Learn To Save Your Money

When I was about to clean my car over the weekend I noticed that something was leaking. I touched the fluids and could tell that it was antifreeze. Upon opening the hood I saw that one of the panels below the radiator was filled with antifreeze. I inspected the leak and it wasn’t too bad yet, but it was something which sure enough needed to get fixed right away.

I hardly ever take my vehicles to the dealer to get fixed. I prefer going to a reputable mechanic which my family has used for over 10 years. We found out about this mechanic from a family friend who referred us. This mechanic has a small local family owned shop and we have never had any issues with them fixing our vehicles. The best part is their price! Normally we save about 50% than what the dealer would have charged. The only bad part is you usually have to leave your vehicle at their for a day. Thus this may not be a good alternative way to save money for everyone. Though if you are taking your vehicle to get substantial repairs the savings may be worth it even when factoring the cost of renting a vehicle for a day.

During this trip to the mechanics I knew I had to get my spark plugs replaced, front discs/pads replaced, transmission fluid changed, and obviously the radiator and its hoses had to be replaced. Mentally I was prepared to spend a good amount on these repairs. Before taking the vehicle to my mechanics I called several local dealers to get an estimate for the repairs. On average the dealer estimate was around $1400 as compared to my mechanic’s bill of $720. I roughly saved 50% on the repairs.

Another tip is to stop at your local dealer’s service shop and ask them for a list of what is done during the normal service repair intervals. You can then use this list to judge what your mechanic should check when you take your vehicle to them. Obviously you should go to a reputable mechanic. It’s best to ask friends, family, and even neighbors to see where they take their vehicles.

One thing I do go to the dealer for is an oil change. Usually a local dealer will have some promotion on an oil change. Whenever I need an oil change I look at the web sites of the local dealers for promotions going on or just make a casual call to see if there is a promotion going on. My theory for going to the dealer for an oil change is usually I can get this done for about $25 which include synthetic oil and when at the dealer I wait no more than 30 minutes for this to be completed. This obviously beats having to leave my car at the mechanics for a while. Plus the dealers price is usually cheaper than me having to get the items myself and is easier than having to change the oil on my own.

For tires and batteries I usually go to Sam’s Club as they have cheaper tire and battery prices, have cheaper installation fees, and have a great warranty. I once saw a customer bring their tire in for a warranty replacement as it was gashed by his wife when she hit a curb. Also if you get your tires from Sam’s Club they offer free tire rotations. For tire alignments one should look into a lifetime alignment plan from Firestone or such. I remember when they offered a deal where one gets unlimited lifetime tire alignments for $99.99.

I found out that the free one night DVD rental coupon code from Redbox, which is valid only today is 6A43JK.

Over the weekend my dad received his Verizon FIOS service bill and he called me to take a look at it before he sent the payment. My parents recently subscribed to Verizon FIOS service and the last bill had some errors, which were to be credited on this current statement. Good news is that the credits which we were to receive were in fact credited, but the bad news is I saw two random charges for a total of $10.87.

One charge was for “Games on Demand” and another was for “Starz Play”, neither of which my parents subscribe to. I immediately contacted the Verizon Customer Service number, which is on the bill and spoke to a rep. Luckily this rep was able to help me and she credited the account for these two charges. The rep didn’t know why these charges were on the account either.

This is just a prime example of why one should check their bills before paying their bills. Verizon “accidentally” made a mistake which could have profited them $10.87 if i did not catch this error. Think about how many other subscribers are out there who do not even check their bills and rather just pay the amount shown in the total amount due box.

Image Credit: joesixpacktech

I found out that the free one night DVD rental coupon code from Redbox, which is valid only today is 4CW33N.

Over this past weekend I took a weekend trip to NYC to visit my aunt. Instead of driving, I decided to take the Megabus bus to NYC for several reasons. I have used Megabus before and have been very pleased in the past. Since I was traveling by myself it did not make sense to spend money to drive as I would have to pay for tolls, gas, and maybe even some crazy rates for parking.  

Megabus charged $18 each way for taking an early Saturday morning bus and leaving NYC on Sunday evening. As always these buses are clean as well as their drivers usually make it up to NYC and back from NYC faster than it would be if I drove the speed limit. In order to make reservations, one has to visit Megabus’ web site (http://www.megabus.com) and reservations can only be made with a credit or debit card. The web site itself is fairly easy to use. 

My Sunday evening bus was to leave NYC at 6:10 pm, but due to some reason the bus was running late. The representative at the bus stop mentioned that the bus would be there within an hour, but when it came near 7:10 pm the representative mentioned that bus won’t get there for another hour. At this point many passengers waiting in line to board the bus were annoyed. irrated, and losing their pateince. In the mean time there was a 7:45 pm bus which was to leave NYC, but this was supposedly full, as the passengers for this bus were already waiting in their designated line. Out of frustration many passengers in my line asked if we could get first priority to this bus, rather than waiting longer for our original bus. EVentually the reperesentatives and the bus driver agreed to let us board the bus and they were accepting others from the following bus’ line to board this bus if there were extra seats. We did not leave the bus stop till 8:00 pm. 

