Stores are always trying to get you to do what they want. But what if you refuse? What if you do what benefits you and not the store? Aside from outright fraud, what are the things that you can do to come out ahead? We’ve put together 10 tips that will help you save money, but probably won’t help the store. That’s why they hate them. And you.
Buying Loss Leaders and Leaving: Loss leaders are products that a company sells below or at cost to lure customers into the store.
Why They Hate It: They do not want you to waltz in, buy up all the loss leaders and leave. Often there are limits to how many of each you can buy, if you see something in the ad that says “limit 3 per customer” you may have found yourself a loss leader. Buy it and get the hell out.
Using Credit and Paying it Off on Time: Sometimes stores will offer a “6 months, no interest, no payments” offer on big ticket items. Pay it off on time, and you’ve used their money for free.
Why They Hate It: These offers are not just to help you buy stuff, it’s to trick you into paying more for the item than if you had paid cash. Some people take the cash they would have used to buy the item and put it in a high yield savings account. Then they buy the item with credit and wait until 5.9 months later to pay it off. They’ve just used someone else’s money for 6 months for free. Ha, ha, ha. These offers are dangerous, however, because if you miss a payment or don’t pay the full balance off on time, you’ll get socked with interest since your date of purchase. The rates are often outrageous, so this tip is only for seriously organized Type-A people.
Saying NO to the Extended Warranty: Stores play on the fact that electronics are a big investment, scaring you into buying an Extended Warranty. Don’t do it.
Why They Hate It: The Extended Warranty is basically just a trick to get you to pay way more for the item than you need to. It’s very, very, very profitable for the retailer. If you don’t believe us, believe Consumer Reports. If you’re worried about not having an extended warranty, purchase your electronics with a credit card that offers extended warranty protection. Lots of them do. Just paying for your crap with a credit card can double your warranty, so tell that sales clerk to get bent.
Activating Your Own Phone With A Cell Phone Company: You can buy a used phone, or an unlocked phone, for full price and avoid signing a contract.
Why They Hate It: Cell phone companies want you to sign a contract. They need you to sign a contract. They burn with desire for you to be under contract with them. Cell phone stores sell 2 year contracts. That’s what they sell. Not phones. So get a phone, then call the cell phone company and activate it. No contract needed. They hate that so much.
Shopping in the Store But Buying Online: Stores are just places where you can look at things you will later purchase for cheaper online. Look at your new laptop. Try it out. Ask questions. Buy online.
Why They Hate It: They’ve paid for a store, the electric bill for the store, the employees to answer your questions, and those nice little plastic bags that they want to put your purchase in. Whoops.
Buying 1 When its 2 for $5: “2 for” deals are bull. You can buy one. You can buy 3. “2 for 5″ or “5 for 10″ means, “Please for the love of Jesus buy this and get it out of the store.” You can pay the unit price. (Laws may vary nationwide)
Why They Hate It: They want you to buy more stuff than you need!
Opening A Store Credit Card To Get A Discount, Then Cutting It Up: This is one from our dear Mommy. Mommy buys a bunch of stuff at once, opens the store credit card for the 20% discount, pays it off and cuts up the card. She did this every year when buying our school clothes. We’re sure they hate her with the force of a 200 mega-ton bomb, but she still saved 20%.
Why They Hate It: Credit card companies make money from interest and fees. No activity on the card, no interest and fees.
Using Websites to Track 30 Day Price Guarantees: Stores have “30 day price guarantees” to make you think they have such low prices that they’re not going to get any lower. They may, but they also know you’re not going to keep shopping for some crap you already bought. Solution: There are websites that will watch your purchase for you and email if it drops in price during the guarantee period.
Why They Hate It: Because they have to give you money. No store ever likes to give you money.
Buying Seasonal Items at Clearance Prices (For Next Year): Seasonal items are a big deal for retailers and once the holiday is gone they need to make room for the next one. Their haste makes waste and you can take advantage of it. Buy now for next year. Another good idea is to buy “seasonal” candy after the season is over. So what if your M&Ms are brown and orange or red and green. Still tastes like awesome.
Why They Hate It: Stores want you to buy their seasonal crap at full price, when its most profitable, not during clearance when they sell it at cost or below.
