travel Archives — Page 2 of 2

10 Travel Expenses to Think Twice About

March 9, 2012 By Jeffrey Strain 11 Comments

Traveling is expensive and becoming increasingly so almost daily. Even the most experienced travelers are hard pressed to find the best deals on airline tickets, car rentals, and other costs associated with vacation or business travel. One way to help lower your overall costs and save money is to eliminate purchases or fees that have little or no real value. Here a few examples of services and products you might be better off not investing in.

Rental Car Insurance: Purchasing insurance at the rental desk when you rent a vehicle isn’t just expensive, it’s often unnecessary. Before you leave, check with your auto insurance carrier to see what kind of coverage they offer on rental cars. You may already be covered. If not, chances are you’ll barely notice the change in your premium payment and you can just say no when the rental agency starts the insurance pitch.

Paid Internet Access: The days of the Internet café are gone. Unless you’re visiting a third-world country, you can expect to find free Internet access at your hotel. Airports, shopping malls, coffee shops and even fast food restaurants offer free wi-fi. If you have cell phone service, your smart phone will probably connect to the web, and recent models will act as a hot spot to allow you to connect your laptop. Make sure you have international coverage on your mobile account and be aware of data charges.

National Access Cell Phone Plans: Even without considering Internet access as above, if you travel out of the country often, you should invest in a calling plan with global access. The higher rate will more than pay for itself in savings on international roaming fees and long distance charges.

Any Credit Card Purchase in a Foreign Country: Keep your credit card in your wallet when you leave the country. Any purchase you make with your card is going to be subject to a foreign transaction fee unless the credit card specifically states otherwise. It isn’t always high, but it isn’t worth paying, either. It costs the bank no more to run the transaction. Use the ATM instead.

Any “Pay Now, Travel Later” Plan: We’ve all seen the offers that promise huge discounts on all sorts of travel packages if you pay for them immediately and use them as needed. Some are touted as “travel clubs” and others may be certificates or coupons. No matter what the guise, most of these offer very little real savings, all have limitations in the fine print and some are out-and-out scams.

Timeshares: Timeshares can quickly become more of a burden than an asset when traveling. The fact is, not many people want to spend their vacation time in the same place year after year. That means that you’re either going to be constantly listing the unit for exchange or trying to sell it. Exchanges can be great, but can take a lot of time and effort up to a year in advance to put together. Selling a timeshare is all too often a long, painful process that ends with a huge loss or in a timeshare trap.

Recreational Vehicles: Travel trailers, fifth-wheel packages and motor homes can cost the equivalent of many years of your salary. Some units depreciate at an alarming rate. They require a substantial amount of space for storage and regular maintenance is important. That means that in order to see a return on your investment, you need to save money by using them as your home away from home on a regular basis. If you can’t afford to put your vacation rig on the road anymore, you probably should consider whether owning it is practical.

“Quick” Travel Insurance: Buying insurance like the kind offered you after you book a flight online is rarely a good idea. The insurance company is counting on the customer making an impulse buy. Most of these policies pay under only very specific circumstances. Travel insurance can be a good investment, if you shop for the right coverage at the right price.

“Travel Agent ID” Cards: This item is a full-blown scam that’s taken in a lot of frequent travelers. Anyone selling you a card that’s supposed to give you the same discount rates on travel as an agent is committing fraud. These “packages” may cost $1,000.00 or more, and will often claim to provide dividends for signing up your friends. In the end, these IDs won’t be honored by any travel providers.

Baggage Fees: Okay, so there are times when this one is unavoidable. Nevertheless, you aren’t getting your money’s worth when you pay air fare and have to pay for your luggage separately. Unfortunately, only one airline doesn’t charge for bags and there will be times when you can’t book your flight on that airline. While this article doesn’t intend to endorse any airline, unless there’s a substantial difference in rates, Southwest is probably the best place to put your money if they fly to where you’re going.

