Know Who’s Behind Your Money – PART 3

This post is part 3 of 8 in our groundbreaking series on how do you tell the bargains from the dissipation? Here’s look at some offers that often don’t pay off, plus smart ways to save your money.

What we talking about is someone who you give your money by your will. There is groups of people are after your money, you know all about it and you like to hold on as much of it as you can. Let us start by list them out one by one.

No. 3 – Extended Warrantie

Bruce Gelbart, a geosciences analyst in Baltimore, Maryland, spent $1,500 on an extended-Auto-service contract for his $26000 Honda Car, then tried to collect when the inlet valve blew. “The representative on the phone listed one reason after another why they wouldn’t pay. I’d read the contract and kept telling her she was wrong.” says Maya, 45.

In one other case, In May 2002 when General Motors has bought the assets of Daewoo leaving consumers wondering who will honor warranty obligations. Debbie of Mesquite TX says” I bought my Daewoo Leganza in Dec. 01. 2 months after the purchase the oil covers started leaking, took the car to the original dealership which at that time I knew nothing of the current problems with them and GM. I also purchased the extended warranty. They shoved me off saying they’d order the part and call me when it was in. That was 8 months ago. When I call I get no answers. In the meantime the car is valued at $4,900 Kelly Blue Book and the car has to have oil put in it every 3 weeks. The engine looks like its several years old and nothing can be done legally? This is a horrible expensive problem for many of us Daewoo owners. No parts, no warranty, who’s to take care of this?”

Increasingly, in other cases car owners are getting urgent-sounding notifications claiming that the manufacture’s warranty is about to expire. Some have paid over $1,000 to $1,500 for an extended service contract even though their factory warrant is still in effect. Often the phony alert come from firms with the word dealer or warranty in their names, to create the illusion that they work for the car’s manufacture or dealer.

We need to consider the fact that While that extra insurance against repair bills has a poor return on investment in most cases, but still it’s a huge profit generator for dealers, research by Consumer Reports shows.

Extended warranties are very lucrative for dealers, who are being squeezed by lower commissions and better pricing information. On an average, dealers or agents collected around $1,000 to $1,500 on each extended warranty they sold. Mostly you’re gambling that the product will mal-function or break after the manufacture’s one-or-two year warranty ends but before the one-year extended coverage expires. And you’ll lose 65% of the car owners who ante up the $1,000 or so for an extended-service contract recoup only $700 on repairs, says Consumer Reports. Some 42 percent of extended warranties were not used, and only about a third of all respondents actually used their plan to cover a serious problem with their product. About one in five respondents (nearly 22%) said they had a net savings. Seventy-five percent did not buy extended warranties at all.

Now if we talking about different brands then Lexus and Toyota owners lost the high percent of money: $600 on average for Lexus and $550 for Toyota. Owners of Pontiacs and Jeeps broke even because on average they had covered repairs that equaled the warranty cost.

However, extended warranties were a very good deal for those who bought more troublesome cars like Mercedes-Benz and Porsche scoring lower in Consumer Reports‘ reliability Ratings. Still, only 38 percent of Mercedes-Benz and 42 percent of Porsche owners said they saved money. The average loss was $100 & $120 respectively.

December 2007 Consumer Reports‘ analysis of specific car makers was based on 5,465 responses from an online survey of Consumer Reports readers who owned 2001-2002 vehicles.

According to Consumer Reports experts, among other things, shoppers put the $1,500 to $2,300 they might spend on an extended warranty into a money market savings account or mutual fund instead, to insure against unlikely significant repair costs.

In Short, Sixty-five percent of more than 8,000 Consumer Reports readers surveyed by the Consumer Reports National Research Center said they spent significantly more for an extra new-car/auto warranty than they got back in repair cost savings.

Now the Best Advice in general, Retailers profit by as much as 80 percent on these contracts. Bank the money you would have spent on an extra warranty. “Everything you own isn’t going to fall apart at the same time,” says Travis Ford, “but if one thing does, you’re covered”

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3 Comments

  1. Yes I agree with you!

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