Saving Money

This week I have been making preparations for my vacation to Ukraine in a couple of weeks. I will be using CIBC Aventura points for one of the flights but will have to pay for the second one. So I called CIBC Aventura travel agency to find out the prices be for my airfare. 

The first person I spoke to said that the flights I wanted would cost me a total of $2,000. This was more than I expected ( I was expecting $1,500), so I told her that I would think about it, gave her my phone number, and asked her to call back the next day.

One day passes, then two, then three… I guess she was not going to call back, so I called back myself, resigned to the fact that I would be paying $2,000 for my flight.  I went through all of the details of the days I want to travel and this time I was given a total price of $1,447. Much better. Just for interest I asked if we could check the option of coming back one day later and now my total was $1,235. This is $765 less than the original fare I was given for travel on the same dates from the same travel agency!

It just goes to show that it is important to check your prices. Equally important, if possible, is to have some flexibility of your travel dates. Check all possible date combinations, there may be a big difference.  

I take a lot of weekend trips to different places and I am always looking for ways to find the best deal.

After much practice- I now use a three step approach to hotel reservations.

First, if you know the city and area you want to stay at, but not the exact hotel, your best bet is to try one of the big travel websites such as Expedia, Travelocity, Hotels.com, or Orbitz. This will help you to narrow down to a few hotels which will meet your requirements in the price range you need. At this point it is not necessary to check all of the sites- just try any one.

Next, once you have a few hotels that think you may want to stay at, go to Tripadvisor and find these hotels. For each of them you should click “Check Rates” and a popup window will appear, where you put in your travel dates. Tripadvisor will then show you a bunch of websites which it will be checking you only have to click on “show next offer” to get the next one- saving you the time of going to each individual website.

The third and final step is very important. When you have chosen the dates of your travel and the hotel you will be staying at. Before you make your reservation on any website, find the website of the hotel you have chosen and see if they have an even better rate- or maybe a special which includes something else, like breakfast for example.

If you find the same price on the hotel’s website or think you may need to change your plans I would reserve directly with the hotel. If you find a better price on another website and are 100% sure that you will not change your travel plans, then go with the other site. It is generally possible to change reservations made directly at the hotel, but extremely difficult any other way. See my previous article Travel Websites.

Hope some of you find this helpful.

Having returned from my second trip to Las Vegas, I thought I would share what I best like about the city of sin. I strongly recommend that everyone go there at least once.

There is no easy way to understand Vegas until you have been there. I guess I consider it a Disneyland for adults.

What are the best parts?

• Choice. Whatever you want to do- it is available. From gambling, dancing, drinking, shopping- whatever you want to do for fun, you can find it.
• Restaurants- there is an incredible variety of food at all different kinds of price levels.
• Atmosphere- I guess because most people are there on vacation everyone is friendly and fun.

What don’t I like about Vegas? There are a couple of things:

• Walking- there is just waay too much walking neccessary, even to go to a hotel which is nearby
• It is very easy to spend a lot of money- especially when you can take cash advances from your credit card without even your pin number
• Be very careful of the fees you pay at machines- I took out money three times while in Vegas- the first two times I had a fee of 4 dollars which I consider high but acceptable. The last time I made a withdrawl the fee was an unbelievable 24 dolars!!! I only noticed when I got the printout of my transaction.
• The TV channel selection in my hotel room was horrible. I know the hotels want you out of the room and in the casinos but they could at least have a couple of decent channels.

If you are planning a trip to Vegas and are on a budget, don’t miss

• Half price show tickets at the big coca-cola bottle next to the MGM- this could save you a lot of money. The only catch is that they do not have seats for all shows.
• The free magazines in every hotel list all of the attractions of all hotels and they also have coupons at the back.
• If you are tired of walking the bus can take you the full length of the strip for only two dollars. If you are staying on the strip this is just as fast as a taxi for a fraction of the price.
• If you are wanting to drink but don’t want to pay a lot, sit and play at a penny lot machine. At most casinos it does not take long for the waitress to come around. Don’t forget to tip her though.
• Free attractions- the hotels on the strip are attractions in themselves, but there are many other attractions which are free such as the volcano at the Mirage, the fountains at the Bellagio, the moving statues at Caesars, etc…

For more Vegas info, the best site I have seen is Cheapo Vegas

I do a lot of travelling for business and as such I get asked by friends and family to help find the best deal for their trips.

