Advertiser Disclosure
The credit card, banking, and other financial offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us – for example, when you click a link, are approved for a product, or open an account. This compensation may influence how and where offers appear on the site, including the order in which they appear on category pages. It does not influence our evaluations, ratings, or opinions, which are ours alone. We do not include every bank, credit card company, or offer available in the marketplace.
Cutting your bills, premiums, fees, taxes, and grocery costs, then building cash reserves with the difference. Pay less for what you already pay for.
Look past health insurance and the 401(k) in your benefits portal for perks that pay for things you buy or would use, like transit, classes, and counseling. They’re easy to miss because they sit in the portal instead of your paycheck. Put a dollar value on each one, then enroll before any deadline passes.
Many utilities will send a specialist to find where your home leaks heated and cooled air, for free or at a discount. Search your utility’s name plus “home energy assessment” and book one before winter. You’ll leave with a to-do list and the rebates you qualify for.
Many credit cards repay prepaid, nonrefundable costs when illness, severe weather, or another covered reason cancels or cuts short a trip you paid for with the card, and some cover meals and lodging during a long delay. Check your card’s guide to benefits before you buy travel insurance, and book with a card that carries the coverage.
An insurance comparison tool turns one form into side-by-side quotes from many carriers, so checking whether you overpay takes minutes instead of an afternoon of calls. Run one before every renewal, get direct quotes from any big insurer the tool can’t price, and switch only when the coverage matches yours line for line.
Prepaid carriers run on the same Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile networks as the big-name plans, usually for much less a month, though their cheapest plans give up perks and priority when the network is busy. If your phone already works well where you live and work, pick a prepaid plan on that network and move your number to it.
The mileage on a shop’s windshield sticker rarely matches your carmaker’s oil change schedule. Look up the interval in your owner’s manual, or follow your car’s oil-life monitor if it has one. On most newer cars, that interval runs thousands of miles past the old 3,000-mile rule.
Before you pay extra for a name-brand pain reliever or allergy pill, turn both boxes over and compare the Drug Facts labels. If the active ingredient and the milligrams listed beside it match, the store brand does the same job for less. Buy it, unless you react to a specific dye or filler.
Credit card payment protection charges a monthly fee on your balance for limited help after a layoff, disability, or death. Turn it down, and cancel it if it’s already on your statement. If your income drops, ask your issuer whether you qualify for a hardship program. It’s free, but it usually lowers your payment rather than making it for you.
Before you fill a prescription, check its price on a free discount-card app and ask the pharmacist to run your insurance price too. The card price is sometimes lower than your copay and often differs between nearby pharmacies. Pay the lower one, unless you’ll likely reach your deductible this year, since card purchases usually don’t count toward it.
Before you travel abroad, check your credit card for a foreign transaction fee, usually 1% to 3% of every purchase processed outside the U.S. If it has one, pack a card that charges none. The fee buys you nothing, and it adds up over a whole trip.
End of content
End of content