I was somewhat displeased with this experience since in my past experiences with Megabus, I have not encountered such a long delay. Also the representatives on site can’t help to give a discount or a credit even when the bus was late due to the company’s fault rather than traffic or such other issue. Each repersentative told me to call a toll free number, where I would speak to another representative who told me to call back during the weekdays to speak to a supervisor. I tried to speak with a supervisor this morning, but as usual I was just sent to a generic voicemail system, where I did leave a message. The customer service for the reservations department is useless as they are not helpful at all. I got fed up and then called the credit card company for the card I used to purchase my tickets. Luckilly American Express has great customer service and within a quick 5 min call, a representative was able to issue a credit for my return trip fare. WorldPay, the company who processes Megabus’ credit card transactions has some agreement where AmEx directly resolves disputes with them and AmEx will credit a customer’s account right away rather than having the customer to wait for a charge dispute case to take place. In the end I recieved a credit for my return trip and did not have to deal with trying to contact Megabus’ lousy customer service center. The time to call my credit card company was incredibly less than having to deal with Megabus’ customer service. 

Image Credit: Joshua Feinberg

I found out that the free one night DVD rental coupon code from Redbox, which is valid only today is “M6FR97″.

Just wanted to put up a quick post and let everyone know that McDonald’s is offering “free McCafés or medium iced McCafé Coffee” today in honor of Tax Day. More info can be found here.

I found out that the free one night DVD rental coupon code from Redbox, which is valid only today is J89LA2. 

If you don’t already know, I love taking advantage of free offers, especially when hardly any work is needed. Monday afternoon I was at a local grocery store and as I was leaving I decided to glance over at the RedBox DVD rental machine and see what movies it had. Someone was in the process of checking out a rental DVD while I was looking at the signs by the machine. This nice random guy happened to say “I have a free rental code that you can use for a one night free rental”. I obviously said “yes” and this person showed me how to apply the code. He also mentioned that if you sign up for the text message notifications from Redbox at their web site, they will text message you promo codes for free rentals.

RedBox is DVD movie rental service which has their machines at popular locations, such as grocery stores, large retail chains, or fast food restaurants. These machines are often noticed by their large red colored machines which have a touch screen LCD. Through this machine one can  easilly rent an available dvd title of their choice. The service charges $1 a night per dvd rental. Pretty much you hit the rent a DVD button on the touch screen, browse the available dvd movie titles, select a dvd you wish to rent, checkout the dvd you want to rent, swipe your credit card (you may be prompted to enter the zip code associated with the billing address of the credit card), enter your email address, the machine dispenses the dvds you selected, and within a few minutes the provided email address will recieve a receipt confirmation in regard to the dvds rented. The process to return a DVD is extremely easy as well. First you hit “Return DVD” button on the touch screen, when prompted insert the DVD into the machine, and you are all set. With returns you will also recieve a confirmation email.

Pretty much RedBox has been offering promo codes to their customers during various days in order to promote their service. During April RedBox is offering coupon codes every Monday for a one night free DVD rental. You can sign up on their web site to recieve the promo code which is sent via a text message to your cell phone or you can obtain the code by simply dong a Google search. During the checkout process you enter this promo code and you are all set. Don’t forget to return the DVD at the same RedBox machine the next day or your credit card will be charged $1 for each day the DVD has not been returned.

This promotion has been a great compliment to my Netflix service, since it seems that Netflix is rather slow to send me newly released movies. Not sure if Netflix is throttling my account or not.

Image Credit: Look In The Tunk

So my sister is heading back to school and has a huge list of text books that she needs for her classes. The bad part is that majority of the books can’t be purchased used since the editions have been updated. My sister is one who opposes buying a used book that has writing or any highlighter marking in it. For me personally, this did not matter in my undergrad days, but with certain classes, especially in grad school I wanted a clean text book. I am all for purchasing text books online. Normally this is a fast and easy process. Once you have the ISBN’s of the book you need, you can easily hit up any of your favorite online book seller sites, such as Half.com, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble. I personally would compare prices at all three sites and even consider factors such as shipping time as well as shipping costs. In my sister’s situation the best option for her was to purchase her new text books from Barnes & Noble’s web site. The site had all the books she needed, shipping was guaranteed within a specified time frame, and lastly they have a membership club which entitles members to a additional 10% – 40% discount on purchases online as well as in store. In order to join the club there is an annual $25 fee. In my sister’s case paying the $25 membership fee outweighed the savings she incurred. Most people overlook such programs, but if you are constantly purchasing new books, this may be a program to consider.

Image Credit: Lunawhimsy