Lately I have been using Kayak to find fare information. This has to be one of the best travel websites I have seen in a while. Kayak will compare fares from over 120 websites. I am planning a couple of trips this year, and the prices that I have found from this website are significantly better than anything else I have seen.

Ease of use is incredible the big thing that it offers that the other major travel websites don’t is that it is a sidebar which is incredibly easy use.

Try out this site, you will not be disappointed.

Just a quick comment on something I mentioned in a previous post.

A couple of weeks ago I gave a tip about how important it is to subscribe to the newsletters of the points programs you are member of. Today I got a chance to confirm this tip again. 

Just a couple of days ago I was thinking about how much I need a card scanner. Today I was checking the prices on several models on Tigerdirect, and later on in the evening I was looking through my e-mail. Well, I got a recent airmiles newsletter which showed me how I could get double airmiles until December 31st at Tigerdirect!

I didn’t even know that I could collect airmiles at that Tigerdirect but now that I know, and even better, that I can get double airmiles, it is much more likely that I will buy my card scanner from them.

Futher to my Gas Points post, I have been taking a more detailed look at the savings comparing the Esso Extra and Canadian Tire programs which I use regularly. Unsurprisingly I found that the Canadian Tire program was better than Esso Extra, but I was surprised to the degree of how much better.

On every 60 Litre fillup at Canadian tire I get between 2 and 4 dollars in Canadian tire money, which means that I get between a 3.3% and 6.6% value for refuelling at Canadian Tire, which I use at a later date for oil changes.

Because there are fewer Canadian Tire Gas stations then there are Esso ones I also use Esso points.

However, On a 60 Litre fillup at Esso extra I get 60 Esso Extra points. I would need 1800 points to get a coupon for $10 worth of gas. This means that each point is worth .05%. I typically trade these points in for a car wash which costs 599 points. This means that I can spend 600 dollars at Esso to get a free car wash. Or spend the same 600 dollars at Canadian Tire to get an average of $30 back in Canadian Tire money- worth much more than a car wash.

While I was doing these calculations I also remembered that I had just joined the CAA- and that they have some kind of program to save money on gas also. I checked it out and sure enough they have a deal where you get a 2% back in CAA-Quebec Dollars on everything you buy. If I can use my CAA card at a Canadian Tire gas station I should be able to get an total of CAA-Quebec dollars and Canadian Tire Money worth up to 8.6% of what I spend.

Over a one year period this represents around $250. The $250 doesn’t come directly as cash but they can save money on useful things. I already get all of my oil changes for free at Canadian Tire- but if I can get these CAA dollars to get my next CAA membership discounted- why not do it?

As such, I think that I will be using Esso a lot less in the future.

By the way, if you want to find the cheapest gas prices in your area (in North America), check out Gas Buddy.

Gas can be a lucrative source of points- because people tend to use a lot of gas in their vehicles, in a lot of cases due to work they do not have a choice. I myself will average around 60 Liters of gas in my car every week- with gas prices at around a dollar per liter here in Montreal, it costs me $60 to fill up. So I spend around $3,000 per year just on fuel for my car.

For this reason I try to take a look at the best bonus I can get for my spending on gas My approach is to get what I can without modifying my existing purchasing habits. As such, there are 2 main programs which I use, due to where I would normally buy gas. In my own case this happens to be the Esso gas station near my house and the Canadian Tire gas station near to my work.

I am a big believer in using points programs, but I am not a believer in changing your buying habits just to get the benefits. The programs are most effective when you are using them for purchases you would be making anyway.