Learning to invest your travel dollars wisely might mean more travel opportunities. If one or two of the items listed above strike a chord, perhaps some adjustments are in order.

photo credit: © Ahmed Amir

Going on Trips with Fido (and other Pets)

July 11, 2011 By Shane Ede 5 Comments

When you take a trip that’s going to last over night or longer, and you have pets, you are faced with a decision to make. You’ve either got to find somewhere for your pet to stay or take your pet with you. If you don’t have a family member or friend that will watch your pet for you while you’re gone, you’re faced with finding a kennel or pet hotel to put your pet into until your return. Anyone who has boarded a pet will know that it isn’t a budget friendly thing to do. The frugal thing to do is to take your pet with you on your trip whenever possible.

Taking trips with your pets can be just as cringe-worthy for those without any experience in doing so. When we went on a week-long trip recently, I was more nervous about taking our dog with us than I was about any other part of the trip. The longest trip we’d ever taken the dog on was a two-hour ride, and the trip we were taking was an 8-9 hour trip followed by another 7-8 hour trip the next day and then doing it all over again at the end of the vacation. There was even a hotel stay on the way and one back. When it was all said and done, there was very little to worry about with the dog. He was a champ! (that’s him below) I thought I might share a few things that I learned about traveling with animals with you.

Hotels. I had this huge preconceived notion that there were very few hotels that would allow a dog in the hotel. I was kinda wrong. While many of the nicer hotels don’t allow pets, many of the more budget friendly (not dives) hotels will usually allow a pet for a small nightly deposit or fee. Some, like Kelly Inns, are extremely pet friendly and allow pets for no charge. If you know what city you are going to end up in for the night, do a little research and find a pet friendly hotel ahead of time. Then make reservations. We did this on our way to our destination. On the way back, we didn’t know where we were going to stop, but I was able to use the browser on my smart phone from the road to find and make reservations at a pet friendly hotel. Once you’re in the hotel, remember that your pet is in a strange place and will likely experience some anxiety if you all leave the room without your pet. If your pet doesn’t handle anxiety well, plan to leave your pet in your car while your away from the room. Many of the pet friendly hotels will have policies against leaving your pet unattended in the room because animals that have anxiety problems tend to take it out by chewing and digging. Both are bad for hotel furniture and carpet.
Riding Room. Your pet is going to need somewhere to sit. Don’t overpack to the point where you have to push and shove so that your dog can sit on top of the pile of luggage. If you wouldn’t be at least slightly comfortable riding there, neither will your pet. Different pets will have different requirements. In our case, we took a big comfy blanket and laid it out in the back of our Suburban for a bed for our dog. He then squeezed himself in between the two child seats on the bench seat and rode with his backside on the seat and his head on the console between the two front seats. Once you’ve taken a few longer trips with your pet, you’ll likely get a feel for where he/she likes to ride and be able to adjust accordingly. Once we figured out our dog wasn’t going to ride in the back on the blanket, we just made sure he had a path from the back to the seat without climbing over all the luggage and left it at that.
Food and water. Most importantly, make sure you bring plenty of food with you. If you’ve got the room, bring a bowl too that you can just leave out in the car or in your hotel room. Everybody’s schedule is likely going to be a bit screwed up, so your pet might not adhere to it’s normal eating schedule. Water is a bit trickier since it’s a bit harder to contain and still make available. What we found to work pretty well is to have a bowl and a large bottle that we could cap to hold the water. Whenever we stopped, we’d pour a bit of water into the bowl for our dog to drink then could pour out the extras from the bowl back into the bottle or onto the ground and not have to worry about spills.
Entertainment. If you’ve ever traveled with kids, you know that entertainment for the trip is of utmost importance. It’s not as important for pets, but it can be very helpful. Bring along a few of your pets toys for him/her to play with at your destination. A favorite chew bone for in the hotel, and a ball to fetch at our final destination for instance.
Potty breaks. Unless your pet is really, really good about telling you when it needs to relieve itself, you’ll want to schedule regular breaks for a quick walk. Our dog is pretty good about this and is used to going 4-8 hours without going outside during the work week, so he was pretty good on our trip. He’s also a big dog, so has a larger capacity than some smaller pets will. If your pet is asking outside frequently at home, he/she will likely still need breaks during your trip that are nearly as frequent. We found that anytime we stopped for gas, taking our dog over to a grassy area did the trick. Most interstate rest areas have an area to take your pets to.