Buy “Accessories” on Ebay Rather Than Paying Huge Markups: Retailers will often discount a big ticket item only to charge ridiculous prices for “accessories” that they will harass you to the point of madness to try to get you to buy. Expensive connectors, cables, controllers, leather lotion for your stupid coat you just bought, blank media, storage, etc. Buy this crap on eBay or at least research what it really costs at a retailer that is not trying to screw you. Case in point: Cables. Best Buy sells the Monster Ultra Series 8′ HDMI Video Cable for $119.99. On Ebay the most expensive “Buy it Now” price for this cable is $74.95 with $9.95 shipping. For the exact same thing. And that’s for a crazy brand name cable. There are 8′ HDMI cables on eBay for $8.
Why They Hate It: Accessories are very profitable. If you got a good deal on a TV, you probably believe them when they say you “need” to spend hundreds of dollars on cables. —MEGHANN MARCO
More From Consumerist
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Beware The Bounteous Retail Bonus Programs: There Is Such A Thing As Being Too Loyal
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Here’s How Stores Get You To Buy Stuff Using A Sensory Bombardment
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For Back-To-School Shopping, Waiting In Line At The Store Might Be Better Than Buying Online
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What's To Come Of All The Space Left Over By Shrinking Big Box Stores?
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How Not Price-Matching Your Own Website Is Kind Of Inefficient
Re: Using Credit and Paying it Off on Time
No need to be a Type A. Just use your online banking to set up monthly payments. Divide the amount owed by however long the no-interest term is (less a month for luck) and let your bank take care of that.
I got new windows from my house with a 1-year no-interest from Home Depot, got the card on the spot.
Sweet deal.
Be sure to close the account you opened for 20% off (or whatever) as soon as you have paid it off and it shouldn’t affect your credit
I use a little known service http://www.kulist.com for price watching and comparison shopping.
I want to correct the above post. Opening a credit card and then closing it does not destory your credit. If a credit card is closed by a customer request ie canceling it, it is taken as a neutral indicator on your credit report.
What hurts you is late payments, over due accounts, collections, defaults, bankruptcies, too much unused credit and too high a debit to credit limit ratio.
Back to the idea about shopping in stores and buying online, I’d like to thank ValkRaider for pointing out what that does for the local economy. As a commissioned sales person at a locally owned camera/electronics store, I really don’t appreciate how many customers come in to waste my time and take advantage of my expertise just to walk out and by it online (or from the big box store down the street).
And to point out some disadvantages for the consumers, we have had more than one customer buy online and get completely screwed (ending up with gray market stuff, damaged equipment, etc.)-not to mention the advantages of buying from a business who will support your purchase later. For example, we support our customers for as long as they have their equipment for free, but we charge $100/hour to help customers with equipment purchased elsewhere. As about the only place in town (or the state, for that matter) that knows anything about camera equipment, we get lots of confused customers in need of help. We also offer free product-specific classes for our customers.
And after having worked at a big box store, I also know that some of the extended warranties offered at such places are far from a rip off. Do some research and find out how much your purchase will cost to fix if it breaks, and what the warranty covers. I’ve seen them save people thousands (but not always).
Just so everyone knows:
Please don’t always say “no” to extended warranties.
Mind you this is coming from a former Geeksquad (the computer help people inside of Best Buy) employee. When I worked there, without fail, at least once a day if not more someone would come in with a friend computer. Fried power supple, fried motherboard, fried everything. I would ask if they had the unit plugged into a surge protector and they would always answer no.
I would then ask if they had a service plan with us. If they said “Yes” I would promptly get the paperwork in order to get the unit replaced. However, if they had no service plan, I would explain what had more than likely happened, since thunder storms are common where I live and that next time they should hook everything up to a surge protector.
Better luck next time!
And just to clarify on the whole profit-margins thing: We had our own repair centers specifically for dealing with products with service plans and would also send out units to the manufacture. I personally bought a service plan on my new laptop and pray to god I never have to use it.
So don’t accuse the salesperson who’s trying to sell you that service plan the devil because they’ve seen the damage not having on, coupled with incompetence or a bad machine (think EMachine, which tends to break after about a month).
Please. Salespeople aren’t the devil and neither are service plans.
Sincerely,
Seloc.
monoprice.com has insanely cheap prices for all kinds of cables for computers and audio equipment. better than ebay and other e-tailers.
Don’t tell the sales guy to “get bent” when they offer you the extended warranty. Politely decline. It’s their job, their boss pounds it into their heads as the most important part of their job, and implies that they’ll get fired if they don’t sell enough of them.
I worked as a sales guy, explained the warranty, and let the customer decide. I never understood people who would argue as if they had to “convince me” that the warranty was a rip off and that I was a jerk for suggesting it. Or that the 17 year old kid selling you a camera was the one thing standing between you and a “deal.” This kind of stuff is ridiculous.