So here is some more detail on the ones I use:

1. Esso Extra. This is a program which gives you 1 Esso extra point per dollar spent. These points can be used for various items at the station such as car washes- or even gift certificates. Esso will also offer you Aeroplan points, but at the lower value of 1 point per 3 dollars spent. I have used this program and have not paid for a car was in several years- and when my points balance is high enough for a few car washes I switch to earning Aeroplan miles.
2. Canadian tire with gas multiplier. This is my personal favorite, although Canadian Tire gas stations are harder to find than Esso.. At Canadian tire gas bars you get back Canadian tire money which can be used for purchases at any Canadian tire store. Every week there is a multiplier, which gives you 5-10 times the basic money back when you buy gas. This gives me back between 2 and 4 dollars on a 60L fill up. There are 2 ways to get the multiplier- you can clip the coupon in the weekly flyer or you can use the Canadian tire options MasterCard. I use the options card then use the Canadian tire money earned on the card to pay for maintenance such as oil changes on my car- so far it has worked out that by the time I need an oil change I have the enough of a balance so that the oil change is free.

I am aware of other programs with PetroCanada, Ultramar, shell (airmiles) etc… My sister swears by the Ultramar CAA program which she rarely pays for her CAA membership anymore. For me it is no use however, as I rarely see Ultramar stations in my day to day travel around my neighborhood.

The key, as with all points programs is to use them consistently.

I had the unfortunate experience of not being able to start my car last week.

The car battery had died and I could not get it started so I called and joined CAA.

One thing I did not realize when I joined is that there are all sorts of discounts you can get with your membership. Some of these are travel related, but others are for everyday items.

For example, with this card I can get a 2% discount at any Couche Tard (a convenience store)- including those with gas stations. I don’t spend very much money at convenience stores- but I do buy around $60 in gas every week.

I am going to take a close look at what else I can save with the CAA card.

So you are thinking about visiting Canada? Where can you get the best information?

We have here many different regions which offer different activities, cultures, and sceneries. In fact, each canadian province has its own flavour.

The best way to get good information is though the various websites of the province you will visit. On each of these sites you can get lots of information. And you can even sign up or call them to send you a free package full of maps and attraction information.

To make it easy, here are the links to each of Canada’s province and territory tourism associations:

Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon

The best advice I can give when you are planning out a vacation is to contact the tourist information of the place you will be visiting.

The best place to find this information is the website that the local government puts together- here you can often sign up to get sent a package of information which can include maps, hotel and restaurant discounts, and a lot of information about the place you are going. Best of all, the information package is free.

I have done this prior to a vacation across several provinces in the maritimes last year, and found it to be incredibly useful. This year, we were planning on taking a trip across western Canada, so I did the same thing and I received several packages of free information mailed directly to my house.

Tomorrow I will provide a list of the major links for tourist information in Canada

I have been looking for a while to buy a digital camera and I figured that New York would probably be a good place, since I was going to be there last week.

As I previously had a Canon camera which I liked, after some research I settled on the Canon SD600.

I did want to make sure to buy from a reputable store because I have heard of rip offs in New York so from my hotel room one evening I checked bestbuy.com which had the camera at 249 dollars. I thought that if I could not find it cheaper I would go with that.

Luckily, the next day I went to Macy’s and in the basement they have an electronics store offering that same camera for 214 dollars. I bought a 2 Gig memory card at the same time for 29 dollar, so I effectively got the memory card for the same price as the camera only from Best Buy.

Now that I am back in Canada with my new toy I just checked the Futureshop website to see if they have it in the same pricerange. They actually have the camera at 289 dollars, and they have a package including the camera and a 512 Mb card at 499 dollars.

So from the lowest price I could find to the highest price there was a difference of 300 dollars.

This shows the importance of knowing your prices.

When leaving New York yesterday I had an interesting experience which I thought I would share. When I left the convention centre, needing to go directly to the airport there were guys standing around, asking if we needed a ride.

