We all spend money on stuff we don’t need, from top-of-the-line appliances with features we’ll never use to designer clothing we’ll rarely wear. But there’s a big difference between splurging on luxuries and throwing away money on products and services that are worthless or unnecessary—or that you could get for free. Here are some of them and why they’re a waste of money.
Read our complete list of 65 Things You (Probably) Shouldn’t Pay For on Checkbook.org.
We’ve come up with a fun way to celebrate our 75th episode: An old-fashioned radio quiz show, featuring the morning anchors at KIRO Newsradio in Seattle. Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien are old friends, who have Herb as a regular guest each week, so we had a lot of fun doing this.
Play along with Dave and Colleen as they try to come up with the right answers. You might also want to play the online version of Checkbook’s College of Knowledge.
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Support our podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/consumerpedia/support
The hectic holiday shopping season is underway, and for many, that will put a strain on the family budget. Checkbook wants to make this stressful time a little easier.
Our annual holiday helper is packed with timely advice: Super shoppers share tips about how they find the best prices and avoid fake sales. Plus, how to avoid gift card scams, stop porch pirates, and spot bogus online shipping notices. Also, the pros and cons of buy now, pay later loans.
Additional Consumerpedia Episodes & Resources:
Checkbook’s Top Holiday Shopping Tips
Don’t Overspend This Holiday Shopping Season
#59: Saving Money at the Supermarket
#58: Misleading Marketing Gets You to Buy Now and Pay More
#57: Whatever Happened to Customer Service?
#52: Shop Safely Online This Holiday Season
#26: Sale Prices Are Rarely Real Deals
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Support our podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/consumerpedia/support
Whether it’s points, miles, or cash back, it’s nice to be rewarded for shopping. The lure of “getting something extra” can encourage you to apply for new credit cards and spend more to score those rewards.
In recent years, many credit card reward programs have become more complex and confusing, and frustrated cardholders are complaining to federal regulators.
In this episode: Should the CFPB create new rules to regulate credit card rewards programs? Also, a close-up look at the most common complaints about airline rewards cards, and how chasing rewards can cost you money.
Additional Resources:
Credit Cards: How to Choose the Best One
Credit Cards Provide Strong Protections for Consumers
Saving on Gas: Which Rewards Credit Cards Offer the Best Deals at the Pump?
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Support our podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/consumerpedia/support
You can save a ton of money by comparison shopping.
Checkbook’s surveys consistently find huge price differences—sometimes more than twice as much—from company to company for the exact same product or service. And businesses can get away with this because they know most customers won’t bother to shop around.
Sometimes consumers don’t compare prices because they’re in a rush or they don’t want to scour the internet for the best deal. But we often find buyers don’t compare prices because they’ve been duped into thinking they already have.
In this episode, some of the common manipulative marketing techniques sellers use to convince you to pay up and pay too much.
Read Checkbook’s full report on the 30 Tricks Sellers Use to Manipulate You.
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Are you frustrated with the way companies treat you? If so, you’re not alone: Surveys find that many consumers are fed up with long waits on the phone, customer service agents who can’t solve their problems, unintelligible billing statements, poorly designed websites, and inexperienced or indifferent sales staff.
In this episode: Why do so many companies see customer service as a costly problem, rather than a way to retain their customers? Why is it so difficult, if not impossible, to resolve issues via phone? Is there anything you can do to get your problems solved after the sale?
Support our podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/consumerpedia/support
While convenient, online shopping can be risky. E-commerce creates all sorts of new opportunities for cyber criminals to do their dirty work, so you need to be careful. U.S. consumers reported losing $358 million to online scams last year, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
In this episode, we talk to John Breyault, a vice president at the National Consumers League, and Melissa Lanning Trumpower, executive director of the BBB Institute for Marketplace Trust, about how to spot the tricks con artists use to fool you and how you can protect yourself. Also, the smart way to pay when shopping online, and how to fight back against porch pirates.
Additional Resources:
Tips for reducing your risk of fraud this holiday shopping season
BBB Scam Tracker is a free tool anyone can use to report suspected scams. Your reports warn others so they can avoid similar cons.
Fraud victims can report scams to the National Consumers League’s Fraud.org website. This information is shared with a network of 100 law enforcement partners across the U.S. and Canada.
Support our podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/consumerpedia/support