Also, sales guys can get you deals that they won’t mention if you’re a jerk. I did it all the time. I knew what the margin was and if it was flexible and if it was, I knew that I could work my manager on it and I would get freebees or discounts for people. But the minute some jerk starts swearing about not being able to get a web match to a price they listed on their own geocities webpage before coming in is the minute I stopped working for them and started working for the company.
I’m in ur bagz, doing ur shoppin
*sigh.*
Take anything anyone here says with a grain of salt regarding your credit. I am a loan officer; have been for 8 years. Every bank / credit union / mortgage co. has it’s own requirements / thoughts. But, here it is, plain and simple:
1. Get 3 credit cards — NO STORE CARDS.
2. Have limits of 5k – 15k.
3. Use sparingly – i.e. less than 20% of available credit line.
4. Do not open new accounts.
Store cards lower your credit score (on average). Consistently opening cards and closing them will lower your credit score – SIGNIFICANTLY.
Making a huge purchase on your card (say up to your available limit) and paying it off in full the next month will lower your score.
Point is, your credit score is a snapshot in time. You could have a fantastic score (800+), get a new mortgage at a great rate, get two new cars on credit, all within a 6 mo period, and you can be sure your score will drop at least 50 points. Why? You got new credit, and the scoring model wonders why you did — and if you will pay all your new debt on time. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. Remember, people who file bankruptcy had some good credit — at one point in time.
Questions? email at creditadvice at yahoo.com
I love this site! I’m from London, England – but all of the above applies to the UK too. And one of the best ways to save moeny for us Brits is to fly to America and stock up on all our electronic items, clothing, cosmetics and of course eat out in the US – they’re always nearly a third cheaper than in the UK.
Yes, davidtrento, because being nasty to grocery store cashiers always lets higher management know that something needs to change about their business. Except not.
Always ask for a rebate.
In a tourist trip to NY,
i´ve got a $100 rebate on
the buy of a $1700 portable computer, only by asking the salesperson.
This was in a big computer
store at the 5th Ave.
Ask for a rebate,you have nothing to loose !
If anyone is particularly concerned about hurting their local economy by shopping online rather than B&M, simply print out the price online and take it to the store. Almost all stores will match their web prices. Also, bring a coupon with you.
A lot of good ideas, but there are catches…
Cell phones- is the phone compatable (GSM/CDMA)? Besides they always give me a free phone..
Credit cards- opening more than 1 per year WILL lower your FICO score…
Still, my favorite is the 10% off guanantee that Lowes/Home Depot/Sears/etc offer.
@bambino: Since your credit score is basically a prediction of how likely you are to repay a loan, they’ll dock you for anything that historically has caused borrowers to screw up. You’re right and I’m right.
However, a short story to make a point: For a long time I had no credit history because I didn’t have any loans, credit cards, or anything, and as a result couldn’t get a credit card to build a credit history. Finally, Capital One took pity on me and gave me a $201 limit card. After six months with that card, my credit score jumped from basically zero to the low 700′s (pretty much perfect) with only $401 (Captial One doubled my limit, how generous) available credit (and zero balance carried over each month).
Bonnie’s point about credit/income ratio is probably very valid with respect to too much credit. So the moral of the story is don’t get too much credit, but not too little either.
“Buy “Accessories” on Ebay Rather Than Paying Huge Markups“
Price of Wii component cable in GameStop: €35 (and they didn’t have any in stock).
Price of Wii component cable on eBay, including shipping from Hong Kong: €9.57.
And the same goes for the classic controller. I bought my Wii and games in the shop (no huge discounts anywhere online), but everything else I get from eBay, via Hong Kong.
Hrm. I might not understand the business transactions of banks and credit card issuers (like Visa, MC, etc.). I thought that
a) the bank that issues the card would make money when they charge fees/interest, and
b) the credit card company makes money because the cc issuer charges the retailer a percentage of the total transaction when the card is swiped.
Is this incorrect? Enlighten me, oh consumer savvy ones
vinny seems to not know very much about what he is talking about.
I do this all the time on Verizon. And my buddies do this all the time on Cingular. And I can go on and on about others.
No Contract ≠No Plan (from an initial contract)
As a matter of fact its awesome with Cingular because of the SIM card. While snowboarding you use a phone that can take a beating, while working use a TREO. Unfortunately I have Verizon.