The first price we got was $120 Each (for 2 people)! We told them it was too much. So the guys came down to $80 each, then went to $55 per person, but only if we would go with a third person in the car.

As we felt like we were being ripped off, we walked further down the street and caught a taxi which cost $55. This was still more than the way in to town- but a lot cheaper than what the others were quoting. As I mentioned in another post, I had taken a limo coming into town which cost approximately $30.

So here a couple of tips about taxi negotiation.

1. Have an idea of what the ride should cost.
2. Don’t accept the first price you are given.
3. If you think someone is giving outragous prices- they probably are- just walk away.

Flyaway Weblog has an interesting post this week about handling your finances abroad. You can find the post here. I have previously written a post on a similar topic called Accessing money while travelling.

The main point here is that when you need to change money while travelling, check the exchange rate that is used and the service fees that are charged. Sometimes you will get a better exchange rate but have to pay a large service fee which ends up nullifying the better rate.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that all exchanges are the same- that thinking can cost you a lot of money. As I mentioned in my other post, I changed the exact same amount of money in two different locations in Scotland and there was a 20 dollar(10 pound) difference. The first place charged me 4% more than the second. On a single transaction maybe this is not a lot, but over several transactions in can add up.

Here is a tip to help you save money with your hotel bookings. If you have made your plans well in advance, double check the hotel rate the week before you travel.

I am going to New York City next week. As I have known the dates of the tradeshow for a long time my hotel was booked a couple of months ago.

Yesterday I went to the hotel website just to make sure that they have high speed internet (they do), and just for fun I put in the dates next week that I would be staying there, to see how much more the last-minute planners have to pay.

I was very surprised to see that the price shown on the website to me was cheaper than the price on my original booking. In fact over the 3 days of my stay it is $100 cheaper. And as we have three people from company my staying at this hotel, the time I took to double check (5 minutes) allowed my company to save $300.

So do make it a point to double check your prices- it might save you some money.

The last time I was travelling internationally (last week); as I was browsing through the duty free stores I noticed a couple of things. So I thought I would give a couple of tips about Duty Free.

1. Duty Free does not always mean good deal. The price at Duty Free does not include tax but it may be more expensive where you are making the purchase. The solution is to know what a good price is for what you want to buy. In my own case I like scotch. I know roughly what a bottle should cost which allows me to make a good choice.

2. If you have the time, you can find better prices outside of the duty free stores at the airport. Of course you may not want to spend your valuable time looking for things but if you know exactly what you want, ask your hotel concierge, or even better, a taxi driver, where you can find the item at a good price.

3. On your outbound journey keep a copy of the duty free magazine from your seat pocket. Assuming that you are flying the same airline on the way back, they may have better pricing or different selection of duty free items than you will find at the airport stores. Take a look at it just before your return journey so that you know your alternatives when you go to the duty free store.

4. Keep in mind that in some cases you can even collect points on duty free purchases- which can give you other benefits. In this case I am thinking specifically of the BAA Worldpoints program, but I am sure there are others.

Once you have collected some miles there is the question of what to spend the points on. Hopefully you went through some of this process when you started to collect points. To make sure you are getting the best value for your points you need to figure out what they are worth. How to do this? There is some excellent information on how to value your frequent flier miles or points on Gary Steiger’s website freefrequentfliermiles

Using the formula Gary recommends, I end up with my British Airways and Aeroplan miles being worth 2 cents each, my airmiles miles at 12.5 cents each, and my Marriott points at 1 cent each. This is going to be helpful for the next time I look at whether or not to use my points for something.

I find that having points is like collecting change in a piggy bank, it takes a while to get anything useful, but over time it is definitely possible. In most cases it is worth using the miles when you can because the managers of these loyalty programs can, and do, change the rules at any time.

This is written for those of you who bring far too much luggage with you when you travel- you know who you are.

