of them whenever I consider buying jewelery.

Likewise, there are companies and restaurants that have treated me so poorly I will never go back. In DC there is an extremely nice restaurant called 1789 which we once ate at for a special occasion. The waiter did the absolute minimum he had to do to take or order and plop our food in front of us (all the while waiting hand and foot on the older couple at the next table.) A certain airline (American, if you must know) has also treated me extremely poorly– never via email or on the phone, only to my face. I wonder why…

Places that treat me differently because I am young lose not only my business in the recent future, but for the next 70 years (or however long I live.)

Let’s just think about this for a minute. I spend approximately $2000 on plane tickets a year. Assuming I live until I’m 80, I still have 57 more years to buy plane tickets. For me alone, assuming that my amount of travel doesn’t change, that plane ticket prices don’t change, and not accounting for inflation: American Airlines has lost $112,000 because they treated me poorly. But, it’s not just about me. I will someday have an impact on tickets my spouse, children, friends, and business buy. Conservatively, in today’s dollars; American Airlines probably will lose over a half a million dollars in revenue from treating me poorly (on several occassions) because I am young.

Now, let’s assume that American Airlines was also ageist against other young customers and lost those young peoples’ business because of it. According to US census data from the year 2000 there are 20.5 million people in my 5-year age group (that of 15-19 years old at the time the 2000 census was taken. Today those people would be 22-26 years old.) Let’s just say that 1/10 of 1 percent (.001) were also discriminated against by American Airlines (that’s 20,500 people). Assuming they too have $500,000 worth of spending power on plane tickets over the course of their lifetimes, we have a grand total of 10 Billion 250 Million Dollars (that’s 10,250,000,000) that one company lost because they didn’t treat their young customers the same way they treated their older customers.

Quite honestly, I didn’t even expect the number to be that high. We are only looking a very small number of people in a very narrow age range. But, it just goes to show how dumb it is to treat young people differently.

The moral of this story is: if anything, treat young people better than old people! We twenty-somethings have more money to spend than any of your other current customers.

(This post was originally titled “Ageism, Twenty-Somethings, and 10 Billion Dollars.” Then as I was writing, I thought about the one sector that figured this all out a long time ago. And boy did they profit from it….)

I am currently pursuing my Master’s degree in Criminal Justice. I’ve found that most people have a good idea of how to protect their houses from burglars, but few know the best ways to protect their identity and prevent identity theft. So, I’ve put together a list of 10 ways to protect yourself from identity theft and have drawn parallels to protecting your house. Hopefully drawing these parallels emphasizes the importance of these simple routine precautions that you can take to prevent your identity from being stolen.

1. Don’t use Skeleton Keys. Just like you wouldn’t use skeleton keys for your home, don’t use them for your passwords. Avoid common words, pets or spouses names, birthdays, etc. Use a combination of capital letters, numbers, and symbols. One thing I like to do is use numbers or symbols that look like letters (ie a zero instead of an “o” or a 1 instead of an “L” or “I”)
2. Change your locks. If you suspect someone has a key to your home or if you’ve moved recently you would change your locks. The same goes for passwords. If you suspect something, change your passwords immediately. Moreover, change your passwords every 4-6 months. (Think about it, if you could change the locks to your house for free you might do this more frequently too.)
3. Don’t leave a key under the mat. Every burglar knows to look for your house key under your mat, under a plant or rock, or above the door frame. You wouldn’t believe how many people have their passwords written down in a computer spreadsheet, on a piece of paper in their desk drawer, or even on a stickynote on their computer screen. The only secure place to keep your password? In your head.
4. Put up a fence. Something as simple as short fence deters burglars from your home. Similarly, put up a (fire) wall around your computer. Free software like ZoneAlarm will do wonders.
5. Keep the cockroaches out. I suppose cockroaches don’t really pose a vital threat to your home’s security (unless the Orkin-man doubles as a thief); but, computer bugs can send all of your information to identity thieves. AVG Virus Software, Ad-Aware, and Spy Bot Search and Destroy are all free security software programs that you should have installed on your computer.
6. Don’t open your door for just anyone. You wouldn’t let just anyone into your home, so don’t let just anyone have access to your personal records. Check with your employers, school, and financial institutions to see what documents they put your personal information on. Some schools still use Social Security numbers as the student ID number. And many employers put your entire social security number on your pay-stub. Ask to see what alternatives are available.
7. Keep a shot gun under your pillow. Just kidding. Please don’t do this. Studies find that a gun is much more likely to be used against you than to protect you. So, just as I think you should avoid keeping a shotgun under your pillow, I would advise against credit monitoring services. My credit card sends me something every few weeks trying to get me to pay anywhere from $10-$40 a month so they will monitor my credit report for me. Don’t sign up for these. They are a rip-off.
8. Check your smoke alarms semi-yearly. Your smoke alarm is there to protect you, but if you don’t check it regularly how do you know it’s intact and functioning?You should also check your credit report (for free) at least once a year. There are actually three main credit report agencies: Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. You should check all three once a year. Better yet, check a different one every 4 months so you are checking three times a year. (ie, check Equifax in January, TransUnion in May, and Experian in September). Make sure there isn’t anything listed you aren’t aware of. If there is, report it– in writing. Usually when you get your free credit report they will also offer you a deal to check your credit score for $5 (which is much cheaper than the $30+ they often charge). This isn’t such a bad idea ever year or two, especially if you are unsure of what your credit score looks like.
9. Don’t hang $100 bills or fancy jewelry in front of the window. That’s right- you wouldn’t hang all your valuables in front of the window so thieves know exactly what you have and where they can find it- would you? I think not. Throwing your important documents into the weekly trash is just like hanging cash in the window. Identity thieves know exactly where where to find all of the information they need - in your trash. So, shred any paper with you personal information on it– name, telephone number, address, bank’s name, account numbers, SS#, etc. Remember, even junk mail needs to be shredded since it often contains credit card applications that can easily be filled out in your name. (I realize that buying a paper shredder isn’t free. But, watch the sales and you can get a cross-cut paper shredder for less than $20. Until then use a scissors.)
10. Make sure everything is in it’s place. When I get home from school/work I always do a quick glance around to make sure everything’s in it’s place. Occasionally my heart will start racing when I see some books, cds, pillows, etc. knocked on the ground until I realize it’s just the cat who has knocked them down. Nevertheless, this is a quick, almost unconscious exercise that I do daily to ensure my safety when entering my home. Likewise, I check my credit card and bank statements online several times a week. By checking your online accounts frequently, you will notice right away if something appears that wasn’t supposed to be there and can call the bank. This will (hopefully) be able to stop fraudulent charges before they get to be an enormous problem.

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I just returned from my trip overseas. It was a great experience and I learned a lot; but I’m happy to be home.

The only frustrating thing about trip was the lack of (cheap) internet in the hotel. This was a several-hundred-dollar per night hotel with all of the amenities (towel warming-rack, free spy and gym, etc) but you had to pay $30 per day for internet and most of the rooms didn’t even have capabilities for wired OR wireless. You could use wireless in the lobby for the $30/day or in the business center.

I wish this high-cost internet was a rare occurrence. But, in my travels I have generally found that the more expensive hotels are more likely to charge for internet. But, if you go to a La Quinta or a Holiday Inn internet is free. I realize that expensive hotels can usually get away with charging for internet because they have so many business people who are happy to fork over the money, but it just doesn’t seem right.

Enough of my rant. I have some great posts prepared for this week, so stay tuned.