Opening A Store Credit Card To Get A Discount, Then Cutting It Up
There seems to be a lot of confusion and disinformation regarding this topic. I’d like to shed some definitive light on the matter based on what I’ve learned during my tenure at Fair Isaac, the company that developed the FICO score (the credit score used in ~90% of lending decisions).
1) Opening a revolving charge account – regardless of whether the card is issued by a store or bank – is considered a credit inquiry. Credit inquiries generally lower your FICO score. The FICO algorithm takes both the number of inquiries and the length of time since your last inquiry into consideration. Hence, the score lowering effect of a credit inquiry will attenuate over time (say, 12 months). Take-away: opening lines of credit that you don’t need is generally not a good idea.
2) Closing revolving charge accounts – the length of your credit history is a key ingredient in the calculation of your FICO score. It serves you no purpose to close an account, especially if you’ve just taken the hit to your FICO score from opening it. Take-away: if you do open a revolving charge account, keep it open so that it can help you increase the amount of credit you have and build your credit history.
3) Credit utilization and dormant accounts – the lower your credit utilization, the better your FICO score. Period. If you have only one card with a $5,000 limit and you routinely have a monthly balance of $1,000, your credit utilization is 20%. If you have five cards, each with a $20,000 limit, and you routinely have a monthly balance of $1,000, your credit utilization is 1%. There is no penalty factor in the FICO score for having a lot (whatever that means…) of revolving charge accounts open, or having some accounts that are unused dormant (as long as some of your accounts show activity). If you do have credit cards that you don’t use on a regular basis, make sure that the account details and the cards themselves are secure; check your statements regularly to check for unauthorized activity (e.g., identity fraud).
4) Educate yourself and be a savvy consumer! Don’t just assume that credit information you receive from mortgage brokers, credit union employees, etc., is 100% correct. The credit scoring space is complex and convoluted, and it’s unlikely that such folks have a factual understanding of the scoring models employed. The advice listed above is likely deduced from anecdotes, and therefore dubious. Learn for yourself what affects FICO scores, check your credit reports regularly, and know what your FICO score is. If you want to learn more about how FICO scores are determined visit http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/WhatsInYourScore.asp…
A long time ago, I heard that “3 for 2″ deals were illegal in Germany. Because it often forces some people into spend more than they can afford. True or not, I dont know.
Regarding shopping online while wasting the resources of your local privately-owned retail store and screwing your local economy in the process: Thanks to the the few of you who recognized and brought this point to light. As a full-time retail employee & supervisor in a privately owned store, I’ve learned to recognize customers who come in just to shop for what they are going to buy online or in a box store. Once I notice a pattern of lots of questions, taking up lots of employee time, then suddenly they say they went and acquired the item elsewhere, we start dumbing down our expertise on the items or issues they are asking about until one day we have absolutely no knowledge or experience when these sorts of folks ask questions. Maybe a little unethical, but it frees us up to serve those who actually support our business. Time spent with appreciative, paying customers is much better for business and is likely to encourage more business from those customers’ social contacts, who are statistically more likely to be ethical shoppers. For those of you who are sick of bad service and complain about the homogeneous crap that big box stores carry, the formula is simple. More money going to private community businesses = more money which helps to preserve your town. If you like and enjoy having nothing but big box stores in your community, as well as the urban sprawl that accompanies it, by all means keep patronizing places like Wal-mart, K-mart, and Petco/Petsmart.
Thanks to malaparte aka chuck norris for pointing out that at least half the people who weighed in on the credit issue had no clue, yet felt like the rumor they heard from their brother’s uncle was somehow worth posting.
Thanks also to all you retailers accusing online shoppers of theft if they set foot in your store but don’t buy anything. Let me explain a little something to you. You can’t beat online stores in price or selection. When the customer comes in to look at something they’re thinking of buying online, it’s because the online store has failed to provide the customer the info they need to make their decision. It’s your chance to take advantage of this failing by providing something they can’t. I’ll leave what that is as an exercise for the reader.
I know it’s sad when someone comes in, asks a bunch of questions, and then leaves. It’s sad when Drew Brees gets sacked, too, but it’s no moral failure of the other team’s defensive line, amirite?
Anytime a creditor pulls a credit report on you it negatively affects your credit score slightly. Bear in mind this has to be a CREDITOR (one who will be issuing u credit duh) and not some other business who may pull your report for whatever reason.