Before I start packing for trip I do think about the type of trip I am going on (business or personal) , and the destination. These are the two things that make a big difference in determining what I will be needing. When I say need I mean actually will definitely use- not what I might use.

Bringing too much can also cost you money. I was formerly a person who brought far too much on while traveling. And I have found out that not only can it be a nuisance to travel with a lot of extra items, it can actually cost you. On one occasion I brought a lot of luggage on a 2-week trip to Florida. During my trip I took advantage of the great prices and bought lots of clothes on sale or discounted; only to get charged $300 at the airport for excess luggage on my return flight. This didnt make the clothing deals seem that great.

Most people bring far too many items on a trip- if you are taking a road trip for a week and you are two people in a large minivan- go ahead, take that extra lounge chair- but for most situations less is better. The truth is, there are very few times where you will be somewhere and it is impossible to get what you need, or find an equivalent alternative. On my last trip to Venezuela I opened up my suitcase on the first day only to find that I did not have any bathing suit for a week at the beach. So in this case I bought another one- not the kind of bathing suit that I would normally wear but it worked for me for that week. I also had just broken my digital camera just before leaving, so I bought a disposable one- again. This was not an ideal replacement, but the disposable camera did have some advantages over the digital one: it made me much more relaxed about losing or damaging the camera.

My favorite item to bring while traveling is a couple of plastic bags. It is a good idea to use them to put some clothes or valuables in. I have seen suitcases show up at their destination very wet, on several occasions. This is especially important if you use a suitcase made of material since water will soak through the case.

So my advice is, bring only what you are 100 percent sure you will use, and always have some plastic bags with you.

There are a lot of ways to save money when buying something, this applies when you are travelling but I guess this can also apply for buying something at home too… Here are a couple of things to keep in mind…

1. When buying something, try to do your research so you know what the value of the object is. It is usually more difficult when you travel to know if you are getting a fair price, but you can always try several places offering the same item, or ideally, find someone local who can give an idea. In my experience the best source of information in most cities are taxi drivers. They tend to know the best places for whatever it is you are looking for. Second place would be your hotel concierges. It is their job to able to find anything, but I personally find their service hit and miss; some are very good and others not so.
2. You should always try to negotiate, especially on more expensive things. Don’t accept the first price they give you. I was in India one time wanting to buy a carpet, the seller started off at $1200 for the carpet I liked. I let him talk and only started negotiating when he talked himself down to $750. I ended up paying around $500 for the carpet.
3. If you are buying something internationally, do not forget to consider the taxes you may have to pay when you bring the item back through customs at home. Of course this mainly applies if it is an item you can actually find at home.

If you are going to be renting cars for any of your travels- here are some tips to keep in mind:

1. Check all available rental companies from your pickup location- especially if you are renting at an airport or other place with multiple rental companies- there can be quite a difference in price between companies. During my last trip to scotland I save 100 pounds (200 dollars) on the same sized car by choosing enterprise over avis (who I usually rent from). An easy way to do this comarison is on sites such as expedia.
2. If you are unfamiliar with the area, rent a car with gps- and use it. This will help you immensely in finding where you want to go. If you have not used this technology before, you type in the address of your destination and a small computer will give you step by step directions of how to get there. The best feature of using GPS is the fact that if you happen to miss a turn that the computer recommends, it will automatically recalculate another route to our destination.
3. Rent a car using a credit card which will cover your collision insurance. This will save you a lot of money as insurance can easily double the price of your car rental. Bring proof of collision insurance with you. As there are many different credit cards with many different options , and as not all companies are familiar with credit card options, bring proof of this collision insurance with you, or be prepared for the rental agent to call up your credit card company.
4. Before you leave on your trip, check if you will need an international driver’s license. Depending on the place you will rent your car, this may be required. They are usually easy to pick up in your home town and are not expensive.
5. When the rental agent asks you if you will bring the car back with a full tank, get them to explain what they charge for gas. Some rental companies charge the regular gas price to bring the tank back to the same gas level you started with and others will chrge you for a full tank whether you bring it back empty or half full. If you are lucky enough to be renting with the first type of company you will not need to worry about filling up the tank before you return the car. If you have the second type- better to bring it back full. The rental agent will usually tell you what makes more sense

Let me start by saying that travel websites are one of the best things to happen on the Internet. With a few mouse clicks anyone can be his or her own travel agent. This is good for people who want to find the best deal. However, these websites are good in some situations but not so good in others.