Taking trips with pets can be a stress inducing idea, but if you take the proper precautions, it can also be very rewarding. It can also be easier on the pet that would have to stay at a boarding kennel otherwise. We’re glad we took our dog with us. I know he enjoyed being with us and playing up in the mountains with us. As an added bonus, he turned out to be a bit of entertainment for the kids too. Just like anything else, planning can make or break your trip. So take the time to plan ahead, and take your pet with you on your next trip.

Photo Credit:Thatedeguy on Flickr

Are Your Personal Finance Skills Holding You Back?

October 24, 2009 By Shane Ede 3 Comments

One of the reasons that I started this site was because it forces me to learn new personal finance skills. Sometimes, the tree is sitting there in the forest and you need someone to point it out and make it stick out from the forest. The more skills that you learn in any given subject, the closer you are to what could be considered an expert on that subject. There are a few subjects that I consider myself to be an expert, but personal finance is not one of them. But, I am trying.

It occurs to me, however, that in our journey to become experts at personal finance (even if it’s just our own finances) we can sometimes hold ourselves back. We can sometimes become so focused on the topic and that one slice of our lives that we forget that there are other parts of our lives that must also be taken care of. For many, personal finance is a deeply religious topic. As a Christian, there are many places in the Bible that specifically mention money and the manner in which we should handle it. In fact, you might notice the tag line here at Beating Broke as being a quote from the Bible. But, nowhere in the Bible does it say that I must be perfect in the handling of my money before I should begin to work on any other aspects of my life.

If we focus too long on any one aspect, many of the other aspects can quickly fall behind. Baker, from Man vs. Debt, recently called himself a hypocrite. Why? Because he’s been a crusader for paying off debt and doing so unrelentingly. He has preached a very die-hard approach to debt retirement that is based in the teachings of Dave Ramsey. But, Baker and his family have put their debt repayment on hold while they travel and experience foreign living and working.

If you only glance at the situation, you can’t help but agree with Baker’s assessment of himself. And in a some ways, he is a hypocrite. However, he also is not entirely a hypocrite. He and his wife planned for this trip. They budgeted for it and saved for it. Yes, they put some of their goals on hold, but they did so to take advantage of an opportunity that may have never reappeared for them. If he and his wife had passed up on this opportunity, they would have been kicking themselves for it for the rest of their life. They’d be debt free, but at what cost.

It is a lifetime opportunity. If they had to choose between debt repayment and a trip to Disneyland, I would say that they would be stupid to not skip it. After all, Disneyland isn’t likely to go away anytime soon and they’d be able to visit at a later date. Yes, you have to maintain your vigilance and do whatever you can to meet your goals. But you also have to live your life. If your goals are holding you back from living your life, then you really should rethink your goals, because they may be causing more harm than good.

Baker is a very skillful personal finance person. He’s been writing about the subject for quite a while now. He and his wife have made great strides towards their goal of being debt free. But, Baker didn’t let his personal finance skills hold him back. He didn’t let them keep him from living passionately. And he didn’t let them keep him from taking advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity. He and his family will have a wonderful story to tell and experiences that you just can’t buy. If that makes him a hypocrite, then so be it. I don’t think it does. After all, if he hadn’t been walking the walk, he wouldn’t have had the ability to take advantage of the opportunity. If anything, he’s an example of why you need to stick to your guns. If you do, you will be able to take advantage of opportunity instead of having to let it pass you by.