Local stores are in business to make money. They need to show a profit at the end of the day. News: so am I! As a consumer, I have to show a profit at the end of the month. I’m looking to save money just like the local store is looking to make a profit. It’s not stealing! They have an free show room, FREE!!! If they don’t like it, they should start charging money for coming in and asking questions.
I would be dumb to pay $300 for something that I could get on-line for $189 including shipping.
It’s a market economy, idiots! If brick and mortar stores want to compete, they should take a look at the way they treat customers. i.e offer instant discounts, NOT mail-in rebabes. They could improve service or lower prices, period. Work for my business… I’m not a freaking charity.
This credit card discussion is good. For a first-time credit buyer, I try to stay away from the cards because I am scared of the interest. I have also had some bad experiences with Guitar Center.
But…any advice would be awesome. I need to get the lowest interest card possile to get a new Macbook Pro. advice welcome:) oh, i love the site. Awesome advice. SPRINT is the devil.
Here is my all time favourite thing to do that shops absolutely hate.
Buy something. Remove all the packaging. Be VERY smug and patronizing about carbon footprints as you place it in a canvas bag. Take it home.
This is the greatest feeling and is particularly good at a supermarket when they’ve pre packed all your vegetables. I unpack them all. the worrying thing is that the checkout operators gasp and sigh in awe and wonder as if they’ve never considered placing a vegetable into a bag without first sheathing it in plastic.
Perhaps they’re sighing in irritation because you have just LEFT YOUR GARBAGE IN THE STORE.
For whatever it’s worth, I recently applied for and received a no-documentation mortgage from Countrywide. The property cost $125K and I made a down payment of $12,500. At the time of the application, I had income of $48K per year, five credit cards with limits totaling about $60K, and about $16K in the bank. The card with the single highest limit was $24K. All of these credit card accounts have been open for a very long time; the limits started low and have increased gradually from year to year. The biggest increases seem to happen after I pay off a large balance all at once.
At the time of my mortgage application, none of these cards had balances carried from month to month, and one of them had a balance of about $700 paid in full each month (the rest were at zero and had been for more than six months). I had no car loan or any other debt, and all of my accounts are in good standing and have been for at least six years.
Anyway, my median credit score was 805 and my low credit score (Equifax) was 798 — both excellent scores. None of the reason codes on my credit report mentioned ANYTHING about having too much unused credit.
So, I really have a hard time believing the line about lots of unused credit being a bad thing. Maybe it is if you have a history of missing payments, or if you’re already in debt, but it certainly didn’t hurt me in the above situation.
Another helpful idea:
When buying phone accessories, instead of going into your phone carrier, go online and either search for your item on eBay or the actual manufacture of the item. Most of the times you will spend half the cost if not more.
By the way…thank you for the other helpful hints. Very useful information.
@Mr. Gunn
Good point. Local businesses don’t get a pass just because they are local. I recently wanted to buy a vacuum cleaner. I knew of a locally owned business, so I went to give them a try. The salesman was extremely nice, helpful, informative, and recommended a vacuum to me that was at the low end of the price range that I told him I was looking for, simply because he knew it to be the best machine in that range.
So, consumers, try to support your local economy. Local businesses, show us you are worth it!
Having many credit cards can be a problem. When I tried to re-finance a mortgage, my credit was less than good because of many unused credit cards on my record. I had to contact each firm and have them send delete notices to the credit bureaus.
Just wanted to point out another website where you can track price drops (via RSS): [bountii.com]
Great blog and valuable information about saving cash the smart way. I’m the cash back at eBay gal and I love your advice about eBay in particular (buying the accessories for your electronics at ebay). Shopping eBay is a great way to save.
Generally, eBay offers prices as low as 35 percent off retail. I shop eBay and I get a percentage of cash back when I shop and when others shop. You should too. When you look for a cash back program, make sure you look for a program that offers residual income. For example, a program that allows you to make money referring your friends so that every time your friends shop, you get cash back on a portion of their purchases. It’s a great way to save and make money for years to come.
While you are giving great tips about shopping and how to shop, I want to give you a tip about what NOT to buy. And that’s this juicy nugget about what not to buy…
Do NOT to buy gift cards! Many people don’t know that when you buy a gift card, it’s like giving an unsecured loan to the retailer. Gift cards expire, can reduce in value, can have maintenance fees — and can be worthless too in the event of bankruptcy.
If you have any gift cards, spend them now. They may be worthless January 1, 2009. Also, be sure to check with your state about how it treats gift cards — every state is different.
Again, thanks for a super blog! Have a super prosperous day,
M.C. Nygard