Consumerist

BLOGS

Save On Car Rentals By Renting After Busy Holidays

By consumerist.com 4.18.08

Our favorite travel troubleshooter blogger Chris Elliot interviewed a car rental salesperson to reveal six insider tips on how to get the most for your money. We like number 5, rent after a busy holiday.

5. Timing is everything. The largest expense incurred by a car rental company is depreciation. Basically, these companies are leasing all the cars in their fleet. They’re charged different rates for different types of cars. “It is very important for car rental companies to have as many cars on the road as possible, as any cars that are sitting are not making money, and are actually costing the company money in depreciation fees.” A customer who shows up after a busy holiday weekend can more or less name the price for a rental car. “They should be begging for you to take cars off their lot,” he adds.

To get a view on what goes on inside the (twisted) mind of some car rental salespeople, check out our “6 Confessions Of An Alamo Car Rental Agent.”

deals

BillShrink Finds Your Optimal Cellphone Plan

By consumerist.com 4.18.08

BillShrink is a new site that analyzes your cellphone use and shows you the plan from all the carriers that will save you the most money. You can either manually enter your zip and how much you’re paying monthly, or the more security cavalier can get more detailed results by offering up their cellphone number and carrier site password. I tested it out and while some parts of the website had to be tried a few times to get them to work, overall it was a good ride. They told me I could save $205 a year by switching to Tmobile. I’ll think about it.

airlines

By consumerist.com 4.16.08

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Good news for travelers: If you’re bumped from a flight, you soon may be eligible to get up to $800 in compensation. This is up from the previous max of $400, an amount that had not been raised since 1978. [CNNMoney via Consumer World Blog]

jobs

Secret Document Reveals How To Be A Taco Bell Superstar!

By consumerist.com 4.14.08

If you, like so many grade-school children, dreamed of one day working at Taco Bell, but worried whether you had the technical aptitude to master their complex procedures and delicate processes, study this Taco Bell insider document, snagged by ANIMAL, and possibly the most scintillating of all the leaked materials we have ever posted, and you’ll have a leg up on all the former i-bankers clamoring for the same position. Flowchart in full glory, inside…

airlines

False Email Alarm Causes Man To Rush To Southwest Flight Without Clean Underwear

By consumerist.com 4.14.08

As long as your clothing isn’t scanty or sporting lewd or suggestive imagery, Southwest Airlines is usually pretty good to fly. Not so for the author of the Strobist blog on a recent trip whose fun had only just begun when Southwest sent him an email reminder about his trip that said it was leaving 7 hours earlier than expected. He rushed off to the airport, nearly all of his clothes still in the wash, only to find out that his flight was leaving at the later time as scheduled. Always double-check those flight times and if you see something wacky, verify it first before leaving the house without a clean pair of underwear.

airlines

Beware Of Buying Airline Tickets On Craigslist

By consumerist.com 4.14.08

If you buy airline tickets on Craigslist, you could find yourself paying for the tickets twice, thanks to this latest scam. Elliot blogs the story of a William Marleua, who who bought Southwest airline tickets from someone on Craigslist. Four months after taking the flight, a Southwest collections specialist called him and told him to pay up. Turns out the original tickets were bought using a stolen credit card, and then the real owner of the credit card disputed the charge. Here’s what Southwest said about the situation, “Southwest has never been paid for the flight Mr. Marleau took. It is our business policy to collect payment from the person who flew….It’s a difficult situation, but we cannot protect a customer who chooses to make a questionable purchase on Craigslist for a Southwest Airlines flight.”

BLOGS

By consumeristcarey 4.12.08

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Uh-oh, someone forgot to pay their bills! Exciting new data from the American Bankers Association shows that late payments on consumer loans have risen to 2.65%—an 8.6% increase from the previous quarter. People are finally wising up to the fact that ignoring your mortgage is the fast path to the easy lifestyle you always wanted. [FiveCentNickel]

credit scores

Over Your Credit Limit? Get Ready For Higher Interest Rates!

By consumeristcarey 4.10.08

Next time you brush past your credit limit you may get hit with more than a hefty over-the-limit fee. The Red Tape Chronicles reports that credit card companies are starting to slap exuberant spenders with penalty interest rates. Compounding the danger to consumers, creditors are simultaneously rushing to slash credit limits.

lawsuits

Arbitration Mill Sued By San Francisco

By Ben Popken 4.7.08

A San Francisco attorney has sued the National Arbitration Forum for being biased towards credit companies and ignoring consumer rights. [More]

blockbuster

Running Low On In-Store Exchanges Under Your Total Access Plan? Try Visiting A Different Blockbuster Location

By consumeristcarey 4.6.08

Hacking Netflix reports that many Blockbuster locations don’t use a centralized network to keep tabs on Total Access usage. The tip was originally reported by Kevin Tostado, who took down his post after a ball-busting conversation with Blockbuster in which they asked him to cease and desist. Fortunately, Google’s marvelously efficient spiders reached Kevin’s site before Blockbuster and preserved the post.

credit cards

By consumerist.com 4.5.08

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An up-to-date list of credit cards with reward-point incentives for signing up. [Blueprint For Financial Prosperity]

cellphones

By consumerist.com 4.4.08

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2,600 Motorola employees got an early termination notice today, bringing the total number of Motoworkers disemployed in the past 15 months to 10,000. [Chicago Tribune via DSLReports]

television

3 Reasons To Not Get Your $40 DTV Coupon Yet

By consumerist.com 4.3.08

The government is giving out $40 coupons for digital TV converters (background: Federal law mandates that all broadcasters switch to digital signals in 2009, meaning that you will need to get a little doohicky box if your set only takes analog signals) but you shouldn’t get it quite yet. Crave tells us why:

money

By consumerist.com 4.3.08

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A roundup of some of the most popular banks for high-yield online savings accounts. [Five Cent Nickel]

economy

By consumerist.com 4.2.08

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Snapshot of the economy: Small car sales up in March, SUV sales down. Those experiencing the biggest deltas? Toyota Yaris:up 83.2%, Nissan Titan: down 44.9% [Kicking Tires]

virgin america

Using Proxies To Get Good Deals When Virgin America Reneges

By consumerist.com 4.2.08

Reader Tom was all set to buy a ticket on Virgin America when all of a sudden the fare he thought was locked in shot up 33%. The machine told him his reservation had expired. Tom tried redoing the purchase several times, clearing his cookies, changing browsers, only to continue to be denied by Richard Branson’s faceless automoton army. So then he cleared his cookies and then rerouting his signal through another computer so to Virgin America it looks like a different user is trying to buy the ticket (in technical terms, he rerouted his traffic through a SOCKS proxy server on the West Coast). Shazam, he was able to get the ticket at the old price. Whether the deal had expired because he dawdled too long, or whether he was only able to get it because it looked like he was coming from the West Coast and the fare was related to the time of day, Tom felt jerked around. If this happens to you, here’s a how-to on using proxy servers.

occ

New Treasury Department Plan: "Rehashed Industry Wish-List"

By consumerist.com 4.2.08

PREVIOUSLY: Treasury Secretary Calls For Supercharged Fed, Streamlined Regulatory System

deals

By consumerist.com 4.1.08

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This list of Amazon coupon codes for April makes me want to puke, irregardless of the fact that the only thing I ate all day was a small money salad. Only scumbags avoid paying full price. [ProBargainHunters]

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