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Deciding what to buy, when to buy it, how to pay, and whether it’s worth the price. Get more for every dollar you spend.
An annual fee card pays off only when the rewards and credits you’d use anyway, minus the fee, beat what a no-fee card would earn on the same spending. Before you apply or renew, value each credit at what you’d pay for it in cash, then run that comparison.
Putting part of your car down payment on a credit card can earn rewards, and a single charge can cover a new card’s sign-up bonus requirement. Ask the dealer how much it accepts by card, and whether it adds a fee, before you negotiate. Then pay the card in full, or interest will erase the rewards.
Gas pumps, hotels, and rental counters often hold more on your card than you’ll end up spending, and on a debit card that hold can lock up real money in your checking account for days. Hand over a credit card wherever holds are common, so the hold ties up credit instead of cash.
Turn down the extended warranty, or protection plan, at checkout, unless a breakdown you couldn’t afford is likely. Stores keep at least half of every dollar spent on these plans, so on average, less than half of what buyers pay comes back as repairs. Put the plan’s price into your savings instead, and it stays yours when nothing breaks.
Any eye exam that measures your glasses prescription must end with a free copy in your hand, whether or not you ask. Take it, and ask for your pupillary distance, the space between your pupils, before you leave. Then price the same frames and lenses online before you buy at the office.
A dealer’s trade-in offer leaves room to recondition and resell your car at a profit. Before you say yes, look up your car’s private-party value and get an instant cash offer you could take instead. Accept the trade only if the offer, plus any sales tax it saves you, comes close to a private sale’s price.
A college’s sticker price alone can’t tell you what your family will pay. The number that matters is net price, the cost after the grants and scholarships a school offers your student. Run each school’s net price calculator before you apply, and count only free money when offers arrive.
Money left in your health care flexible spending account (FSA) after the plan’s deadline is lost, so look up the date now. Some plans add a grace period or a small carryover, and some offer neither. Then spend the balance on care and supplies you’d pay for anyway, such as an eye exam or new glasses.
When a card terminal, ATM, or foreign website offers to charge you in U.S. dollars, decline and pay in the local currency. Saying yes lets the merchant or ATM operator set the exchange rate, and its markup routinely adds several percent to what your own card would charge.
Most big-ticket items, like TVs and mattresses, follow the same sale calendar every year. If your purchase can wait a few months, write down the exact model and today’s price now, then buy in its category’s sale window instead of the week you start wanting it.
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