Here are some examples of when travel websites can be the right booking choice:

When your dates are inflexible. This is because once you make a booking it is next to impossible to change it.

• I used to book all of my hotel rooms with Expedia- they had a great selection of low-cost rooms, and I could trust that I was saving my money for my company. However, the first time I needed to change something it became evident that low prices come with limitations. I had booked a seven-day stay at a UK hotel. Upon arrival I got a message that I needed to travel in 3 days to Saudi Arabia so i had to cut my UK stay short by three days. First, I called the hotel lobby- sorry; your reservation is with Expedia. Ok, so I called Expedia. Sorry, no changes permitted. Several hours were spent on the phone with customer service agents who could not tell me why. Finally they explained to me that if I had made 7 individual reservations I could have cancelled the last 3 days, but having made a single 7-day reservation nothing could be done. 
  
• When your plans are flexible- that is, you are not stuck on staying at a particular hotel brand, etc… this is important because various hotels may give special prices for a whole variety of reasons. I once had the good fortune of booking 5 nights at the millenium hotel in central London for 99 pounds a night, this is a really fancy boutique-style place, since then the cheapest I have ever seen it has been 300 pounds a night.
  

It also pays to check all of the major websites, I have a few listed below… one of them may have a better deal on the flight or hotel you are looking for.

Keep these things in mind when you book from a travel website- if your travel meets these minimum criteria there are some very good deals available. Just remember to read the fine print.

Here are some links to check out and compare for your next trip …

www.travelocity.com
www.hotwire.com
www.expedia.com
www.orbitz.com

Of course when you go on any trip you will be needing money. So, what is the best way to get money in a foreign country? As is the case with many things the answer is, it depends.
 
The first thing to consider is the country itself, you can pay for things with credit cards in most first world countries, but developing countries are not quite as simple- usually major hotels will take your credit card, but you may be out of luck in other places like restaurants, etc… If you do have a large amount of cash, you can usually leave it a safe in your hotel, either in your room or in the lobby.

The simplest and most convenient option that I use is to bring cash and change it at the airport when you arrive. The main problem with this is that the rates are not always good, and you also usually have to pay a service fee. I do recommend this to get some small amount of local currency just to get you started- for lunch, taxis etc… When you have to change a relatively large amount of money however, you really have to look around for the best rate. On a recent trip to Scotland for example, I changed 500 USD at the airport for 242 pounds, then a few days later exchanged the same amount again in a store for 252 pounds- that’s a 10 pound or 20 dollar difference- which is the price of a nice lunch.

Another option if you are a person who likes to carry cash, is to take money out directly from a bank (ATM) machine. This is possible in many places by checking the back of your debit card to make sure that one of the networks is listed on your card and also on the machine you are withdrawing money from (examples of these are cirrus or plus)- your bank will sometimes charge a fee for this, but the exchange rate is usually pretty good. DO watch out for suspicious people around ATM machines- I have had my bank account accessed in the UK after I had used a particular machine, I had not noticed anything unusual at the time but a few days later I checked my account and had $2,000 withdrawn over the period of five hours. Somehow they managed to copy my card and pin number from a particular machine.

 A third option is to pay for everything on your credit card, you will not need to pay a separate fee, however, the exchange rate they give will include a small percentage exchange  (usually 2-3%)- this is probably around the same rate as you would get from your bank?

I usually tend to use a combination of the above ideas- varying the amount of cash I carry depending on the country I’m visiting- the less I think I will be able to use my credit card, the more cash I will carry. But I always carry some cash because you never know when you will need it.