The Leak: Paying bills by snail mail.
The Fix: The average household receive about 15 bills a month. With stamps now at 39 cents each, you spend about $70 a year just on postage — and don’t forget the late fees if your checks get lost in the mail. Save time and money by signing up with the billers’ customer-service departments to have your bills paid by credit card or automatic debit; payments will be documented on your monthly bank statement. If you want more control, almost all major banks offer free online bill payment, which lets you schedule payments in advance.
Savings: Almost $70 a year in postage.The Leak: Paying an annual fee of $60 or more for a frequent-flier credit card.
The Fix: Frequent-flier cards make sense only if you charge $10,000 or more annually. For most people who pay off balances monthly or don’t charge much, a no-annual-fee cash-back card, such as the Citi Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard (
www.citibank.com) or the Chase Cash Plus Rewards Visa (
www.chase.com), is a wise bet. Both offer a 5 percent cash-back rate on grocery, drugstore, and gas purchases and 1 percent on all other purchases (standard maximum rebate is $300 a year). Other cards may have a higher maximum cash-back reward, but you have to spend more or follow complex rules to earn it. If you carry a balance, forget reward or cash-back cards altogether and opt for a card with a lower interest rate. Switching from a cash-back card with a 17 percent rate to a no-frills card with a 10 percent rate can save you $350 a year on a $5,000 balance. Compare credit-card offers at
www.bankrate.com.
Savings: $60 a year.The Leak: Paying airlines for extras.
The Fix: “Everybody charges for everything nowadays,” says travel expert Joe Brancatelli, whose website,
www.joesentme.com, chronicles the airline-fee frenzy. Northwest Airlines, United Airlines, and American Airlines now charge $1 to $2 for curbside check-in. Almost all domestic carriers, except Alaska Airlines and Continental Airlines, charge for meals on domestic flights, and American Eagle Airlines is testing a program that charges $1 for a 12-ounce can of soda on flights out of Los Angeles International Airport. Air Canada charges $2 for a pillow and a blanket. Frontier Airlines charges $5 for DirecTV and $8 for pay-per-view movies. And bags that exceed the domestic-flight weight limit of 50 pounds will set you back $25 each (international flights have higher weight limits but also higher penalties, varying by airline and destination). Dodge fees by:
Weighing luggage at home to make sure each piece stays under 50 pounds. Divide contents into two bags if necessary (savings: $25 or more).Skipping curbside check-in and using a time-saving kiosk or checking in online at home (savings: $1 to $2).Bringing your own headphones (savings: $2) and snacks and meals (savings: $2 to $9).Savings: $30 or more per flight.
